Thursday 22 July 2010

The tobacco industry use their vast profits to develop tactics that aim to challenge policies to reduce smoking.

I’ve been thinking about the tobacco industry recently. Not that unusual, but more specifically, I have been angered at how they use their vast profits to develop tactics that aim to challenge and derail policies and legislation to reduce smoking.

Imperial Tobacco – the fourth largest tobacco company in the world – is currently taking legal action against the Scottish Government’s Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act, challenging the legislative competence of the Holyrood parliament. This Act, which aims to reduce youth smoking by reducing the attractiveness and availability of tobacco, has a number of measures that are due to come in over the next few years. These include registering tobacco retailers, bringing in tougher penalties for those who sell tobacco to under 18s, introducing new offences of buying tobacco underage or for under 18s. It will also close down the retail display of tobacco and ban the sale of cigarettes through vending machines. It is these last two measures which Imperial Tobacco is challenging. The court proceedings have ended and we await the written decision of the judge, Lord Bracadale.

The tobacco industry claims legal action is a last resort, but the facts show otherwise. Philip Morris is seeking to overturn the recently introduced bans on retail tobacco displays in both Norway and Ireland. In England, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco, and Imperial Tobacco, are seeking a judicial review against the display ban due to come into force in 2011. In addition, Imperial Tobacco’s subsidiary cigarette vending machine company Sinclair Collins is seeking a judicial review of the English ban on tobacco vending machines also due to be introduced next year.

In Canada where an Act of Parliament mandated larger graphic warning labels on cigarette packets, Imperial Tobacco, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, and JTI-Macdonald all took to the courts claiming the legislation was an infringement of their rights. In Australia, as soon as the federal government announced they were bringing in legislation to introduce standardised packaging with no branding, colours, or logos, Imperial Tobacco and British American Tobacco both said they would take legal action against such a move. When a tobacco control strategy for England stated it would consider the evidence surrounding plain packaging, Imperial Tobacco immediately responded by threatening a legal challenge.

Going to court is part of big tobacco’s continuing strategy of seeking to dilute, delay or derail legislation to reduce tobacco addiction and harm.

In April, Imperial Tobacco announced global sales of £13.4 billion and pre-tax profits of £974 million in the six months to 31 March. It is these huge profits made from selling its lethal products in more than 160 countries that are being ploughed into challenging the actions of governments around the world to use legislation to reduce the major harm caused by smoking to their citizens’ public health.

Earlier this year, the Office of Fair Trading fined Imperial Tobacco £112.3 million for unlawful tobacco pricing saying there was an understanding that the price of some brands would be linked to rival brands in order to limit competition. It is the largest fine ever handed out by the OFT for anti-competitive practices. However for Imperial, whose profits reached nearly a billion pounds in just six months, this is a drop in the ocean.

So that is what those of us trying to work for public health are up against. The vast profits tobacco companies make at the expense of people’s lives and wellbeing are ploughed back into more and more sophisticated marketing and recruiting practices, and into pursuing costly legal action against policies and legislation designed to reduce the deaths, diseases and anguish caused by tobacco.

In Scotland’s case tobacco accounts for a quarter of all adult deaths each year. I believe the health of our nation and our future generations is well worth fighting for.



h/t sheila duffy

49 comments:

  1. Dear Sheila,

    I too have been giving thought to industry a great deal lately; I too am angry, angry at the vast swathes of legislation enabled and proposed by your organisation that wilfully sets out to destroy industries, not just the tobacco industry but the leisure industry, the vending industry, the retail industry, and numerous other industries related to smoking. I have some questions that, as a member of the public who subsidises your organisation through taxation, that I believe demand answers.

    By what right or legislation do you arbitrarily decide that a company has no right to challenge legislation or policies that are not in that companies best interests?

    You clearly object to anyone challenging policy or legislation and then go on to compound that by publically attempting to sway a matter which is, by your own admission, still under legal consideration. Are you not then guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice in this matter?

