Nanny state round up

You may fondly recall the activists at Stirling University producing a study - i.e. an online survey - pushing for cigarette-style labelling of alcohol in April.

The same state-funded puritans were back yesterday with another piece of alleged research in the same vein, this time based on focus groups of fifty people, as reported by The Times...

 

Alcohol packaging must be regulated or come with health warnings similar to cigarettes, say campaigners after a study illustrated how beer and spirits were designed to appeal to young people.

Stirling University found alcohol packaging captured attention, boosted appeal and helped shape the perceptions of the drink and the people who consume it.

 

I haven't read the study yet as I can think of a thousand things I'd rather do, but this bit amused me...

 

One participant said: “I don’t actually like beer but I bought it specifically because I liked the packaging.”

 

Surely a contender for the Didn't Happen of the Year award. As someone said on Twitter (I forget who), this person is either a liar or is insane. Either way, let's not base policy around them. 

Meanwhile, it seems that the European Commission are going to have to ignore a lot of people to push through their latest anti-vaping policies:

 

An overwhelming majority of EU citizens who responded to a European Commission initiative say they support tobacco harm reduction products.

The Commission’s “Call for Evidence” on the legislative framework for tobacco control received an unprecedented level of feedback, with consumers of alternatives to tobacco products – vaping, heated tobacco and oral nicotine pouches – making their voices heard in huge numbers.

More than 24,000 EU citizens responded to the call, launched by the Commission as part of its ongoing evaluation of what future EU tobacco laws will look like through revision of the Tobacco Products Directive.

The massive interest in the issue may surprise some and may put the European Commission on the back foot as has been seen by some as having previously failed to support ‘tobacco harm reduction’.

Nice. Well done to everyone who responded.

Finally, it was my pleasure to speak to Eric Crampton on the New Zealand Initiative podcast this week. There was plenty to talk about as the Kiwi government is going off the deep end with its Prohibition 2.0 policies. Check it out.