Greg Mulholland's liberal vision

Thanks to Angela Harbutt of Liberal Vision (above) for the information that Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland has put down the following Early Day Motion in response to the suggestion that the smoking ban could be extended to doorways and even beer gardens.

EDM 785: Extension of the smoking ban

”That this House is concerned over the Secretary of State for Health’s review of the current smoking ban legislation and its possible extension to include beer gardens, outside pubs and designated smoking areas; notes that pubs, bars and other similar venues have already had to make considerable alterations to their premises in order to adapt to the smoking ban; further notes that pubs have already suffered serious economic repercussions since the introduction of the smoking ban by way of lost revenue and the costs incurred by building smoking shelters; observes that smoking has serious health implications and supports measures to discourage it; however believes that there needs to be a reasonable balance between protecting the rights of non-smokers and the rights of adults who smoke; deems that this balance would not be maintained if smoking in an open air beer garden or legal smoking shelter were banned; further believes that pubs play a hugely important function in the communities they serve; fears that if pubs are required to place further draconian restrictions on smoking then people will choose to stay at home and pubs will no longer be able to perform an important function at the heart of the community; and is concerned that if people are forced to stay at home and smoke this may have health implications on family members and visitors, including young children, due to the dangers of passive smoking.”

Obviously I don't agree with every single word - the dangers of passive smoking on "family members and visitors" has been greatly exaggerated - but beggers can't be choosers so congratulations to Greg Mulholland for making a stand on this issue.

Let's hope other MPs follow his example and sign the EDM, if only to demonstrate how little support there is for further restrictions.

Note: the reality of the present situation is that while we will continue to lobby for amendments to the current smoking ban, the new battleground is smoking in outdoor areas. Our argument is two-fold: (1) if the evidence of the dangers of passive smoking indoors (especially in a well-ventilated room) is weak, there is no evidence that smoking outside is harmful to non-smokers; (2) if the anti-smoking lobby doesn't like the sight of people smoking in doorways, give pubs, clubs and even offices the option of an indoor smoking room.

H/T Liberal Vision

Above: Angela Harbutt with Mark Littlewood (now director of the Institute of Economic Affairs) and Shane Frith (director, Progressive Vision) at the launch of the Save Our Pubs and Clubs campaign last year

Suzy Dean - to the point

Writing on The Free Society website today, Suzy Dean argues that John Terry’s "crime" was not cheating on his wife, but trying to gag the press using a "super-injunction". Do you agree?

Full article HERE.

Suzy (above) is a writer and journalist who has co-founded a new project called To The Point.

"The project was borne of our increasing frustration with the state of politics today. In mid-2009 we got together to try and work out our thoughts on the matter and decide whether it was appropriate to formulate a series of demands.

"The outcome is a manifesto addressing what we see as the primary hindrances to progress today, under five headings: prosperity, development, democracy, education and freedom. The realisation of any one of these demands would signal a major shift in the political culture of this country."

To The Point has drawn up a manifesto that includes a section on freedom. It reads:

Over the last decade our behaviour has been subject to more petty regulation and micro-management than ever before. Lighting up a cigarette or cracking open a can of beer in the wrong place can lead to a criminal conviction. If we want to work with children we must submit to insulting CRB checks: everyone, even children, is guilty of child abuse until proven innocent ...

We have become inured to round-the-clock CCTV surveillance and even regulation of what we can photograph.

Our civil liberties should be fought for and extended. They limit the state’s power to do with us as it pleases. Our everyday freedoms also need to be defended and new regulations around our personal habits challenged. This is because interventions into our private lives breed mistrust between all of us; policy increasingly tells us how to engage with one another rather than leaving it to our own sense of judgement.

See HERE.

Is it liberal to ban the burqa?

An article on The Free Society website about banning the burqa ("We may not be comfortable with the choices people make," writes Karen McTigue, "but we must protect their right to make them") has provoked this response from Eamonn Butler, director of the Adam Smith Institute.

