Named and shamed

Seven days ago the news was dominated by the London car bombs. Now, exactly one week later, one of the leading items on BBC News is the allegation that former LibDem leader Charles Kennedy has been caught smoking on a train, as if this was a serious offence. (Full story HERE.)

I know - from a journalist's perspective - that this is good knockabout stuff. But what a warped society we are living in when a bloke having a quick smoke in the course of long distance train journey becomes headline news.

What is ominous about this story is the fact that someone has sneaked on Kennedy and the same person (or someone else) has then leaked it to the media. On top of that we have the ill-disguised attempt to humiliate an otherwise law-abiding person for - what, exactly? To the best of my knowledge, this was a completely victimless 'crime'.

Earlier today I was asked to comment on another story that enforcement officers for a council in north Wales have imposed a £50 fine on a lorry driver for smoking in his cab. He was alone. The same local authority has demanded that businesses put up 'No Smoking' signs or face being "named and shamed". Pompous prats.

In some ways I welcome these stories because I really hope that people come to their senses and understand that what is happening should not be tolerated in a civilised society. For the moment, this country is now in the hands of sneaks and jobsworths who will do their utmost to make life a misery for those who don't conform to the government's idea of the perfect citizen.

Update on Saturday, July 7, 2007 by Simon Clark

When I spoke to journalists yesterday I expressed sympathy for Charles Kennedy. My comments (see HERE) reflected my concern for Charles Kennedy, smoker. In view of the fact that the former LibDem leader voted in favour of the smoking ban, I have little sympathy for Charles Kennedy, politician. You reap what you sow etc, and Kennedy has been hoist by his own petard. See Iain Dale's Diary for some interesting and (please note!!) concise responses to the same story. (Scroll down to 'Charles Kennedy, Hypocrisy and Consistency'.)

Where there's smoke, there's a snitch

A producer from Five Live calls to say that MPs have been caught smoking in the toilets at the House of Commons. He won't, at this stage, say who or how many, but he wants a list of smoker-friendly MPs for a "light-hearted" item on the subject.

Forget the fact that terrorists are (allegedly) working within NHS hospitals. Let's hunt down and expose anyone who flouts the smoking ban! Personally (if the story is true), I'd like to know who snooped and then snitched on them.

Update on Friday, July 6, 2007 by Simon Clark

BBC Online reports: "During a Commons debate on Thursday, Labour MP Betty Williams offered to show Leader of the House Harriet Harman where people were smoking - to be met with cries of "division toilets" from other MPs."

Pipe up if you want to overturn this ban

In my experience, some of the more stubborn smokers are pipe smokers. Perhaps it's because they are - in general - older and more set in their ways. Or perhaps it's because they are genuinely wedded to their pipes and all the accoutrements that a committed pipe smoker needs to enjoy his habit.

Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris, who founded Forest in 1979, was a pipe smoker. Legend has it that the idea for a smokers' rights group came to him when he was standing on the platform at Reading railway station when an old biddy marched up to him and demanded that he put his pipe out. A fighter pilot who later became the RAF's commander-in-chief in Germany and chairman of the Battle of Britain Fighter Pilots' Association, Sir Christopher was made of sterner stuff. When he died, aged 86 in 2004, Lord Harris of High Cross (above left) wrote:

"Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris was a veteran of the Battle of Britain in an era when aircrews drew enormous comfort from their pipes and shared cigarettes. Having fought for freedom, today's attempts to clamp down on smoking would have struck him as, dare I say it, almost Hitlerian."

Lord Harris, who succeeded Sir Christopher as chairman of Forest in 1987, was another pipe smoker. Speaking in the House of Lords, in July 2005, he declared:

"My Lords, in what has turned out to be rather a grim end-of-term scrap, I cheerfully declare my interest as a contented pipe smoker of many years' standing and a former chairman - now honorary president - of the smokers' defence group Forest. The obsessive, highly organised witch hunt against smokers - deaf to reasoned argument- reminds me of my early days as a campaigning economist. Then it was equally difficult to win a hearing for plain common sense on economic freedom. 
 
