King’s Speech Confirms Vape Flavour Restrictions
The temptation is to make this article all about Colin Firth so we can forget all about the new government planning on resurrecting the Conservative’s deeply flawed Tobacco and Vapes Bill
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by Dave Cross
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“In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history,” said Colin Firth in The King’s Speech. Vapers and the electronic cigarette industry must have been feeling the same way when King Charles III announced the new government’s intention on resurrecting the Conservative’s deeply flawed Tobacco and Vapes Bill.
When Rishi Sunak’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill was left on the floor of the House of Commons after the announcement to hold the general election, many health bodies lamented it missing the “wash up” as a lost opportunity to take a decisive step to eliminate teen smoking.
Cancer Research UK announced: “We’ve been actively supporting the progress of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. This proposed legislation would mean that people born since the start of 2009 would never legally be sold tobacco products.”
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK exclaimed: “This is a disheartening day for people affected by cancer, health professionals and campaigners who have worked tirelessly on the legislation.”
Even the pro-vaping Royal College of Physicians expressed its disappointment, with Professor Sanjay Agrawal, the RCP's special adviser on tobacco, saying: “We look forward to seeing the next government [Labour] expedite this vital legislation as a matter of urgency.”
In a letter to the British Medical Journal, Nick ‘quick to block people on Twitter’ Hopkinson, Action on Smoking and Health’s chair, urged the Labour government “to put reintroduction of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill “front and centre” in the King’s speech, stating “there is no time to waste. Measures to prevent vapes being marketed to children are urgently needed”.
Hopkinson has taken to blocking many vape advocates on social media for simply asking why ASH is now supporting such anti-tobacco harm reduction measures such as banning most vape flavours and taxing the most successful strength of eLiquid the highest.
And, as expecting, the King did announce that the Tobacco and Vapes Bill will be reintroduced during this parliamentary session – and will make it onto the statute books due to the huge majority Labour enjoys in the House.
“A Bill will be introduced to progressively increase the age at which people can buy cigarettes and impose limits on the sale and marketing of vapes” – King Charles III
The statement was thin on detail, but the government has provided background briefing notes.
- The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will deliver on our mission to improve healthy life expectancy and reduce the number of lives lost to the biggest killers, including cancer and cardiovascular diseases.
- The Bill will deliver on the Government’s manifesto commitment to introduce a progressive smoking ban. This will make sure the next generation can never legally be sold cigarettes, paving the way for a smoke-free UK.
- The Bill will also stop vapes and other consumer nicotine products (such as nicotine pouches) from being deliberately branded and advertised to appeal to children. Together these measures will help stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine.
Although this doesn’t look too bad on first glance, the devil is in the detail, and the government goes on to state: “The Bill will provide Ministers with powers to regulate the flavours, packaging, and display of vapes and other nicotine products. These steps will help stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine.”
The threat to flavours that appeal to adults to help them quit smoking is now very real.
In “UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill: a Misfire and a Backfire”, harm reduction expert Clive Bates dismantles the Bill and explains why it will do more harm than good.
Photo Credit:
Coronation yarn bombing used under Creative Commons, cropped and resized - cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Philip Halling - https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/7474137
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
