Never give up!

Still recovering from last night. The last guests left The Savoy at 2.00am and I crawled back to my hotel an hour later. Edited highlights will appear here after I've had several cups of strong black coffee and caught up with a mountain of phone calls. Tomorrow we hope to publish pictures of the event on the Forest website. In the meantime here's a taster that sums up the mood of the evening.

Yours, in haste ...

This is the only opportunity I shall get to post today. Having arrived in London last night - heavily laden with Forest ashtrays, Forest beermats and 400 Forest CDs to be given away tonight - I woke up to the news that BBC Online has given Revolt In Style a good plug (see HERE). The event was also mentioned on GMTV.

There are 400 guests attending tonight's event (double our original estimate) and people are still trying to book, although the event was sold out last week. Menus have still to be printed and 500 nanny state badges have gone missing, but apart from that everything is going OK.

I won't tempt fate by naming any guests (in case they don't show) but I can tell you there will be TV crews from Russia, Germany, France, Greece and Japan. Radio 4's You and Yours will be present, interviewing the likes of Antony Worrall Thompson. So too will Granada TV, filming for Tonight With Trevor McDonald.

The full Forest press release, including some great message of support, is HERE.

CMO promises more anti-smoking measures

Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson (left) today gives an interview to the Observer in which he pledges a "further sustained crackdown on smoking after the ban comes into force in England next Sunday".

Plans include removing cigarettes from public display, putting graphic picture warnings on cigarette packets, outlawing the sale of packets of 10 cigarettes, and reducing the number of cigarettes that we can bring into the country from inside the EU from 3,200 to 200. (That's a laugh. The Chancellor had to increase the number from 800 to 3,200, a few years ago, because high taxation in the UK had sparked a smuggling epidemic. Do you think the CMO spoke to Gordon Brown before he came up with this crackpot scheme?)

Donaldson also wants advertising campaigns to "educate" parents about the 'dangers' of smoking around children. How long before smoking in the presence of children is officially declared a form of child abuse? Full story, including a short quote from me, HERE.

All light up - a cry for freedom!

Joe Jackson (below) is not alone in recording an anti-ban protest song. The Pretty Things, founded in the Sixties and still playing and recording with their original line-up, have just released their own freedom of choice anthem, 'All Light Up'.

It's part of the band's All Light Up campaign that includes a dedicated website where you can download the track free of charge. "Play it loud and clear for all to hear, wherever you go. At home. In the car. In clubs and pubs. At work. And tell your friends to do the same!"

You can also download flyers, posters (left) and a message from the band's founder Phil May. The poster looks fantastic and the whole campaign is brilliantly designed. Manager Mark St John tells me that a video will be available on YouTube this coming week. We''ll keep you posted.

Protest and survive

The Radio 4 Today programme wants to interview Joe Jackson in Berlin, where he is recording a new album following his recent European tour. In particular, they want to record him playing his song 'In 20-0-3' which was released following the introduction of the New York smoking ban in, er, 2003.

I won't quote him direct but Joe is concerned that they just want some light entertainment to add colour to their coverage of the smoking ban and what he (a musician) has to say won't be taken seriously. I disagree. He may not be an 'expert' in the conventional sense but the fact that he is passionate and clearly knows his stuff forces people to sit up and listen. (I know journalists and MPs who would never read an 'official' policy document from cover to cover, but they have read Joe's essays on smoking.)

Of course, we can't control how the media presents our message but that's life. The important thing is to take every opportunity to get that message across. Sometimes we'll fail, other times we'll succeed. But you have to be a player. At the moment I'm the middle man between Joe and the BBC. If you'd like to hear Joe on the Today programme this week post a comment on this blog asap. It may convince him to do it.

BBC Radio 4 You & Yours

One of the week's many messages was from Radio 4. On Tuesday (June 26th) the consumer programme You and Yours (12.00-1.00pm) is dedicating its entire programme to the smoking ban.

"As England takes its last few puffs before the ban begins on July 1st it’s your chance to put your views across. We want to hear your hopes and fears for the ban. If you live in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland how have things changed? And as smoking rooms are shut forever and smokers shooed away from doorways how will the workplace be affected? Regardless of the impact of the ban is legislation really the best way to deal with the problem?"

The programme intends to interview Forest patron Antony Worrall Thompson, host of Revolt In Style, at The Savoy on Monday for inclusion in Tuesday's programme. You can have your say by visiting the You and Yours website now.

When Saturday comes

What a week, dashing backwards and forwards between our offices in Cambridge and London for meetings, interviews and more. Every time I've come out of a meeting there has been at least 15 calls waiting to be returned, usually from journalists or broadcasters.