"Other free spirits this evening have rebuffed the spiteful attack on the everyday civil rights of millions of smokers and tens of thousands of pubs, hotels and restaurants. My single purpose is to assert the commonsense implausibility that so-called passive smoking can actually kill non-smokers. After much diligent study, I have concluded that all this agitation is mere puffed-up propaganda to punish smokers for exercising a traditional freedom - at their own risk. My smoke may irritate the noble Viscount, Lord Simon, but it cannot kill him or anybody else."

Ralph Harris repeated this message right up until his death, late last year. A courteous smoker who was not inclined to break the law, he would nevertheless have been tickled by the Rev Antony Carr's protest (see below) and I have little doubt that he would have invited him to one of his famously hospitable tea parties at the House of Lords, if only to offer moral support to a fellow pipe man.

Police, pipe, action!

I was interviewed this morning, on BBC Radio Kent, on the subject of the Rev Antony Carr who walked into a police station in Tonbridge, Kent, lit his pipe, and asked to be arrested. (Full story HERE.) The Reverend Carr will no doubt be dismissed as eccentric but only because this appears to be an isolated case and he has chosen to light up in a police station rather than a pub or club.

In fact, his choice of location makes perfect sense. The problem that dissident smokers face, if they want to flout the ban, is that lighting up in a pub or a club is not a victimless act because the proprietor is at far greater risk of a substantial fine. Most smokers know this, which is why such acts need the active encouragement of a sympathetic landlord, and few proprietors can afford a large fine and the possible loss of their license.

Choosing a police station in which to light up also highlights the fact that smoking tobacco in a 'public' place barely registers as an offence, at least as far as the police are concerned. They've got better things to do with their time. The same could surely be said of our local authorities.

Record numbers visit Forest Online

Not surprisingly, perhaps, the Forest website has attracted record numbers of visitors in recent weeks. Last month we recorded 125,319 visits (28 million hits). The largest number of daily visits (9,194) occurred on June 28. This rose to 11,791 visits (4.3 million hits) on Sunday July 1 and numbers continue to rise with 14,619 people visiting the site yesterday.

Visitors can download a number of essays. Most popular downloads in June were The Smoking Issue by Joe Jackson (2,673), Prejudice & Propaganda: The Truth About Passive Smoking (1,833), Smoke, Lies and the Nanny State by Joe Jackson (1,811) and Smoking Out The Truth by Ralph Harris (1,651).

The site is updated every day. For example, we have a rolling newsfeed that links to all the major smoking-related stories around the world. We try to update other pages as often as possible. Unfortunately, the site has more than 300 pages which - in hindsight - is far too many because it simply isn't possible to update many of these pages as often as we would like. We've learned our lesson and the revised site - to be launched in the autumn alongside the new Free Society website - will be less ambitious but more focussed.

PS. Someone has complained (on this blog) that the newsfeed on the Forest website features too many anti-smoking stories. Sorry, but we're not about to stick our heads in the sand and pretend that these stories don't exist. The Forest newsfeed represents the world as it is, not how we would like it to be.

Joe Jackson: don't stop the party

Joe Jackson (left) has published an open letter to all smokers on his website. His suggestions include get educated, join a campaigning group, do not allowed yourself to be bullied, do not patronise places that forbid smoking, patronise places which make an effort to accommodate smokers, either legally outside or illegally inside. He writes:

"Smokers need to know the true facts. The more we know, the better we can fight back. Do not allow yourself to be bullied. Do not  apologise to anyone. On the contrary, explain to people why you're a victim of unjust discrimination. You are enjoying a legal pleasure with a long and honourable history, and you're contributing £10 billion a year to your country in tax revenue. Be proud.

"Bad laws deserve to be defied, flouted, protested, or circumvented in any way possible ... The smoking ban will not last forever. But the less resistance there is, the longer it will last, the more the 'antis' will crow about what a great success it is, and the more it will serve as a template for all kinds of other social engineering. Every witch hunt seems invincible until a few people have the nerve to stand up to it. Stop being so damn passive. And don't despair; after all, we (not the likes of ASH) are the Party People. Don't stop the party."

Full letter HERE.