    You and your organisation have consistently denied any form of negotiation directly with the tobacco industry, you state that the tobacco battle is over and there is no need for you to talk to them. Unless, of course, you demand money from them to pay for your legislation, in which case, it could then be assumed that it is merely an attempt to blackmail those companies. If there is no need to talk to them or the smoking public then you have won, so what possible reason can there be for your continued existence?

    What the governments of Canada, Australia or any other sovereign nation choose to do is a matter for their own consciences and it will eventually be the will of the their people that decides if they are right or not, the fact that Canada has an over 50% smuggling rate for tobacco is testament enough to the effects of the work of the anti smoking lobby. Of course since you choose to bring other sovereign nations into a domestic matter of the UK then I am sure you will agree it is not only right, fair and proper that smokers who object to your organisations methods, should join together to fight them, and that includes those citizens who work for the tobacco industry and that industry itself who are trying to protect the continued employment of those citizens, all is fair in love and war is it not?

    Going to court is in reality the fundamental right of the tobacco companies or anyone else who believes that your policies are detrimental to their way of life, and their means of earning a living. Are you honestly saying that you believe they have no right to recourse under the law?

    Unless you can prove beyond any shadow of doubt that smokers are responsible for these deaths then this statement you have made accuses every government, the tobacco industry and every shopkeeper who retails those products of murder and conspiracy to murder. If, as you claim, you have indisputable evidence then it is your duty under the law, and in fact under the health and safety at work act, to ensure prosecution, why have you not done so?

    The key word here is ‘understanding’ which has no basis in law. Would you not agree then that OFT (Office of Fair Trading) recognise this in their decision and that your only objection is that you and your organisation failed to get the desired result?

    ReplyDelete
  2. cont.

    So that is what those of us trying to work for public health are up against. The vast profits tobacco companies make at the expense of people’s lives and wellbeing are ploughed back into more and more sophisticated marketing and recruiting practices, and into pursuing costly legal action against policies and legislation designed to reduce the deaths, diseases and anguish caused by tobacco.

    Wrong Sheila, 100% wrong, it is a question of equality and freedom, there is no reason why smoking and non smoking premises cannot work side by side, you know it, I know it, and the public knows it, what you are fighting is an ideal, one of freedom, one which former servicemen and women fought for, that today’s military fight to maintain, one which more and more civilians are beginning to fight for. An Ideal mankind has fought for and won for millennia, you are in a war that you cannot win, From Xerxes to Attila, from Salamis to Port Stanley. Regimes and Empires like Rome, Greece, even to a degree the British Empire fell because freedoms were impinged upon. The Health Acts imposed on us are no better than the Nuremburg decrees; at least Jews were allowed houses even if they were slums, smokers get shelters not legally fit for swine to inhabit. It is merely a comparison but I am sure you will consider invoking Godwin’s law (which has no legal basis) would you not agree that only a Nazi would require shielding by Godwin’s law?

    I too believe that the health of our nation, the future generations, are very worth fighting for but not at the cost of freedom for a quarter of the nation, after all Sheila of what use is health if you are not free to enjoy it?

    Unlike your statement Sheila this is posted where the people may express their views freely, they may find that some will disagree with their posts but that is all part of being free is it not?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great post J Watson

    ReplyDelete
  4. I believe most of the money trawled through tobacco sales actually goes to Govt and far to much of that lands in ASH's pocket, the fake charity that pretends to care about people but in fact works for it's own self interests.

    The lies, deceit, fear-mongering, inequality, and hate spreading should be a reason to prosecute these people - especially for the fraudulent use of false statistics on the tobacco display ban used to pull the wool over politicians eyes.

    ASH's dealings are far more underhand and dishonest than any tobacco company in the world.

