The future of vaping is in our hands – act now
The vote on Lord Callanan’s motion to block the TPD is scheduled to happen this week. We need to put pressure on the right politicians as a matter of urgency otherwise we will be stuck with the TPD as it stands for the next ten years.
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We don’t know yet which day this week the vote will happen - but it won’t be Today (Monday). What is clear is that every hour will count. We still need your help to tell the politicians why the ecig regulations contained in the TPD should be removed.
Over recent days there have been meetings with health ministers, shadow health ministers and the chief whip. They are worried by Lord Callanan’s motion, but to turn their worries into a result for vapers and those yet to make the switch we need to put the right pressure on the right politicians. If we can do this, by Friday the TPD’s ridiculous laws on vaping will have been voted down and they will become history in the UK.
The biggest challenge over the next 48 hours is to convince Labour that it makes sense to back Lord Callanan. We all know that the regulations regarding vaping that are present in the TPD make no sense and will do more harm than good to the rapid uptake of vaping by smokers. But Labour still need to be convinced that this is the right thing to do.
So here is what we need to do:
a) If you haven’t contacted Labour’s Shadow Health Team over the last 24 hours then do it again.
Tweet:
@heidi_mp, @lucianaberger, @GwynneMP, @KeeleyMP, @justinmadders, @lordphilofbrum.
Email:
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
When they are inundated they will understand the level of concern and some of your personal messages about how vaping has helped you and why the regulations are unworkable will hit home.
b) Ask your friends and your e-liquid supplier to do the same.
c) Phone and email your MP with your story and why you the TPD is ill-conceived and nonsensical legislation. Their contact details are here: http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/
Keep your communications respectful.
Here are some points you might want to make:
1: Jeremy Corbyn described the TPD’s rules on e-cigs as “perverse,” “strange” and “contradictory.” So how could Labour now justify voting for them?
2: Labour’s Health Minister, Lord Hunt, told Parliament last month that e-cigarettes shouldn’t be in the TPD. So how could Labour explain doing a U-Turn and voting for the rules?
3: There are 4,300 vapers in every constituency. If Labour were to back the government how would it explain its hypocrisy to those voters?
4: Government officials say that the rules on vaping will reduce the choice of vaping products by 96% and could increase prices and push people back to smoking. Should Parliament be voting for this?
5: Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians say that vaping is 95% safer and are encouraging smokers to switch to vaping. So why would Parliament want to strangle the supply of vaping products, ban advertising and force packaging to carry big warning labels?
6: If MPs want us to believe that the relationship with the European Union works then this is the week to demonstrate it by forcing Brussels to think again on a piece of botched legislation.
We will keep you up to date with progress over the next few days but please, make sure you do what you can now. Sign and share the petition, email your MP, email and tweet the shadow health team and make sure that your voice is heard so that what is possibly the greatest harm reduction innovation of our lifetime is not hampered and that this amazing route to smoking cessation is allowed to continue to grow as its current pace.
Photo Credit:
Dave Junglist
Journalist at POTVDave Junglist is co-owner of Planet of the Vapes and has been vaping since 2015. He spent his early years with his head in a bass bin and was a very committed and experienced smoker. He had his first cigarette at the age of 13 and just knew it was for him. He did stop briefly with the aid of patches but reverted quickly and became a ‘secret’ smoker, working hard to keep his weak will from the attention of his family. Vaping made an honest man of him and for this he is forever thankful. He has been involved in websites since completing a degree in Environmental Science in the late nineties. At that time there was pretty much no contact with computers but on joining the regular workforce and deciding that the world-wide-web was the future he blagged his first job as a web designer and never looked back. As you would expect from a junglist, Dave likes his beats and is most comfortable when the bass is wobbly.