(Apart from the usual requests for quotes or interviews with a Forest spokesman, a journalist from the People wanted a dedicated smoker to go with him to an Allen Carr quit smoking session. I nominated Jenty, a Forest supporter of long standing, whose dry sense of humour and love of nicotine can be guaranteed to withstand even the most persuasive stop smoking mantra.)

Fortunately I've had fantastic support from Sonia, Barbara, Jacqui, Rebecca, Neil and Freya without whom etc etc. Thankfully the cricket match I had organised last night was cancelled due to the weather otherwise I may have imploded - and I certainly wouldn't have completed the table plan I was working on with Boisdale. (Have you ever done a table plan for 400 people? It's not that easy, especially when you've got to accommodate MPs, peers and distinguished guests. It's a tightrope of diplomacy!)

Next week is shaping up to be even more hectic - as you would expect, with the smoking ban eight days away. But first, I shall use this momentary respite to catch up on a whole stack of emails, some of which are rather interesting. Watch this space.

House rules

I am grateful to many of the people who have posted a comment on this blog. Some of your comments have been illuminating and much of it is useful feedback (even if I don't always agree with you!). I should point out, though, that this is a blog not a message board - there is a difference.

Some of the more recent comments/posts are not in the spirit of a blog. Instead of responding to a blog post or previous comment, some of you seem to be on this site with the principal aim of promoting or recruiting members to your own website/forum/community. It's what I call cuckoo in the nest syndrome.

I'd prefer not to moderate what is supposed to be a laissez faire style of blog, but please don't abuse it. Our principal goal is to create a distinctive forum for a genuine battle of ideas, not to promote third party groups or campaigns.

Forest sells out (no, not like that!)

Revolt In Style: A Freedom Dinner is now sold out. From nought to 400 guests in four weeks is pretty good going. Now the hard work really starts - selling the event to the media. See HERE - and watch this space!

Prisoners who smoke face double whammy

I was interviewed this morning by a radio station on the Isle of Man where smoking will not be banned in enclosed public places until March 30, 2008. 

Anxious, perhaps, to attract some attention now, the island government has announced that it will go one stage further than the rest of the UK and ban smoking in prison as well. Not just in cells or designated smoking rooms, but outdoor areas too.

Home affairs Minister Martyn Quayle MHK commented:

"Although the Isle of Man will be among the last to prohibit smoking in public places when the ban comes in on March 30, 2008, we could be the first in Britain and possibly in Europe to have a smoke-free jail when the new prison opens at Jurby. It will provide clean air, free from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, to staff and prisoners and will encourage prisoners – the majority of whom smoke – to break their addiction to nicotine."

The telling phrase is the hopeful boast that "we could be the first in Britain and possibly in Europe to have a smoke-free jail". It reminds me of Ireland, 2004, when politicians and media revelled in the fact that Ireland was "leading the world" with its public smoking ban. It's as if governments are having a race to see who can be first to introduce the next draconian piece of anti-smoking legislation. Think of the headlines! Think of the awards!

As it happens, I don't believe that inmates have a right to smoke in jail, any more than they have a right to drink alcohol. If you get sent to prison you have to the face the consequences, and one of the consequences is that you may not be able to smoke tobacco (although you will almost certainly be able to get your hands on plenty of illegal drugs).

Nevertheless, while smoking in prison isn't (in my view) a human or civil right, I don't believe that banning inmates from smoking is entirely sensible. Like it or not, smoking is a stress reliever for many people and there can't be many more stressful places than the UK's overcrowded jails. Allowing staff and inmates to smoke in exercise yards or designated smoking rooms or cells (with another smoker) makes perfect sense to me. But I'm not a politician.

PS. In 2004, when we launched our 'Fight For Choice' campaign, we produced a series of posters and postcards, one of which featured the image above. Little did we suspect that smoking in prison would also be on the agenda.

The honeymoon is over

Our old friend Sue Brealey, co-author of the Joy of Smoking, was on BBC Breakfast this morning and did a great job refuting the alleged 'evidence' that passive smoking kills thousands of non-smokers every year.

Sue was a speaker - alongside David Hockney and Joe Jackson - at the fringe meeting organised by Forest at the 2005 Labour party conference (see HERE and HERE). She wrote the Joy of Smoking with the Daily Mirror's Sue Carroll (who spoke at the same event).

Sue got married 17 days ago and for the past two weeks has been on honeymoon - which makes her appearance this morning even more praiseworthy. And she's a non-smoker!