    Join the Resistance at Nothing2declare. Stop funding to ASH by refusing to buy tobacco in the UK. Yes, Sheila Duffy, your prejudicial organisation is just as dependant on tobacco sales as BT themselves.

    Hypocrites, liars, bigots and cheats.

    And before you whine in your usual way of calling me a representative of Big T, I am not. I am just an ordinary person who works hard and has been excluded because of your lies aimed at encouraging hatred of a minority group.

    You make me sick - and that's unhealthy

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well Ms Duffy, as usual your type just want to preach. Not for you is actually conversing with people ... especially those who disagree with your lies. Can't have freedom of speech in your world, eh? Alas, sadly for you, it isn't as easy as just switching off 'comments' :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lies. What lies. Does Sheila remember this
    'Smoking bans are good for business. Study shows hospitality industry fears of falls in trade are unfounded.
    Tuesday 25 February 2003
    ASH news release: Embargo: 00.01 25 February 2003'.
    Since the smoking ban over 5,000 pubs and clubs have closed, with over 100,000 hospitality staff made unemployed

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sheila you really are getting pathetic with your bleatings. Tobacco companies are protecting themselves from harridans like you who want to rid the world of their product.
    Has it ever occurred to you that the majority of the working classes smoke as a form of pleasure. The majority don't earn half of what you cream off every year yet their tobacco taxes fund your lavish desk job-which is basically to deprive them of their pleasures.
    Do you think that most people give a hoot whether they live to 100 or not? We work, we play and we enjoy ourselves - well we did until July 2007 when all the lies, fabrications, manipulated statistics & total utter junk science were swallowed by MPs ignorant of the facts!
    Did you notice that your "champion" (Jamrozic) died of cancer last March. A 'sarcoma' actually, which is a bone cancer with no known cause! You see Sheila, cancer can strike anyone, anywhere so every penny that goes to CRUK needs to stay with CRUK for research-not funding health lobby quangos like you.
    So get off your soap box woman and consider the rights/pleasures of the entire population not just the section you favour.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sheila and ASH need to go,they make false and unproven claims about the "dangers" of secondhand smoke yet cannot provide the evidence to prove their claims,so it is very simple for ASH,Prove the claims you make or Withdraw them, it is the only Fair and Honest thing to do. Let us not forget that the Majority of All research into possible SHS dangers make it very clear that SHS will Not kill or harm. BYE SHEILA.

    ReplyDelete
  9. If anything, ASH have done more to promote smoking in the last 3 - 5 years than any big tobacco company. They have advertised smoking better in their feeble attempt at control than any advertising guru could have thought possible. At the same time they have used press releases, junk science, scare mongering and bare faced lies with NO proof of their claims, just every dirty trick in the book to promote tobacco sales. Hence, smoking prevalence increases and smokers are smoking more. Sadly the harm done by ASH is a little more proveable, Businesses lost forever, social breakdown in communities and ordinary working folk jobless.
    At least the big tobacco companies are honest in their attempts to sell a legal and may I say most enjoyable product.(and before anyone accuses me of being in the employ of a tobacco company, I am not. I pay them to supply a product which I want to use).
    Shiela Duffy and her band of cronies are now being exposed at last, as the charlatans and devils which in my opinion they are.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Get stuffed Duffy you bloody lying parasite!

    ReplyDelete
  11. All excellent discriptions of Commandantress Duffy, unfortunately the truth is like water off a duck's back to the ASHITES.

    As long as the money keeps flowing in the lies & misinformation will keep flowing out. Stemming the flow, bit like that of the BP oil spill, is at the forefront of disbanding this malicious, divisive organisation.

    Insulting Duffy et al, means nothing, they wear the insults like badges of honour. Pray tell us why do you never call for tobacco to be made illegal immediately, not in 5/10/20/30 years but right now Commandantress, could it be for the same reason as the so-called caring professions & anti-smoking organisations below don't want tobacco banned. And add governments to the list.



