Friday 27 April 2012

Lansley Out-Nannies The EU

An article in Talking Retail yesterday, detailing how the former head of the UK Patent Office’s designs and trade marks division condemns plain packaging (definitely worth a read), contained a rather interesting quote from EU Health Commissioner, John Dalli.
Dalli said: “We want to reduce the attractiveness of smoking. Packaging can help in this regard but the European Commission doesn’t want to go as far as Australia, where cigarette packets must be completely plain.”
Now, readers here will remember that Dalli is certainly no friend of tobacco, however even he is marginally on the right side of the sane/insane divide with regard plain packs.

It seems our government - who promised to get the state out of our lives and whose Conservative members are described by Dan Hannan as 'eurosceptic' - are now more insistent on micromanagement and regulation of our lives than overbearing micromanagement and regulation experts, the EU.

Who needs a supra-national collection of authoritarian tax leeches when our own coalition is determined to pass legislation more draconian than even Brussels can stomach?

Now there's a nice thought for the weekend, eh?


6 comments:

theprog said...

Yes, in many respects the UK is actually worse than the EU. Nothing will change until we get a government overhaul - even if we elected to quit. On the other hand, perhaps that's why they're reluctant to give us a referendum - they know their days would be numbered. In any event the LDs are finished. If only UKIP could get their act together and hold the balance of power, it'd be like a breath of fresh air.....

Smoking Hot said...

One wonders if it would ... it seems to me the government has never changed because it's the Civil Service who seem to govern no matter which political party gets in nowadays. All the hype we got about all the changes that would come from Dave and Co simply evaporated and we were back to the same old crap. The Civil Service is what needs changing!

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Exactly. As DK often says, the top three tiers need to be removed and made to reapply for their jobs. That might help them get a perspective of who is in supposed to be in charge and who are their paid helpers. 

Stat fan said...

Spain is a perfect example of Governments becoming Rubber Stamps for
small unelected pressure groups and vested lobby interests
The Spanish throw out the Socialists and ended up with the same State Control mentality with the new "Conservative"regime
On January 1st 2011 the socialists introduced a draconian totalitarian
smoking ban (opposed by the Conservative Opposition) with some members
of the Cortes (Spanish Parliament) forecasting the loss of up to 1/2 million
jobs.The new Conservatives carry on with the same policy
Result
January2nd 2011..Unemployment ..21.4%..4,876,393
April   27th  2012 Unemployment...24.4%   5.560,000
an increase of 683,606
We await the statistics on the liesure venue sector
Dont hold your breath
The Health fanatics are busily conjuring up some guesswork in Madrid

Truth Seeker 

Mudplugger said...

Most of us have a chance on Thursday next week to demonstrate as much support for UKIP as possible.  We don't need to wait for them to get their act together, just use them as a vehicle for the message.
They don't need to win seats or whole councils, just a massive collection of votes will scare the major parties shitless - then see how they play the EU game afterwards.
And if nothing changes, by 2015 UKIP may have developed enough to have some real effect at Westminster.

D'babe said...

Can I say, I was persuaded for this lot by certain persons who asssured me they (the tories) would gtf out of my business. I had to take a shower afterwards as it was .. Imagine how I feel now - 'shafted' doesn't even come close ...