Keith, it never ceases to amaze me that you're so "outraged" by the fact that retailers - yes real people who actually work in a dairy or small convenience store, actually want to have their views heard. You've just fallen for the spin that it's some cunning plot by the tobacco industry.

But why should we be surprised when you've never bothered to look critically at the half-truths and sometime blatant fudging of science by public health researchers who hold themselves to be beyond criticism and take a holier than thou approach.

If you did, then you'd be able to write a post that would really have you seething.

What a scandle - actually having the nerve to ask for evidence based policy decisions! Instead, lets get 'evidence' manufactured by NGO and 'researchers' contracted to the MOH to 'research' what we want and then use that as justification for policy decisions because we don't like tobacco companies.

But wait, lets not stop there. Lets use our contracted providers to swan off to Geneva and support a WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco, specifically Article 5.3 and stop those nasty tobacco company representatives from even being allowed to talk to policy makers.

So Keith you may have the "shit scared out of you" by a submission and your view of corporates, but the flip side is that democracy is poorer for excluding people/companies from shaping policy in New Zealand. That is what you should really be scared about.