    BISMARCK - North Dakota House representatives Monday voted overwhelmingly against a bill proposing to ban tobacco sales in the state.

    Belter told the House that committee members were frustrated last week with the testimony from anti-tobacco groups that testified against the tobacco ban, including the North Dakota Medical Association, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, North Dakota Public Health Association and North Dakota Nurses Association.

    There's no evidence banning tobacco would prevent and reduce tobacco use because no such approach has been implemented, the groups argued.

    The ban also could take away certain funding for these groups for tobacco control programs


    Note the last paragraph Commandantress, blatantly stating they don't want to lose their funding. But as is obvious, no tobacco, no tobacco control programmes needed, no need for bigots & scare/hatemongers continued employment.

    No I'm afraid Ms Duffy, you and the other fake organisations blow smoke out of your own backsides. And they say politcans are liars & crooks.

    You people really should quit while you're ahead, or do you go to bed at night dreaming of other restrictions and regulations you want enforced to keep the crusade going. All scare/hatemongers end up being dethroned, it's just a matter of timing. But make no mistake tobacco controls time will surely come.

    Your personal dislike is anothers personal like.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Well!

    You can all just fuck off! I get paid nearly £70K a year for dissing you disgusting bastards.

    The joke is on you! My wages come directly from your taxes!

    My statements don't even have to make any sense.

    Now go away.

    Disrespectfully yours,

    Sheila Duffy.

    ReplyDelete
  13. If I may, I would like to simply reverse the roles somewhat Sheila and ask you a simple question.

    What do you consider to be a good day and what are your ambitions in life?

    Before (if you ever do) you reply, beware this is a loaded question.

    I am asking YOU what you consider to be YOUR aspirations and ambitions - NOT what you think think other people should be doing or not doing.

    Forget, for a moment, the world around you and what others are doing with their lives, what I want to know is what is it that YOU want out of life as an individual?

    My guess would be that this would be a question that you could not answer without mentioning your burning desire to control or change what others do - in short, you are probably an empty sole with no ambition, drive or personality to speak of - or, at the very least, this is what I can conclude by your actions in life so far.

    I have a second and possibly more difficult question to ask.
    "What would you do and what would you want to take if you were to be banished to a desert island"?

    My guess is you would go for a clipboard, a set of rules and regulations and your would try and impose a "healthy" lifestyle on the cannibals (forgot to mention them - sorry) - who would then eat you.

    When YOU tell US what you actually want out of life, then perhaps you may get an insight as to why you and your kind are so universally hated - because, and I can only speak for myself here, I feel my life blighted by the fact that, due to an accident of birth and timing, I am forced to share the planet at the same time as you and your kind.

    ReplyDelete
  14. £70k? is that all? chicken feed, make that in week thanks to you. best part is l don't pay your wages through tax, pay it all in EU

    moneys running out in UK for fake twats like you, enjoy it while it lasts. l'm getting more customers every week

    got to go now, got a ferry to catch

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hmm, Not very popular this Duffy character is he/she?

    ReplyDelete
  16. I’ve been thinking about the cessation industry recently. Not that unusual, but more specifically, I have been angered at how they use their vast profits to develop tactics that aim to challenge and derail efforts to reduce smoking.

    The cessation industry relies on smoking and forcing people to use ineffective medical quit techniques - the constant quit and failure keeps things ticking along for all vested interests.

    That's why the ASH UK and ASH Scotland have asked for the recreational nicotine market to be closed - banning electronic cigarettes but exempting tobacco. Ecigs and the rest of the harm reduction market have to go because they are a threat to the cessation industry.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Reading Debbie Arnotts role in The Dark Market one wonders how these people continue without anyone holding them to account. Justice died in this country a long while ago. Corruption blossoms whilst the citizens suffer.

    ReplyDelete
  18. 'The tobacco industry use their vast profits to develop tactics that aim to challenge policies to reduce smoking.'

