Ireland: Tobacco Sales Remain StableColin Grainger
28th June 2007.
Tale number 25 in the "We told you so" series.....
Three years into their divisive ban, 1400 pubs lost, communities shattered, jobs lost, strained marriages, unrepentant control freaks, and a deaf blind and dumb government. All ingredients in that unworkable recipe known as The Blanket Smoking Ban.
As usual, when a story like this emerges, we take the opportunity to remind our public servants that smoking bans do not reduce smoking prevalence.
As a reminder, I will list again the documented outcome of a smoker ban:
1. Smoking rates do not decrease. Quite the opposite, in fact.
2. Economic devastation to the Hospitality Industry.
3. Divided communities.
4. Increased isolation for our senior citizens.
5. Increased violence towards smokers.
6. Increased hatred towards smokers.
7. A rapid increase in youth smoking.
8. An unholy waste of public money.
Saying "We told you so", repeatedly, brings us no satisfaction. None whatsoever. Actually, its getting very tedious now.
We do have a question though:
Are you learning yet?
Go To Story »
BBC claims Irish “unfazed by smoke-free pubs”.Donal McCarthy
27th June 2007.
Are you sitting comfortably? Auntie is telling stories again, this time from the Bumper Book of Irish Fairy Tales. In yet another attempt at a comfort-piece for apprehensive English smokers, James Helm, the “Dublin correspondent”, is spinning for the ban and hoping you will be jollied along by his soothing assurances into the nu-reality, aka total exclusion.
“For Irish pub-goers”, James schmoozes, “smokeless pubs are now the norm”.
Well that all depends, doesn’t it. Three years on, for Irish pub-goers, closed pubs are rapidly becoming the norm, in a continuing trend. The latest estimate is that more than one thousand two hundred Irish pubs have permanently closed since the introduction of the Irish ban. This is usually explained away as a “changing trend in drinking patterns”, ignoring the bleedin’ obvious.
Open your Rocket Science book and look up “causes for changing trends in Irish pub drinking”. There you will find several leads: smoker bans, criminalisation, “denormalising”, penal fines, social exclusion, social isolation, social engineering, State Control, propaganda, putsch, Nazi, brainwashing, fraud, lies, hatred and institutionalised skulduggery. Someone should give the BBC a free copy.
Put your fazers on stun, Uhura, not ‘un’………and keep some large grains of salt handy, to sprinkle on the bias.
Go To Story »
Smaller cigarette packs are banned to deter teensJohn Mallon
30th May 2007.
The squeeze on smokers continues and the same old lies trotted out. For example, the OTC stated that teenagers were smoking up to ten a day. At the time this equated to 3 euro per day or 21 euro per week. But their report called this 40 euro per week to shock parents. The official statistical lie on ETS was 3,000 deaths a year, doubled by the Irish Heart Foundation to 6,000 and topped by ASH at 7,000 as per this article. And, as usual, the real reason behind banning 10 packs is to force light smokers to either pay more or smoke more, a fact masked by the persistent reference to "our precious children",
Go To Story »
Air Pollution Dramatically ReducedSteve Cross
21st April 2007.
Medical News Today has claimed that air pollution has been dramatically reduced as a result of the smoking ban in Irish pubs. With road vehicles, aircraft, factories and chemical products pumping millions of tons of pollution daily into our air, the same air that enters the Irish pubs, the words 'dramatic reduction' would seem to be somewhat optimistic....
Go To Story »
I Clancy Clearly Now!Donal McCarthy
16th April 2007.
Luke Clancy has been carrying out 'studies' regularly to prove that if there is less smoke, then the smoke content is less than if there were more smoke. There is no safe level of Luke Clancy.
What he has never studied is the fact that there are over 1,000 less pubs, thousands of jobs lost, livelihoods ruined, increased social isolation, fragmented communitites and very probably a sharp increase in mental health problems as a result of his tireless campaign to protect us all.
The Irish smoker ban has cleaned out a lot more than the pub air.
Go To Story »
Ireland....The TruthColin Grainger
29th March 2007.
We thank our good friends at SAD Ireland for this honest take on the Irish smoking ban and its attendant ramifications.
Those 'unintended consequences' the banners claim they werent warned about prior to enacting bans.
Ideally this should be read in conjunction with Ireland...The Spin.
All credit to John Mallon for this piece. Thanks John.
Go To Story »
Ireland...The SpinColin Grainger
29th March 2007.
Here we have the happy clappy news that the Irish ban has brought naught but joy to every man woman and child in Ireland.
The little monster is three years old today, but it gets no birthday good wishes from me.
I wonder why the Minister does not mention that over 1000 pubs have closed down? I wonder why he does not mention the 25,000 hospitality staff who lost their jobs? I wonder why he does not report the fantastic health benefits derived from their ban? I wonder, most of all, why the Minister fails to report the ever increasing smoking rates in Ireland?
Politicians sure have a funny way of measuring success.
See SAD Irelands report in
Ireland...The Truth. Go To Story »
Clancy Still Not SatisfiedJohn Mallon
3rd March 2007.
Looney Luke from C.A.S.H.(cashing in on smoking and health)is bursting his tonsils to get back on the front page. A man famous for his own self importance,he can sniff the opportunity of more foreign speaking engagements, bigger research grants and larger donations for his tax free charity.To achieve his objective,he is happy to be seen to threaten the Government(the same spineless lot who gave in to his phobia three years ago) and demand,as he has done,that cigarettes be doubled in price.I will have to fire off a missive in response to this....
Go To Story »
Irish Market Lights up Gallaher ResultsJohn Mallon
3rd March 2007.
Year on year before our ban, sales of tobacco products were falling in Ireland and nobody considered that a big deal.Yet again this morning a tobacco company is celebrating their sales in Ireland,late last year P.J. Carroll recorded an increase of 4.5% in sales) as per the article below. In the same newspaper this morning they also report another incidence of cigarette smuggling through Dublin Airport. Last year, Customs & Excise seized 17.5 million euros of smuggled tobacco products coming into the country which they estimate is less than 10% of the total amount getting through.There's no mistake,the ban has made it "cool & fashionable" to smoke and the more they rant on about it,the bigger the problem becomes.
Story from The Irish Independent....
Go To Story »
Luke Clancy Gets It Wrong7th January 2007.
Professor Luke Clancy, the Irish anti-smoking campaigner, has set out his vision of how to reduce the number of smokers with tougher legislation and higher taxes
Clancy thinks it will be difficult if not impossible to reduce the smoking rate by much more than it is currently which would seem to confirm that his calls for tougher legislation are now only about control....
Go To Story »
Ireland Has Almost 20 000 More Smokers18th December 2006.
It has emerged from the preliminary census figures for 2006 that Ireland has almost 20,000 more smokers since the smoking ban, reversing a decades old downward trend.
This falls in line with predictions made by pro-choice groups against claims by the anti-smoking movement that we would see tens of thousands 'kicking the habit'.
With the reversal of the downward trend the figures over the past 4 years actually indicate that there are up to 88,824 more smokers than there would have been had a ban not been introduced....
Go To Story »
Letter To The Health Minister Over New ReportJohn Mallon
29th November 2006
The Republic Of Ireland Office of Tobacco Control issued another of their misleading reports yesterday, neatly planned for the run up to the annual budget where they hope to have two euro added to the 20 pack. In response, the following was sent to the Health Minister Mary Harney....
Go To Story »
