Sir, – Minister for Children and Youth Affairs James Reilly deserves great credit for persisting with plain packaging of cigarettes in the face of fierce opposition and legal threats from "Big Tobacco" ("European Court of Justice rules in favour of plain packaging directive for cigarettes", December 23rd).
The preliminary ruling by the European Court of Justice that such measures are “proportionate” is welcome, but the High Court of Australia used more robust language in dismissing arguments advanced by the tobacco companies. The judges variously described the case of the tobacco companies as “delusive”, “synthetic”, “unreal”, and suffering “fatal” defects in logic and reasoning. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY
Vienna.