    Tobacco companies would have lower profits if they were allowed to spend their surplus on advertising, sponsoring sports or other 'useful' activities that burn off their excess spending power. No spending just means a bigger tax bill.

    I was brought up to believe that 'you can't change human nature'. You can't stop companies behaving like companies. Most of the Scottish Labour MSPs almost voted for an amendment to the tobacco display ban law that would have banned the No Sale, No ID campaigns simply because the most prominent signage is a tobacco manufacturers' initiative – simply in order to further marginalise tobacco industries from regulating their own industry.

    As for tobacco companies recruiting customers every year to replace those that have died, what more does any company do ... especially the pharmaceuticals, which also have a hand in some of the deaths, even as a result of bad prescribing by third parties http://www.postonpolitics.com/2010/04/pill-mills-should-be-shut-down-says-florida-medical-association/

    ReplyDelete
  19. I have this sneaking suspicion that if this blog is Sheila Duffy's it won't be around too long.

    An unmoderated blog from ASH, seems too far fetched.

    ReplyDelete
  20. @Anonymous @10.58

    "You can all just fuck off! I get paid nearly £70K a year for dissing you disgusting bastards."

    I am sorry but I had to change my underwear after this comment.

    Dave Atherton

    ReplyDelete
  21. anon: 13.46. This is the original ... some enterprising soul has set this one up as the original did not allow comments.

    http://sheilaashscotland.wordpress.com/

    Judging by the time zone this person is in ... where? it's now 21.56 GMT ...

    ReplyDelete
  22. The Resistance has started. Ash's days are numbered - woo-hoo. Carry the flag and show Ms Duffy we mean business!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Kudos to whoever did this. Wonder if ASH's acolytes will turn up anytime soon?

    ReplyDelete
  24. My god woman, any self-respecting woman would never post a picture of herself like that on her own blog. l could understand if one of your enemies did but this is from your own blog! l mean dearie, you're not exactly page 3 material are you? Yes, l realise you have a skin complaint and obviously you must know too so why allow the world to see it? A little advice dearie, when you post a profile pic don't set it so when you click on it it fills the screen! All that acne is not nice to look at, no really.

    l'll leave your makeup, hair and dress sense for another time. Just a thought, have you heard of photoshop or better still. Have you considered converting to lslam? The burkha isn't banned here yet.

    http://sheilaashscotland.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/ash82.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  25. Yes Sheila. Look at this pair. He is 59 and smokes 40 a day. She is 43 and smokes 30 a day. This is the damage the tobacco industry have done. If only smoking had never been invented. Their lungs are wrecked, they can hardly stand up and look at the misery on their faces. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuZDEvwlbKg

    ReplyDelete
  26. A smokefree society is some form of health fascist ideal; which means that the twelve to fourteen million of us that smoke in the Uk will continue to feel persecuted for our lifestyle choice.
    The measures put in place to reduce smoking do nothing of the sort. The measures such as the smoking ban and cigarette display bans are as a matter of fact increasing smoking and the smuggling of cigarettes.

    We only have to look at Ireland where both of these measures are in place; cigarette smuggling is at an all time high and 33% of the population smokes. Adults will always choose for themselves, whether they want to smoke or not.

    ASH appear to be more interested in smoking bans which clearly is ruining businesses and social lives,tobacco display bans and promoting useless NRT, than helping smokers to give up.

    I hope for this dispicable organisation that their end, will be very soon..

    ReplyDelete
  27. Well I was nice, I asked polite questions and what did I get? Zip, zilch, nada, nothing!

    Well I'm sorry Sheila that you are so ill bred, so ignorant..... who am I kidding?

    Listen up woman I have zero tolerance for Irma Griese wannabees!

    I have given you every opportunity to behave in a manner befitting a civilised human being you have declined to answer, that is your right, you are free to do so but it comes with a price.

    Woman you just poked Dendropsis Dendropsis (look it up you might even learn something!) with a very short stick!

