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| Image from here and, yes, they are serious. |
From the Herald...
Plain packaging of cigarettes could lead to a domino effect
... At this stage, tobacco is the first product which the Scottish Government has chosen to regulate in this way. However, experience suggests regulation of other products almost always follows. How far are we prepared to accept the application of plain packaging to products which we may enjoy but know that they are unhealthy?
Ah, the old slippery slope argument. It'll never happen, right?
No, wait...
From the BBC...
Food should be regulated like tobacco, say campaigners
The food industry should be regulated like the tobacco industry as obesity poses a greater global health risk than cigarettes, say international groups.
Consumers International and the World Obesity Federation are calling for the adoption of more stringent rules.
These could include pictures on food packaging of damage caused by obesity, similar to those on cigarette packets.
The new rules could include reducing the levels of salt, saturated fat and sugar in food, improving food served in hospitals and schools, imposing stricter advertising controls, and educating the public about healthy eating.
Advertising to children, during television programmes such as the X-Factor, must be restricted, said the organisations.
Governments could review food prices, introduce taxes, change licensing controls and start new research to make this happen, the report said.
Luke Upchurch at Consumers International said they were asking for the "same level of global treaty" as the tobacco industry faced.
This all comes from a report which, say its authors, "has been modelled on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control". It calls for bans on advertising and sponsorship, tight regulation on where food can be sold, graphic warnings, bans on point-of-sale promotions, sin taxes and various other "economic, planning and licensing measures to address the availability, accessibility and affordability of food".
Elsewhere, campaigners want - and will probably get - a Framework Convention on Alcohol. This is the future that the anti-smoking lobby has created the blueprint for—an unelected, unaccountable world organisation dictating your eating, drinking and smoking habits.
Any questions?
UPDATE
I'm quoted in City AM on this...
Christopher Snowdon, director of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said "there can no longer be any doubt that lifestyle regulation is a slippery slope. Graphic warnings, sin taxes and plain packaging will be rolled out to food and drink sooner or later if the public health lobby gets its way".
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