© Alex Segre/AlamySmokers' choice: cigarettes on display in a shop.
The government is to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes in England after a review of the evidence concluded that thousands fewer children would take up smoking if the packets were unbranded and less attractive.
The public health minister, Jane Ellison, told the House of Commons that the Chantler review, commissioned by the government after it postponed a decision on plain packs, "makes a compelling case that if standardised packaging were introduced, it would be very likely to have a positive impact on public health".
She said she would be introducing draft regulations "so it is crystal clear what we intend", and would announce the details shortly. There will still be a consultation, however, which some campaigners regretted as a cause of further delay.
Ellison said her particular concern was the take-up of smoking by children, and this was the issue Sir Cyril Chantler was asked to focus on in his review. Each day in the UK around 60 children start smoking, and many of those are likely to grow up with a nicotine addiction they find hard to break. If smoking take-up were reduced by 2%, 4,000 fewer children a year would develop the habit.
Ellison said the chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, had seen the report and backed the proposal to introduce plain packs within England's devolved health administration.
The government postponed a decision on plain packaging last summer, provoking a political storm when it emerged that a lobbying company run by David Cameron's election adviser Lynton Crosby had helped a major tobacco company with its marketing strategies.
Comment: When those in power make a concerted effort to push a certain view upon the people, it's a good bet that the opposite is actually true. In reality, the government doesn't want the populace to smoke because it fears citizens who can think for themselves.
The devious plan of anti-smoking campaigns to control people and stop them from using their brain