    I look forward to your next post.

    John Watson

    ReplyDelete
  28. My guess is you would go for a clipboard, a set of rules and regulations and your would try and impose a "healthy" lifestyle on the cannibals (forgot to mention them - sorry) - who would then eat you


    You left out the obligatory HI-VIS jacket & name tag dangling from the neck.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Your Worst Nightmare is a Reality24 July 2010 at 06:49

    Don't expect a " Golden Handshake " Sheila when you and your parasitical entities are thrown on the scrapheap.

    Your campaigns, studies funded by vested interests, and miracle headlines produced by a braindead media have all failed.

    NOBODY BELIEVES YOU ANYMORE.

    ReplyDelete
  30. A woman on £70,000 has no concept of what life for the "poor" is like. Who are these people who say they speak for us? NOT IN MY NAME. They speak for themselves.

    I repeat. You and your cronies at ASH are fraudsters and you should be prosecuted for misleading the public on the tobacco display ban.

    My own view is that Ms Duffy is not ugly but she does have a certain smugness which is very bad for other people's health in a passive sense.

    ReplyDelete
  31. My dearest Ms Duffy,
    As a good Christian I try to be considerate and
    understanding to people who have an incurable
    personality disorder,however in your case ,
    my dear Sheila I am prepared ,under duress,to make an exception. We are aware of the absence of real men in ASH and similar "Fronts"but that
    is no excuse for childish tantrums and purile
    endevour..You have obviously upset many nice
    people with your small town attitudes ,but you
    continue to busybody your diktats onto those
    who are not to pleasnt. We are led to believe
    dearest Sheila ,you are well educated and well
    connected.May we suggest you use these qualities to find a proper job in Arts or
    Highland Protection etc where your talents can be put to better use rather than your present small minded endless whinging and self important
    pontifications.


    Last Call

    ReplyDelete
  32. John said:

    ASH are an awful organisation that has completely lost sight of the truth. Unfortunately, it has also probably come to believe most of its own propaganda which is mendacious and vicious.

    At least Ms Duffy has more balls than most her organisation whose members are far too timid to start their own blogs for fear of encountering the full force of the hatred that they have instigated in those who have suffered as a result of their lies and deceit. No doubt Ms Duffy will consider herself a martyr to the cause so great is the extent of her vanity and, equally, her stupidity.

    ASH 's time is certainly coming and Ms Duffy and her cronies need to ask themselves what value does their campaign really have when they have had to fabricate so much of the data they use to promote their cause. A campaign built of lies does not deserve to succeed and history provides many lessons against such tactics. Finally, let us consider too, the supreme vanity of a movement that thinks it can change human behaviour for all time.

    ReplyDelete
  33. John ... if Ms Duffy had balls they soon fell off!

    Comment facilty was turned off very quickly which turned the blog into nothing more than a press release ... which is par for the course for ASH. Debate to them is like sunlight to vampires ... they wither and fade away.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Ms Duffy - You say you need the display ban "to reduce youth smoking by reducing the attractiveness and availability of tobacco.." Err - haven't you seen the awful graphic images which your organisation conned the tax payer in accepting through your lies to Govt. Do they really make tobacco an "attractive" purchase in ASH's opinion?

    You also say : "In April, Imperial Tobacco announced global sales of £13.4 billion and pre-tax profits of £974 million in the six months to 31 March..." without also telling the public that smoke-free orgs between them have leeched half a BILLION pounds from the tax payer in five years - and God knows how many more billions you've had from Big Pharma which cares so much about people it pays for stuff such as this : http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/world-news/2010/07/21/honecker-sold-gdr-citizens/to-west-for-secret-east-german-medical-tests.html

    Of course we have no idea how you conduct business because you are exempt from FoI so you can be as corrupt as you choose and we'd never know about it. Certainly, because of your dirty funding, you cannot take the moral high ground over BT anymore. Tobacco is run by legal private firms. Their business is to make profit. Nothing really startling there.