Site for sore smokers

I think I can predict how some people will respond to the news that Imperial, Gallaher and British American Tobacco have today launched a new website, Smokers Welcome. The site, say the companies, "will provide factual information, free of charge, on venues in the UK where adult smokers may smoke, drink, eat and socialise whilst remaining legally compliant" (or, in plain English, not break the law).

ASH won't like it. They want to force people to give up smoking completely so accommodating smokers is not on their agenda. I suspect the more militant smoker won't like it either, but for rather different reasons.

The reality, however, is that as of today, regardless of barring future developments, smoking is banned in almost every enclosed public place. Smokers therefore need information, now, that can guide and direct them to the nearest pub or club that can accommodate them in relative comfort.

I understand that 5,000 pubs have already been added to the database. More will follow. A search facility, say the companies, will enable visitors to input their postcode or a location and search for venues in their area. If you want a pub or club to feature on the site, ask the manager to send details and a photo, if available, to askus@smokerswelcome.co.uk. Or do it yourself.

In the meantime, if you want to check out the site, click HERE.

Music to my ears

I heard about the attack on Glasgow Airport as we were driving to London to see Lou Reed at Hammersmith Apollo. I've been to several Lou Reed concerts and although I'm a huge fan I accept that, live (as on record), he's not to everyone's taste.

Last night was different. Supported by his core band plus horns, strings and a fantastic children's choir, this 'landmark' performance of his 1973 album Berlin - played in its entirety - was one of the the best concerts I have ever been to (a view shared, it seems, by some of the non-devotees around me).

I first bought Berlin as an impressionable 14-year-old. I didn't like it at first, but I persevered and it became one of my all-time favourite albums. To hear it come to life in this way was a joy. For two whole hours I even forgot about the imminent smoking ban, despite the prominent no-smoking signs in the bars and auditorium.

Real life returned, however, soon afterwards. On the way home I turned on the radio, and heard - on Five Live - the unmistakeable voice of Antony Worrall Thompson sounding off about the ban. Given that it was after midnight, and it was live, the man deserves a medal!

Suffering in silence

You've got to laugh. All week we were anticipating a media blitz, beginning on Friday. I was primed. Neil Rafferty (another Forest spokesman) was on red alert. And yet - it hasn't happened. Thanks to events outside our control (flash floods, car bombs and the Glasgow Airport attack), we have been dumped by CNN, Sky News, BBC Breakfast and News 24.

Only Voice of America and New Delhi TV went ahead with pre-arranged interviews - which is why I am sitting in my London office, on a Sunday afternoon, munching chocolate, reading the papers and watching Sky while waiting for calls that never come. Ironically, I turned down an appearance on BBC1's regional Politics Show - broadcasting live from a dog track in Brighton - saying I was needed in London. Doh!

What does this tell us? Well, it certainly isn't a conspiracy. Unexpected things happen and when they do the priorities of news editors can change in an instant. That's why anything that involves the news media is so precarious and the outcome so unpredictable. It's like organising a barbecue. You're dependent on the weather and if you get hit by a tropical thunderstorm at the last minute you're well and truly f***ed.

Truth is, the introduction of the ban isn't 'our' story so the pro-choice lobby was always going to struggle to be heard this weekend. (To use another analogy, Labour has dominated the media this week because Blair stepping down and Brown succeeding him as PM is 'their' story. The Tories just had to make themselves available and hope to pick up a few scraps, like George Osborne's interview on Sunday AM this morning.) But it is frustrating that events have conspired to silence us, apart from the odd comment HERE and THERE - and HERE.

Update on Sunday, July 1, 2007 by Simon Clark

In the absence of Andrew Marr (an ex-smoker and a friend of David Hockney), Sunday AM was presented by Peter Sissons. A non-smoker, Peter was joined for the review of the papers by another non-smoker, Fiona Bruce, who welcomed the ban, and Simon Hoggart of the pro-ban Guardian. Hoggart is an ex-smoker (60-a-day, apparently) who, surprise, surprise, doesn't like Forest. A few weeks ago, in the Guardian, he made a disparaging reference to "Forest, the displeasing pro-tobacco lobby", and followed it by saying, "Their predecessors were no doubt around centuries ago defending the right of householders to empty their chamber pots into the street." Today, picking up on a quote I gave the Sunday Telegraph, he repeated his little 'joke'. Simon, it wasn't funny, or clever, the first time. Drop it.