Update on Wednesday, June 20, 2007 by Simon Clark

I am pleased to say that Sue Brealey and her husband will be joining us at The Savoy on Monday. That makes 382 guests. A few more and the event will be sold out. The speed at which tickets have been snapped up has taken everyone by surprise. Ranald (MD of Boisdale) has organised hundreds of events. Today he told me he'd never seen anything like it.

Message in a battle

Seven days to our Revolt In Style dinner at The Savoy Hotel in London. Four weeks ago I was advised by almost everyone - including our partners Boisdale - not to go ahead because the risk of booking the Lancaster ballroom (the largest available room in the hotel) and selling only a handful of tickets was too great.

Now, with a week to go, we have almost 350 guests and only a handful of tickets remain. Guests include MPs, peers and smoker-friendly journalists from several national newspapers. At least two TV film crews will be present; so too the Internet broadcaster 18 Doughty Street. More will undoubtedly commit nearer the day.

I've read some of the comments on this blog. I will restrict myself to saying that, like it or not, media and public relations play a vital role in modern political campaigning. The Savoy dinner is part of this process. Some of you may think the event expensive and self-indulgent but how many MPs, peers or journalists would have attended an alternative event down the Dog and Duck?

To get a broad cross section of people to attend, including opinion formers, you have to make an event as attractive as possible and - for maximum effect - do it on as grand a scale as possible. Forest is renowned for events that are great fun yet convey a serious message. It is one of many reasons why we have such a high media profile (in relation to our size).

The event itself is just the tip of the iceberg. What you see is a dinner for 300+ but below the surface an enormous amount of political lobbying is taking place. Irrespective of any media coverage we might (or might not) get, by this time next week our target audiences (politicians, journalists and broadcasters) will know all about the dinner and - more important - the messages that accompany it because, behind the scenes, we have a small team hard at work on letters, flyers and news releases.

As I say, there are a few tickets left. To book telephone 01223 370156 (office hours) as soon as possible.

Fact and Friction

I was invited, a few months ago, to record a short video for Friction TV, a "virtual speakers' corner" designed to encourage online video debates. The three-minute video, recorded in haste in the cigar bar at Boisdale, is currently the second most played video on Friction TV, with 9542 plays, just behind 'Stag stabbed to death on sanctuary' (9777).

Martin Dockrell of ASH, whose own video was recorded on the same day, lags way, way behind with 958 plays. I'm not sure what it proves but in the current climate I'll accept any 'victory', moral or otherwise.

Encouraged by this 'success' we are currently redeveloping the Forest website and will relaunch it in the autumn with - among other things - its own video library. The revised site will mark the launch of a three-year campaign that will take us up to the government's proposed three-year review of the public smoking ban in 2010.

Meanwhile there are currently eleven smoking ban-related videos on Friction TV. To see the full list click HERE and key the word 'smoking' into the Search bar.

The perils of public speaking

Just back from Lancashire where I was a guest speaker at a management conference near Blackburn. I was supposed to talk for 20 minutes but got carried away, forgot to use my prompt cards, and spoke for 50! I was the last speaker of the day which meant that delegates lost 30 minutes' drinking time before dinner.

Fortunately, the audience wasn't hostile, although that doesn't always help. Stepping into a bearpit is sometimes more fun because you have nothing to lose. Preaching to the converted is more difficult (I think) because it's harder to keep people's attention.

Surprisingly, perhaps, the most hostile audience I ever faced had nothing to do with my current job. Many years ago (1985-1990) I was director of a small London-based research group called the Media Monitoring Unit. We monitored television current affairs programmes for political bias and the subsequent reports - and accompanying press coverage with headlines like 'Yes, the BBC is biased!' - used to enrage TV executives and broadcasters.

Finally, I was invited by Granada to take part in a head-to-head debate with the producer of World In Action, which was then ITV's flagship current affairs programme. My opponent had gone to some lengths to prepare a highly professional presentation, including programme clips, that was designed to ridicule our work. Needless to say, it was as biased and selective as many of his programmes and was very well received by a packed audience, almost every one of whom worked in television.

When my turn came I was heard in sullen silence until, eventually, I was interrupted by a very attractive girl who berated me for a minute or so and then, to my astonishment, burst into tears. She was a television researcher and the MMU's criticism of her programme had obviously touched a nerve.

After that, they couldn't get me out of the room quick enough. (I thought I was about to be lynched!) Believe me, anti-smoking activists are pussycats by comparison.

Dinner on Drive

Five Live Drive has just reported a Press Association story that "Antony Worrall Thompson is to host a freedom dinner". "July 1st will be a sad day. Supporting smokers is worth doing," Antony is quoted as saying.

ITV.com reports the story HERE. Guests - including MPs, journalists and peers - now number 266.