Linda McAvan, the Angel of Death

[Greigster]

Just coppied this from JayLavEnts over on UKV.

It would appear that Linda McAvan is trying to circumnavigate the agreed delay in the vote in Brussels.

Please click on to the link and contact your MEP.........its ever so easy.


It now looks as though McAvan deliberately published her blog accepting the postponement, whilst successfully bringing it back forward to Tuesday.

IT IS IMPERATIVE that EVERYONE now goes to www.writetothem.com/

Enter your postcode

Click on "write to all your MEP's"

Enter your address

Write in your own words that you request they

Be in Strasbourg on Monday and Tuesday for plenary
Vote against the use of rule 140 to push the directive through early debate
If that fails, the debate will be on Tuesday 10th September. MEPs have not had long enough to inspect and analyse the document.
Article 18 is a travesty and will cost lives.

Urge them in your own words to support the ALDE amendment on article 18.

Tell them how important this is to you.

The enforced medicalisation of NCP's will make your products
less effective
Less available
Less affordable

Do it. This is a matter of life and death.

[lemental]

Thanks for posting this here Greigster. I saw it earlier on UKVapers and have written to my MEPs.

Things will not change if we don't all take a little time out to help ourselves and our fellow vapers. It's all too easy to forget or become complacent but we all must be counted.

Everybody, please please do this. It won't take up much time once you get going. A plea from the heart will help all vapers, present and future.

[Greigster]

It is so easy to do and we must all put in a little effort. The whole thing takes about 5 minutes of your life, which is much less time than it will take to find your favourite juice if this awful woman gets her way. She must be so determined to take our vaping away from us.........don't let her do it!!

[Bluefish]

done

[Banky]

Done

[neptune]

I have done it and ask you please to do the same. Together we can stop the bitch in her tracks, and really give her something to throw a pissy fit about.

[chykensa]

My letter, all sent off this evening -

Dear William (The Earl of) Dartmouth, Sir Graham Watson, Trevor Colman and Giles Chichester,
I am writing to you with some urgency regarding the forthcoming European Parliament plenary on the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD).
I am an ex-smoker who has chosen to 're-brand', i.e. take my nicotine by a proven method which is safer, both for me and my family and friends.
I use an advanced version of an electronic cigarette (e-cig), and this device has enabled me to kick my 35-year tobacco habit which was slowly and surely killing me.
As a result of my conversion to an e-cig, I have not only saved my health (and yes, I am breathing more easily, my clothes and body don't smell, and I can taste again!) but I am saving the lives of those around me.
I am concerned about the current proposals to label all electronic cigarettes and personal vapourisers as medicines, with the attendant and prohibitive costs of licencing. This will have one simple result: hundreds of thousands of people like me, who have kicked our tobacco habit (which incidentally is saving the NHS a small fortune because we will hopefully require less medical intervention due to the amelioration in our health) will be forced back to tobacco to satisfy our nicotine addiction.
I am sure you would agree that failure to democratically represent me and well over a million others like me in this country alone in order to prevent the Governments of Europe voting to this end would be, quite simply, criminal. Could you live with yourselves knowing that you have condemned millions of people to tobacco-smoking with all the risks and social implications that this carries? I know that I couldn't.
I am aware that you will all reply stating that 'insufficient research has been carried out' and 'e-cigs are not without their risks' and 'if you want to quit smoking, you should use the approved NRT products already available.
Let me address these points one at a time. First, I implore you to spend an hour researching this matter properly, rather than quoting from your party's handout. There has been a sizeable body of research completed, and these studies all conclude without exception that 'vaping' (the word we use for the act of using a PV) is by the order of hundreds safer than smoking tobacco. Secondly, the risks to those around vapers are so negligible that they are almost impossible to accurately record using top-grade medical equipmment. Lastly, 5 minutes using the internet will inform you that NRT products JUST DON'T WORK (unless you consider a 90% drop-out rate after one year acceptable).
I therefore ask that you give me a guarantee that you will be present in Strasbourg on Monday and Tuesday next for the plenary; that you will vote against the use of rule 140 to push the directive through early debate; and that you support the ALDE amendment on article 18.
This is really important to the health of millions of people; it is not a trivial matter that you can afford to miss voting on - it is a matter of life or death.
I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Andy Bilham

It will be interesting to see the response(s) if any.

[djs]

This woman is NOT FIT to hold the position she holds.

When I watched the interview with Mark (is that right, I get confused?), I though she came over OK and actually quite sensible.

The problem is she does not understand what she is doing. In her mind, she thinks e-cigs will all be much safer and we will all carry on is if nothing has changed. She knows E-Lites/Nicolites/skycig turn over £30,000,000 a year and thinks handing over thousands for MA is "falling off a log" stuff to the big boys with their not-so-miracle plastic sticks.
Sadly, her determination to chip away at the tobacco industry has infected her attitude to e-cigs. She is 100% convinced there is simply no issue with going down the medicines route. She clearly has closed her mind to the possibility that a very large proportion of vapers are using products which will never make it out the end of the tunnel.