Liddle at large

Interesting postscript to Revolt In Style by Rod Liddle in The Times. Author, journalist and broadcaster, Rod was on my table, alongside Antony Worrall Thompson, Trevor Baylis and Ibrahim El-Noor, so I can't imagine where he got this idea that we were all rabid right-wingers. Perhaps it was Antony telling the government to "fuck off", or perhaps I goaded him by carelessly asking if he is still a "lefty" over a post-dinner drink.

Extremely good company, Rod was one of the last to leave The Savoy on Monday night (around 1.30am). Famously combustible, he was last heard arguing with a hotel flunkey about the quickest and shortest way to leave the building. Click HERE to read the full article.

Joe Jackson on Today, tomorrow

Fingers crossed, Joe Jackson will be featured on BBC Radio 4's Today programme tomorrow morning.

Update on Saturday, June 30, 2007 by Simon Clark

An edited version of Joe Jackson's pre-recorded interview (see below) was broadcast on the Today programme at 7.35, preceded by a short blast of 'In 20-0-3'. Knowing Joe, I'm sure he will be miffed at the extent to which the interview was cut and presented (it came across as though it was part of a longer documentary rather than a stand alone report, and the rather rushed intro didn't really put it in its proper context) but - in my view - anything is better than nothing. And in the short time Joe was on air, he didn't pull his punches. To listen go HERE , scroll down and click on 0730-0800.

Unhappy hookahs

An article in today's Times highlights the impact the smoking ban will have on the shisha community. "On Sunday," the paper reports, "the last charcoal will be lit, the last shisha will be brought to the table and a culture that stretches from Morocco all the way back to ancient Persia will be snuffed out." Full article HERE.

A special guest at The Savoy on Monday was Ibrahim El-Noor of the Edgware Road Association who has been fighting - albeit belatedly - the smoking ban which owners fear will result in the closure of many of Britain's 600 shisha bars.

I first met Ibrahim 15 months ago when he took me to a local hookah bar and showed me how to smoke shisha. There is very little tobacco involved - it's mostly fruit peel filtered through water. Shisha smoking, he told me, is a social activity enjoyed by different age groups and different sections of the community. According to Ibrahim, "For many young people, who do not drink or go to pubs and bars, the main leisure and social activity is to visit a shisha café. Here, they can socialise, debate and discuss their affairs without being intoxicated, introduced to drugs, or subjected to violence and anti-social behaviour."

The smoking ban, says Ibrahim, will destroy this culture and a centuries old tradition. He is holding on to the hope that legal action could lead to shisha bars being excluded from the ban (as they are in New York). Short of funding a potentially expensive - and therefore crippling - legal battle, we have offered to help in other ways. On Monday, for example, we gave him a platform to publicise his campaign and he responded with a short, moving speech that will have registered, I'm sure, with many of the MPs or peers present. If he can persuade just one of them to introduce a private members' bill on the subject, they may - just may - stay in business.

Tonight on 18 Doughty Street

I'm on 18 Doughty Street tonight. I'll be discussing the smoking ban with Iain Dale, Britain's top political blogger, on Live At Nine. Doughty Street was among those filming at The Savoy on Monday, so there will be a small package of vox pop interviews. After that they want me to stay on for Vox Politics and the End of the Day show, which finishes at midnight. (Hopefully, someone, somewhere, will still be watching!)

Iain and I go back a bit. He was the man behind Politico's Bookshop and together we briefly published The Politico, a short-lived magazine that was very well received but was never going to be a great commercial success so we pulled the plug.

I've featured this before so apologies for repeating myself - but here's one of my earlier appearances on the Internet-based channel. If you want to be mildly amused, double-click on the screen below.

Update on Friday, June 29, 2007 by Simon Clark

Iain Dale deserted his post at the last moment in favour of an appearance on Five Live - Shane Greer deputised. To see the programme in full click HERE. ASH, by the way, wouldn't put someone forward because their spokesman was "on holiday"!

