ASH's tobacco company stooge list is an own goal

That crazy list again: Chris Snowdon, who was named personally as a closet friend of tobacco, unwraps some of this.

The main mistake that ASH makes is that those on this huge list ... (h/tip Simon Clark)

Adam Smith Institute
Alcan Packaging
Alliance against IP Theft
American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union
Anti-Counterfeiting Group
Association of Convenience Stores
Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers
Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP)
British Brands Group
British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium
British Retail Consortium
Cato Institute
Confederation of British Industry
Confederation of European Community Cigarette Manufacturers
Deloitte
Democracy Institute
European Cigar Manufacturers’ Association
European Communities Trademark Association
European Policy Centre
European Policy Forum
European Rolling Papers Association
European Roundtable of Industrialists
European Risk Forum
European Smoking Tobacco Association
European Smokeless Tobacco Council
European Travel Retail Council
Federation of Small Businesses
FORCES
FOREST
Fraser Institute
Freedom to Choose (F2C)
Global Intellectual Property Centre
Independent Retail News
Institute of Economic Affairs
Interbrand
International Chamber of Commerce
International Trademark Association
ISBA (Incorporated Society of British Advertisers)
Leicester Asian Business Association (LABA)
Liberal Vision
London Economics
Markenverband
National Association of Cigarette Machine Operators
National Federation of Retail Newsagents
Nude Brand Consulting
Privacy International
Progressive Vision
Responsible Retailers
Rural Shops Alliance
Save Our Pubs and Clubs
Scottish Grocers Federation
Sinclair Collis
Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue
Transatlantic Public Affairs
The Free Society
TICAP (The International Coalition Against Prohibition)
Tobacco Industry Platform
Tobacco Manufacturers Association (TMA)
Tobacco Retailers Alliance (TRA)
Tobacco Workers Alliance
Union ales Fabricants (Unifab)
Unite

.. all have their own interests to look after. If this means following the same line as tobacco, it does not make them tobacco company stooges. The plain fact is that a wide range of actors in society will find themselves in opposition to the interests of the narrow, purist tobacco control dogma.  The wider ASH casts its net to condemn people who oppose its demands, the less reasonable it will seem to the ordinary person in the street.

Incidentally I did learn something interesting from the ASH tobacco company stooge list:

British American Tobacco’s public relations in the UK are handled by Weber Shandwick, which also counts the Japanese Whaling Association and the Chinese Government as clients.

Did Weber Shandwick lose this contract then? Shame. But the Scottish Government still uses them anyway.