IMPORTANT: Write to YOUR MP - Stop (Art.20) TPD

[Postmodern Smoking]

Update from the petition site that supports Lord Callanan's fatal motion on stopping e-cig over-regulation in the TPD:

There were a series of important meetings in Parliament yesterday in which senior Labour and Conservative politicians were discussing how to remove the vaping regulations from the TPD. Both sides have been highly impressed with your campaign - especially your fabulous personalised letters to peers. The critical Lords vote is expected in the week commencing 6 June.

There’s not much time… but we appear to be making a difference, if we ALL do our bit.   

For now the politicians are urging us to focus on influencing the Department of Health by asking you to encourage your MP to write to the Health Minister Jane Ellison.

All you have to do is three things:

STEP ONE: Find the email address of your MP through www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/
STEP TWO: Use the bullet points HERE to devise your respectful letter to your MP
STEP THREE: Hit send!

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• It's also not too late to sign and share the petition in support of Lord Callanan's fatal motion : HERE
  
• Tell your story to a Peer of the House of Lords: Instructions HERE
  

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[BrenD]

I mustn't get my hopes up.
I mustn't get my hopes up.
I mustn't get my hopes up.
I mustn't...

[Postmodern Smoking]

May 26, 2016 0:11:00 GMT BrenD said:

I mustn't get my hopes up.
I mustn't get my hopes up.
I mustn't get my hopes up.
I mustn't...

We can but try BrenD... this opportunity, given to us by Lord Callanan has the potential to actually succeed; due to the powers of the Lords to throw out any new law.... and will be our LAST chance, IMO. 

These next 2 weeks will be critical.

[gill2009]

  For now the politicians are urging us to focus on influencing the Department of Health by asking you to encourage your MP to write to the Health Minister Jane Ellison.



All you have to do is three things:



STEP ONE: Find the email address of your MP through www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/

STEP TWO: Use the bullet points HERE to devise your respectful letter to your MP

STEP THREE: Hit send!


 I'm right on it Postmodern Smoking 

[gill2009]

  I have written to David Mundell, my MP...

[Perpetua]

Don't be surprised if you get a generic reply from some of your MP's . . . .

" Thank you for contacting me about the regulation of e-cigarettes.

I recognise that e-cigarettes help some smokers to quit and the evidence indicates that they are considerably less harmful to health than cigarettes. At the same time, it is essential that we do not encourage smoking and continue to protect children from the effects of nicotine.

The quality of products on the market remains highly variable. It is therefore important that proportionate regulation is introduced to ensure minimum safety requirements and that information is provided to consumers so that they can make informed choices.

In implementing the new EU rules, the Government intends to work towards regulation that will permit a range of products, to remain on the market which are positioned as alternatives to smoking, not as products that introduce children to vaping or smoking. From May, e-cigarettes that are licenced by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency will still be able to be advertised, and the advertising of all other e-cigarettes will no longer permitted on television.

I hope that this reassures you that the new rules in the revised TPD do not aim to prevent people from using e-cigarettes, but rather to provide consumers with safer, less variable products.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.

Yours sincerely "


Grrrr . . . . and there isn't even any evidence to support the ' gateway ' argument and I'll be leaving him in no doubt of the fact!

[Postmodern Smoking]

That's brilliant gill2009 , you're so quick on it!
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Note: 

Step 2 links to HERE (the campaign update on change.org)

(Which provides you with bullet point ideas on want to include in your letter, as well as even a draft letter for your MP to send to Health Minister Jane Ellison.)

[Deleted]

Thanks Perpetua. SNP doing the same - even though I said I'd been vaping for 5 years - patronising bog standard generic reply!!!

So I told her it would affect my vote in the referendum cos I'm nice!

[Bobsbeer]

Tim Farron MP is my new best pal by all the letters I've been sending him.

[buckowski]

I've just wrote to my MP, 1st ever time I've done this. Coincidentally, I received a letter from her today, asking me to vote Remain, in the upcoming referendum.
I very nicely put it that there'd be no chance, if this TPD doesn't get stopped.
It'll be interesting to see if I too get the generic reply.

[quincey43]

That is the exact letter word for word I got from my MP!! I will write to her again!

[gill2009]

  I thought that if you asked them specifically to do something, ie write to Jane Ellison, they had to do it.

  I'll wait & see what my MP says, or he'll be getting another missive from me 

[Deleted]

[Postmodern Smoking]

It's nearly the weekend.... please try to find/make some time to write to some Lords and write to your MP.

[Perpetua]

Another Copy & Paste job doing the rounds from MP's . . . . don't let the pathetic response put you off making contact however!


" Thank you for contacting me recently regarding the revised EU Tobacco Products Directive, and specifically how this will affect electronic cigarettes.

I appreciate e-cigarettes are becoming increasingly popular and that they are an aide that can help many smokers who are trying to quit. However, I believe it is important there are regulations in place to ensure these products meet quality and safety standards.

The revised Tobacco Products Directive concerns the regulation of e-cigarettes and herbal products and includes changes to the sizes of e-liquid bottles available and places restrictions on how much nicotine they can contain. Alongside its provisions on e-cigarettes, the regulations include rules concerning the composition and labelling of tobacco products.

As you may be aware, the government held a consultation on implementing the Directive between 2 July and 3 September 2015. The responses to the consultation demonstrated the range of views that are held on how e-cigarettes and vaping products should be sold and manufactured.

The Government believes, as I do, it is essential that it does not encourage smoking and that it continues to protect children from the dangers of nicotine. The Government has therefore welcomed the rules set out in the revised EU Tobacco Products Directive. The UK Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, which enshrines the directive in UK law, came into force on 20 May 2016.

I am aware of the recent report published by the Royal College of Physicians, which calls for the promotion of e-cigarettes as a substitute for smoking. I appreciate that e-cigarettes can help smokers quit and that there is evidence which indicates they are less harmful to health than cigarettes.

I also believe the Government has a duty to help protect future generations from the dangers of smoking and it is important that we carefully consider sensible steps to discourage young people from taking up smoking. "