Ms McAvan - you seem a decent person with a passion for pushing through tobacco reform. We all understand why nearly every sane person on the planet wants to limit and decrease tobacco use for both old and young. But, you are making a mess of it. You think everything will be alright when the pharma and tobacco companies are left selling the only products with the addition of the multi-million pound look-a-like e-cig leviathans in tow.

You are wrong. The products we use (most of us) will never see the light of day if your well-intentioned efforts are successful. Give it up now, please, please, please put aside your pride and your self-determination to go down in history as the woman who started to nail home the coffin for tobacco products. The premature death of vapers who rely on e-cigs to avoid going back to tobacco will be on your conscience if you continue this madness. Please STOP. Do what you will to tobacco to protect the innocent and young....but don't think the e-cig world will ever be the same if you succeed. It won't.

[dnglos]

Sept 5, 2013 19:03:25 GMT chykensa said:

Dear William (The Earl of) Dartmouth, Sir Graham Watson, Trevor Colman and Giles Chichester,


It will be interesting to see the response(s) if any.

chykensa Did you also copy in Julie Girling (Cons)?

We're from the same part of the world and I emailed my MEPs back in July. So far I've had a very positive response from Julie Girling and a rather strange response from The Earl of Dartmouth, who didn't mention e-cigs at all in his email to me.

[Greigster]

Great letter chykensa, A lot of thought and time went into that.

[chuck]

That's my letter been sent off.

[4madcats]

Don't forget guys while Linda McAvan is the Rapportuer for the TPD she is only one person
EU MEPs are not divided into geographical consistences, UK, France, Germany etc, but into political groups, & Ms McAvan & her boss Glenis Willmott (both UK Labour) are part of the 'Socialist & Democrat Party' (democratic = ironic) who happen to have the biggest majority, & who all sing from the same hymn-sheet regarding the TPD.

So yes contact all your UK MEPS absolutely, but if you are on twitter, as well as Linda McAvan you also need to be targeting the Social & Democrat Group @theprogressives and their President @hannes_Swoboda ,cos according to the S&D group & their president we are all lobbyists (astroturf again) possibly all working for big T who have disappointingly got the TPD Plenary vote postponed until October.

[Greigster]

Here is my first reply from my UKIP MEP.


Dear greigster

Thank you for your recent email, addressed to Stuart Agnew MEP. I am
replying on his behalf.

Firstly, I can confirm that Mr Agnew will be in Strasbourg on Monday and
Tuesday of next week.

Please rest assured that Mr Agnew and his fellow UKIP MEPs were elected on a
platform of withdrawal from the EU and thus have no mandate for supporting
EU legislative proposals and would not, therefore, support this directive or
its revisions. They are opposed, as a matter of principle, to unelected
members of the European Commission being the sole originators of all new EU
legislation, much of which is binding upon the British people.

Our MEPs are particularly concerned about the new proposals regarding
packaging having the potential to make it easier to produce counterfeit
cigarettes. In addition, electronic smoking devices are already well
regulated in this country. We do not need the EU sticking its nose in.

Rest assured that the UKIP MEPs will vote against this legislation when it
comes before the Parliament. It should be a matter for our elected
Government and Parliament at Westminster, not unelected officials in
Brussels. However, do bear in mind that there are 754 MEPs and the UK has
just 73. Unfortunately, many of the latter have gone native and will not
vote against this nonsense.

Unfortunately, while we remain members of the EU, we will be subject to rule
by Brussels diktat. Sadly, much of what emanates from the Brussels
legislative sausage machine is extremely damaging to the best interests of
the British people and to our business sector.

UKIP was created in 1993 to campaign for our country's freedom from the EU
and we will continue to campaign for exactly that outcome. Your support
would be greatly appreciated.

Best wishes,

Stuart Gulleford
Political Advisor to Stuart Agnew MEP

[Greigster]

And my second reply:-

Dear greigster

Thank you for your email regarding the issue of electronic cigarettes. I have had a number of constituents raising similar concerns about the proposed reduction of nicotine in e-cigs and effectively banning them in the EU.

As you may know my stance towards the European Union is not one of further integration, quite the opposite. Nor am I in favour of banning things which are ultimately an issue of personal choice. Many, if not all, of those who use e-cigs will have taken the time to learn about the product before using them. These choices should be respected especially if it leads to a healthier alternative to normal cigarettes. I am concerned by the theory that this ban is coming after pressure from tobacco companies and if that is the case then questions must be asked of the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs, Tonio Borg.

The Commission’s proposal will result in nicotine thresholds which will be insufficient for individuals who use these e-cigs as a means of quitting tobacco cigarettes all together or as a replacement for them. This could very well send ex-tobacco smokers back to square one therefore making the proposal completely counter-productive.

I have always been opposed to legislation which seeks to control and nanny the British public from an unaccountable seat in Brussels. Laws which govern Britain must be made in Britain and it is for that reason that I have been campaigning so strongly for a referendum on our relationship with the EU. As your MEP, I will be voting against this proposal because it is about personal freedom as well as personal health.

Yours sincerely

David Campbell Bannerman MEP
Conservative Member of the European Parliament for the East of England

[ckc]

Brian Simpson Labour MEP

Writes the same old shit and mentions McAvan.

I think that's enough written about his reply.