    Your business is to inform and educate the public not exclude and marginalise those who choose not to take on your advice despite the risks. That is quite simply shocking.

    "So that is what those of us trying to work for public health are up against. The vast profits tobacco companies make at the expense of people’s lives and wellbeing are ploughed back into more and more sophisticated marketing and recruiting practices,..."

    Erm - like your org does the same with the aim of "denormalising" people who enjoy a legal product and then, after paying yourselves massive salaries, you plough it back into funding junk science to back your aim of tobacco eradication and the exclusion from society, and let's face it, the eventual criminalisation of those who dare to enjoy it?

    And finally, you are pompous enough to say this : "...and into pursuing costly legal action against policies and legislation designed to reduce the deaths, diseases and anguish caused by tobacco." ... and yet you know that by forcing lifelong smokers to quit you are imposing upon the majority a death sentence.http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/story.html?id=1ba491d9-70b0-46e8-9ccf-fe5e32ebf788

    This is why I believe you are hypocrites and dangerous to the stability of society and our long held culture of freedom and tolerance.

    ReplyDelete
  35. ASH bans fund terrorism according to this :

    http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/189001/Smoking-ban-funds-Al-Qaeda-and-Taliban/

    ReplyDelete
  36. That is point I have been raising on some of the local newspaper forums for some time now Pat, something is going on behind the scenes, if MOD is getting involved then they are looking for money, if they can get it from ASH then that is not a bad thing thing after all poor national security defeats the object of a healthy community when Fu Man Chu or Abdul the great can walk in and blow up public installations.

    The argument that ASH and it's tax, tax, tax policy is a national security risk is actually very appealing, especially when a serving soldier newly returned from Afghanistan is murdered outside the pub having a smoke because a law sponsered by ASH forced him to be there!

    Given the choice between a bomb laden AK47 toting terrorist and and 20 Superkings I'll have the Superkings!

    ReplyDelete
  37. I've been thinking too.

    http://frank-davis.livejournal.com/92534.html

    ReplyDelete
  38. If it weren't for smokers ASH would be out of a job.
    Almost every quid,or penny they have comes from government funding.

    Nothing like attacking the hand that feeds you.

    Since times are so bad it would be a form of justice for the government to cut off all their funding.

    Nothing would make me happier than to see these lying hypocrites get zero funding.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Join the Resistance ravengrim at the Nothing2Declare blog.

    ReplyDelete
  40. I had a dream last night. I was going out with Sheila Duffy so I gave up smoking. As part of my therapy I took up pottery. One night I had my wicked way with her. After we had finished, I got out of bed and made an ashtray.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Sounds like more of a nightmare to me :)

    ReplyDelete
  42. I am a non-smoker. I will vote for any party that undertakes to revoke funding of ASH and pledges never to allow pressure groups like this to dictate public policy ever again. ASH has done more to damage science, reason, truth and justice than any tobacco compay ever has.

    ReplyDelete
  43. hahahaha... this is the best anti-ban blog ever.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Great comments - I think Dokely sums it up, nicely.

    If Sheila reads these comments it will be with a tight little smile as she dismisses us as shills of BT or hardcore addicts who refuse to get with the message.

    I hope that we have the last laugh one day when ASH's greedy little mouth is dashed from the public teat. I vote we have a huge party to celebrate!

    Jay

    PS good thinking by the person who produced this mirror blog.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Oh dear, Sheila! I hope your face is red. You thought you could gag us by turning comments off! How we laughed and laughed and laughed!

    ReplyDelete
  46. Keep writing, Sheila. It's always good to know your enemies.
    And sleep with one eye open...

    ReplyDelete
  47. Sheila is my hero ... l love her. xxxx

    ReplyDelete
  48. next post up!

    http://sheilaashscotland.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/22/

    ReplyDelete