Friday 26 July 2013

McAvan, Ministers And Huge Profits

Off to my company's annual summer party tonight, where we attempt to thank usually around 60 of our staff for their efforts throughout the year by providing ample food and drink for them to gorge themselves and get comprehensively hammered at our expense. I shall be joining in merely by way of duty, natch.

In the meantime, via Clive Bates, consider watching this interview of the most dangerous European alive today by Marco van Basten*.



It gives an insight into her thinking, which appears to revolve around her perception that e-cig companies are - shock, horror! - earning "huge profits". 

She also explains the process of the TPD thus:
"Laws are started by the EU commission who put their proposals on the table. But before it can become a law, every European law needs the agreement of MEPs like me - who are directly elected - and the ministers from each country. [..] So our health minister, for example, has been in meetings with her counterparts in Europe, and ... before it can become a law, we have to agree, MEPs and ministers, the law together. [...] There's no EU law until MEPs and ministers agree it."
All of which further highlights how utterly appalling Anna Soubry's actions were in circumventing democratic process through the European Scrutiny Committee, doesn't it?

(Watch with the sound on or you'd think she was describing - with hand signals - the feeding habits of a tarantula)

* Marco sat in the seat next to me on the way back from Brussels, during which we shared discussion about Maplins charging devices, Concorde, and the best way to make glazed croissants, as you do.



4 comments:

james dunworth said...

So profits are bad, despite the fact it means more jobs and more taxes, while saving smokers money?

Dick_Puddlecote said...

It's a lefty thing.

JonathanBagley said...

Well how much does it cost to mix a bit of nicotine into a 45p pack of chewing gum? I think eliquid is very good value.

John Gray said...

Please correct me if I missed something, but the discussion mentioned nothing about e-cig liquid strengths. What bothers me is that in this getting things to do what" it says on the tin," liquid strengths will be reduced to useless levels for those of us that enjoy strong cigarettes and hence, require nicotine strong e-cig liquid. I like between 30mg to 36mg, depending on my mood and, moreover, it would seem to be the case that the largest group of e-cig users are the same (again, correct me if I'm wrong).


Lastly, there is the usual expression of how "we" have reduced smoker numbers to 19% of the population in the UK. More own propaganda swallowed and regurgitated and completely belied by the EU's own figures on counterfeit cigarettes. In a nutshell, many smokers are just switching to the illegal market. I don't know if anyone here has heard the joke, but it goes that the NHS likes to say that soon there will be no smokers in the UK whilst surrounded by large numbers of smokers hanging round its own hospital sites and site entrances.