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Reasonable, open, and credible debate is missing across government, business, and civil society—how can we bring it back?
We are drowning in a cacophony of conflicting opinion, aggressively expressed. And it's impossible to make sense of it.
In the UK, a recent controversy is over the proposed plain cigarette packaging. The hypothesis is that replacing attractively branded cigarette packaging with plain packages that carry only health warnings and graphic images of damaged organs would make purchase less attractive, especially for those who have not yet taken up smoking. One would think it possible to have a reasoned debate over an issue that has widespread support. Nobody supports policies that might encourage youngsters to start smoking, and the use of plain packaging may help prevent that. In its submission to the UK government's consultation, the UK Faculty of Public Health stated, "The size of the impact of standardized tobacco packaging on the outcomes identified is unknown, as no administration has yet introduced this policy" while going on to say that, given the harm caused by smoking, the introduction of plain packaging may well be justified in spite of the current lack of hard evidence.
