NEWS
SHOCK MOVE
BY HOUSE OF LORDS COULD
OVERTURN TPD IN THE UK
Although the controversial Tobacco
Products Directive is now law throughout
the European Union, there are moves
being made to get it thrown out in the
UK. A House of Lords committee was
highly critical of the new law in a recent
debate and now a senior politician is
spearheading a campaign to get the
legislation overturned.
The TPD has been implemented into
UK law by a Statutory Instrument The Tobacco and Related Products
Regulations 2016.
However Lord Callanan wants the UK
law to be overturned on the grounds that
the restrictions are so severe that it could
force vapers back to smoking.
He has laid a motion before the House
of Lords which says that the Tobacco
and Related Products Regulations 2016
should be annulled.
The motion says: “Restrictions on
product choice and advertising of vaping
devices were devised before evidence
had accumulated that vaping was
enabling many people to quit smoking,
run counter to advice from the Royal
College of Physicians to promote vaping
and are so severe that they could force
vapers back to smoking and create a
black market
with harmful products.”
The Lords
have until June 10
agree to the
motion and if they do so
then
the statutory instrument
implementing the
TPD in the UK
would be annulled.
Should this happen the UK would be in
breach of its EU obligations to implement
the TPD and could be fined for not
complying with the Directive.
However given the forthcoming
European Referendum the last thing the
government would want right now would
be the controversy that this may cause
and the prospect of many vapers using
their Referendum vote to reflect their
views on the TPD.
Within hours of the announcement
by Lord Callanan the hashtag
#LordsVapeVote was trending on Twitter
as vapers from throughout the UK voiced
their support to the move to overturn the
new law.
At the same time an online petition to
Prime Minister David Cameron and
Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn had
attracted more than 27,000 supporters in
just one day.
The petition entitled: “We support the
Parliamentary moves to block crazy
e-cigarette regulations” says: “This
petition is requesting the House of Lords
to back Lord Callanan’s motion to stop
harsh regulations on e-cigarettes which
would force vapers back to smoking.
“We urge our House of Commons to
debate the implications for public health
of the Tobacco Products Directive on
e-cigarettes and we plead with the Prime
Minister to use his influence in Brussels
to get a
British opt-out from Article
20 before the EU referendum so this
issue does not affect that vote.”
An update on the petition’s website
at the end of the first day online said:
“Where does this end? It ends with a
reformed Article 20. Hopefully within a
month.
“A lot of politicians want to help with
doing the right thing. With this petition
you are enabling them to hear that there
are serious problems that need fixing.
“Other politicians respond only to
pressure and with this petition you are
also applying that.
“Either way, given the current fevered
political atmosphere, party leaders will
not want to be seen to be ignoring the
concerns of 2.8 million vaping votes who
are becoming increasingly organised.
The new rule of politics is vapers expect
respect.
“Tomorrow and over the weekend we
need to get this petition growing further.
If your vaping friends don’t do petitions,
get them to tweet, if they don’t tweet, get
them to email their MP, if they don’t do
emails get them to write.”
Whatever happens
it is certain that
the controversy
surrounding the TPD
is not going to die
down any time
soon.