JORGE da Motta of JTI claims that devolving powers on tobacco duty to Scotland could harm our economy (“Tobacco chief fires up debate over duty”, News, 5 January). But World Bank reports show clearly that tobacco is poor value to any economy, on economic as well as on health grounds, as the diseases smoking causes cut down many in the prime of their working lives.She's writing a response to the article here. But the article doesn't say that JTI says that devolving powers might harm our economy. He warns that the wrong policy choices will bring about more bootlegging – not the tobacco duty, but failures in policy-making, which will lose the Scottish government money. So apparently Sheila claims that JTI fears that tobacco duties will somehow ruin the economy, and contrasts this with the World Bank view that tobacco is poor value to any economy.
Not a lot of contrast there. Perhaps Sheila has been the victim of a bad sub-editor.
I was hoping for some enlightenment on the finances of post-devolutionary Scotland, but I'll have to go elsewhere!
2 comments:
Hello Belinda.
I hope you don't mind. I made a comment at the Scotsman in response to Duffy's letter and pinched a bit of your post. Here is what I said:
"I'm surprised that no one has commented yet. Perhaps the whole subject is becoming ever so passée and boring (yawn, yawn). Perhaps everyone is becoming bored by adjectives like 'addictive and lethal', along with 'disgusting, filthy, stinking, " etc, etc. Such adjectives are The Tobacco Control Industry's way of avoiding facts. For example, what does the World Bank (which is already contaminated by the evil ways to TC) know about the Scottish economy? Generalisations are worthless in individual cases, just as epidemiology was useless in the McTear versus Imperial Tobacco Case which occurred in Scotland and ended only in 2005. In that case, TC could not or would not produce evidence that smoking caused Mr McTear's lung cancer. The judge threw out all TC's claims.
Ms Duffy can use as many 'disgusting, filthy, stinking' adjectives as she likes, but it does not alter the fact that the article doesn't say that JTI says that devolving powers might harm the Scottish economy. He warns that the wrong policy choices will bring about more bootlegging – not the tobacco duty, but failures in policy-making, which will lose the Scottish government money.
It would be nice if the Zealots would stop making propaganda and stick to the point when voicing opinions."
I suspect that the Duffys of TC are getting worried. With the advent of ecigs, their own dinosaur adjectives are turning back on them. As a result of the use of all those adjectives, VAPERS stand right on the summit of the high, moral ground, and it is very high. They have stopped doing what the Zealots described as certain death - they have stopped inhaling tobacco smoke.
However, if the ecig industry does not pull its socks up, it will be dislodged from that pinnacle.
Some of the vaper sites make me cringe. They say things like, "You can avoid all those 4,000 dangerous chemicals and the risks of lung cancer, heart disease .... " How stupid! They really must avoid even the slightest hint of a claim to be 'a therapy'. The answer is very simple, and revolves around the simple use of words. For example: "It has been said that there are thousands of chemicals in tobacco smoke, some of which are carcinogenic. Ecigs do not produce tobacco smoke. If the idea of inhaling tobacco smoke bothers you, then you can switch to ecigs. Many people have done so successfully"
Do you see my point? That statement does NOT claim that ecigs avoid harm. It does not mention harm.
Ecig manufacturers should grasp the nettle and take out TV, newspaper, magazine, adverts to sell THE IDEA of ecigs. TC is selling THE IDEA of ecig danger in the future. Let them. If the ecig association hit the airwaves with the right sort of advert, they would strengthen their position on the high, moral ground even more.
Agreed Junican. Also the more they stress this kind of thing the more justified regulators feel in calling them 'medicine' and it would perhaps be better if they laid off the health claims altogether (it's a bit late for that now though.)
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