Wales: Drakeford Drops outright ban in public places

[Mark]

Though there is no justification for even this watered down ban with the exception perhaps of schools. Still good news for Wales

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-35039630?SThisFB

 

[Mark]

This email suggests the Lib Dems will go on fighting


"I’ve just been sat in the Assembly chamber, listening to Labour AMs try and justify their vaping ban – the same old tired, nonsensical arguments.

But our pressure is working. Mark Drakeford has obviously heard that there are 3,500 of us standing up to his plans – with numbers are growing by the day – because he’s starting to row back on the ban.

His compromise position is having a specific list of places where vaping is banned, rather than a blanket ban on all enclosed public places. Incidentally, this is what Plaid Cymru are now calling for.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats don’t think that’s good enough. We will keep pushing for the ban to be scrapped in its entirety, because in our eyes nothing less will do.

Our pressure is seeing results, like I said, so with that in mind we’re now getting ready to ramp up the next stage of our campaign.

I’m pleased to announce that by Christmas, our petitions will be in vaping shops up and down Wales. This is only possible thanks to the generosity of so many of you, so if you haven’t yet donated to the campaign you can do so by clicking here.

In the meantime, you can keep up the pressure by sharing the petition by email and social media – the link you need is www.welshlibdems.wales/ecigs.

Thank you so much for your support so far. If we keep it up, we can beat this ban.


Kirsty Williams AM

Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats"

 

[jsixtysix]

The Welsh LibDems, interestingly, used the names from the previous petition to try and get new members in follow-up emails. The research they have on vaping and the potential numbers involved must have sparked something there. I do get the impression though that they issue the Ladybird book 'My First Government' to all new MPs.

 

[jock]

Looks like a massive turn around for the Welsh health board
http://www.theguardian.com/society/...nment-amends-plans-for-e-cigarette-ban-vaping

 

[casey jones]

looks like someone has either got through to him or he is getting told to fuck up can only be good
for welsh apes

 

[gary68]

Here here

 

[srs]

On a general note, I think the language the media choose to use at times like this "..climb down..", "..backed down..", "embarrassing climb down.." etc., does not encourage ministers and others in public office to change their minds. I would much more welcome a minister or someone in public office saying "actually, I've had a longer think about it and we're going to do it a bit differently to the way I first announced" than not change their minds, even possibly in the light of new information, because of fear of criticism.

As far as vaping inside in public places is concerned, with all due respect, I may not want to smell Dr Brown's Vanilla Grape Peanut Butter Custard with a hint of Babycham at the swimming pool/library/job centre etc. But that is a simple matter of consideration for other people and shouldn't require legislation.

Finally, we stand a better change of preventing more draconian laws being introduced by focusing our attention on those that we particularly disagree with rather than poo-pooing every element of "anti-vaping" legislation and negative vape story. No-one would disagree with the aim of preventing children to graduate from vaping to smoking, for example, even if the data is flawed etc. Concession, empathy with the overall goals and careful selection of the specific issues worth really fighting for will yield better results than an all out "us and them" approach.