Cigarette plain packaging delay demonstrates a failure of nerve

First, the story. Last July's consultation document floated the idea that all cigarettes should be packaged in plain wrappers. It was welcomed by the health sector as a further advance in discouraging people - especially young people - from smoking. It was rubbished by the tobacco manufacturers and retailers as expensive and likely to encourage cigarette smuggling. Trade unions Unite and the GMB organised a petition claiming that it could threaten jobs in tobacco companies.

The consultation's responses are in, and they fall into two predictable camps. About 55 per cent of responses support all the recommendations, from NHS bodies, charities and groups of young people. About 40 per cent oppose them all, from the tobacco industry. Then there are the mass petitions: 430,000 signatures from smokers and the industry opposing the changes, and 230,000 from non-smokers supporting them.