Revolt In Style - match report

I promised to report back on Monday's night party but the Telegraph has done it for me - see HERE. There's not a lot more to add, but here are some highlights:

We were joined by 400 guests, some of whom travelled from as far afield as Inverness, Edinburgh, Glasgow, the North East (of England), Cornwall and even Holland. Guests included 12 MPs (all Tories) and eight (or was it nine?) peers. I can't confirm they were all present and correct - you'll just have to take my word for it. There simply wasn't time, either to speak to everyone personally, or ask guests to sign a register.

The media turned out in force, camera crews jostling for position and for interviewees. There were TV crews from Germany, France, Greece and Japan, which created quite a buzz. Domestically, ITV sent a crew to record interviews for Tonight With Trevor McDonald. Radio 4's long-running consumer programme You and Yours did likewise. But the big excitement (for me) was the appearance of Stephanie Flanders, former advisor to the US Treasury and now the economics correspondent on Newsnight, recording interviews to be broadcast on (I think) Friday June 29th, BBC2.

Journalists included Sue Carroll (Daily Mirror), Rod Liddle (Sunday Times and Spectator), Peter McKay (Daily Mail), John Walsh (Independent) and Adam Edwards (Daily Telegraph). The hospitality industry was represented by Paul Waterston (Scottish Licensed Trade Association) and Nick Bish (Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers). Other guests included Sue Brealey (co-author, The Joy of Smoking), Phil May (The Pretty Things), and inventor Trevor Baylis (former Pipesmoker of the Year). Some people booked whole tables, among them cigar importers Hunters & Frankau and the Institute of Ideas.

Antony Worrall Thompson, Claire Fox and Andrew Neil all gave excellent speeches - well received by a lively and appreciative audience who roared their approval every time anyone criticised the government! I compered - sort of - and read out messages from some of those unable to attend, including Lord Tebbit, Joe Jackson, Oscar-winning playwright Ronald Harwood, artist Maggi Hambling ("From now on it's even more important to smoke"), and screenwriter Alan Plater.

The lyrics to Plater's song 'I'm Going Outside', featured on the Forest/Boisdale CD You Can't Do That!, were printed on the reverse of the menu. After the speeches, the song was performed live by the Boisdale Blue Rhythm Band. Hitherto the band had played, in the background, the perfect music to match the boisterous mood.

Last but not least, the 'formal' part of the evening finished with a stirring live performance of the Monty Python classic, 'Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life'. Until that point (11.00pm) hardly a single unit of alcohol had passed my lips. I shall draw a veil over later events.

Update on Wednesday, June 27, 2007 by Simon Clark

Sue Carroll, a guest on Monday, has written an excellent piece in the Mirror HERE, quoting Andrew Neil and Claire Fox. As a result of that, Sue is appearing on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze tonight at 8.00pm. Also on the programme is regular panellist - Claire Fox!

Wozza leads the resistance

Antony Worrall Thompson was an absolute star all evening. Wozza - Forest's patron since 2001 - isn't just a name on a letterhead. For years he has taken the time and the trouble, often at short notice, to do numerous interviews on our behalf.

Monday night at The Savoy was no different. He arrived early and was immediately at a centre of a media scrum. Before dinner he must have given at least a dozen interviews to journalists and broadcasters including programmes such as Newsnight, Tonight With Trevor McDonald and You and Yours. (The latter was broadcast yesterday. Go HERE and under 'Listen Again' click on Tuesday edition. Antony is featured 37 minutes into the hour-long programme.)

He also featured in yesterday's (London) Evening Standard which reported that:

If New Labour has found the resistance to its hunting ban formidable there was an indication last night that it can expect more of the same from its ban on smoking in public places. Chef Antony Worrall Thompson led the resistance.

"This is about control. The control freakery of this fucking government. Do you ever go into a town centre and cause trouble because of the effects of a cigarette? How long before they ban alcohol in pubs? What about obesity? How long before they ban food in restaurants? I'm not going to put up the No Smoking signs in my restaurants."

The Spy column in today's Daily Telegraph repeats Wozza's "control freakery" comment. It also quotes him saying: "There are loads of 85 and 90-year-olds who have smoked all their life who didn't get cancer - and I think it'll be proved in due course that it's all genetic." The fightback starts here!