"My guess is that libertarians or liberals could take either side. Sure, people can act as they please – but not if others feel threatened by it, as some do by burqas. Also, it is an important principle of personal responsibility that others should know who they are dealing with. Shopping malls ban hoodies because they can be used to conceal the identity of wrongdoers.

"People feel burqas threatening because they don't know who is in them and what they might be up to. There would be a case for banning people wearing masks in demonstrations for the same reason ..."

There is also, of course, the problem that some women who wear the burqa are not doing so as matter of choice.

So, to ban or not to ban? Click HERE to read the original article.

Tales to take your breath away

A colleague has just brought this to my attention:

The flip-top cigarette pack is one of the most successful pieces of packaging design in history. TankBooks pay homage to this iconic form by employing it in the service of great literature. We have launched a series of books designed to mimic cigarette packs – the same size, packaged in flip-top cartons with silver foil wrapping and sealed in cellophane ... TankBooks are for people on the move, lovers of literature and connoisseurs of design. Try one and you’ll be hooked.

Click HERE for more information.

PS. I think they're great.

Think, damn you

We're relaunching The Free Society website this week. We have a new editor, Karen McTigue, and over the next few weeks we will be welcoming new writers including Alex Deane (Big Brother Watch), Chris Snowdon (Velvet Glove Iron Fist) and Rose Whiteley (of this parish).

Other contributors will include Simon Hills (associate editor of The Times Magazine), Eamonn Butler (Adam Smith Institute) and writer and journalist Suzy Dean.

I expect the site to be updated several times a week with news and comment. Simon Hills, for example, will be contributing a series of articles entitled "Reflections on a free society". Today, he writes:

We’re told too not to be sexist, racist, homophobic. Not once, every day. Much of a child’s geography schoolwork now consists of being told that naughty, naughty loggers are chopping down trees in the rain forest, an inhospitable region full of things that will kill you they’re told would be paradise, were it not for us (adopt tone of contempt here) greedy Westerners.

None of this has anything to do with thinking. This is to do with bossing us about. Patronising us. The exhortation Think! is letting you know that as far as the authorities are concerned you’re going about your life in some sort of gormless Neanderthal stupor that requires someone of greater intelligence and sensibility (theirs) to pull you out of.

But thinking is based upon drawing on an aggregation of facts and acting upon them. It’s called growing up. In a free society, we educate our children by giving them the tools with which to think and then put them out into the world to become responsible adults.

Full article HERE.

Note: to register your support for The Free Society campaign, click HERE. You will receive an occasional e-bulletin with updates about articles and events.

Goldberg, Campbell and corpsing

Yesterday was a bit of a marathon ... at one stage I had to do 16 interviews, back-to-back, for BBC local radio. The questions tend to be the same but the attitude of the presenters varies enormously. The most common reaction is disbelief that I am defending smokers.

Ironically, perhaps the least successful interview was at the end of the day when I was on TalkSport. Presenter Adrian Goldberg and I were in general agreement and I guess that doesn't make for good radio. Adrian realised this and changed tactics to play devil's advocate but I don't think his heart was in it.

Yesterday was the first time I have been interviewed by Nicky Campbell (Five Live Breakfast). I've never mentioned it on this blog but Campbell and I were at the same university (he was two years below me) and for a brief period he was on the staff of the student magazine I co-founded and edited.

I say "brief period". What happened is that, one morning, all six members of staff were issued with a writ for defamation. (The plaintiff was a fellow student.)

In case I get another writ (from Campbell himself) I should make it clear that he was totally blameless and was not responsible for any of the six (!) articles cited in the action (which was eventually settled out of court).

I still have a copy of the writ, with all our names on it, but it's fair to say that Nicky kept his distance from that moment. In fact, I am fairly sure that yesterday was the first time I have spoken to him since that fateful morning, 31 years ago.

Finally, I was interviewed twice yesterday across the road from our office in Wardour Street. (Soho is great place to be interviewed about smoking because half the population seem to smoke.) The first interview was with Al Jazeera, the second with NBC.

Now, I don't normally corpse during interviews but for the NBC piece I was standing next to a litter bin (don't ask) and of course the moment we started filming a street cleaner wandered up and began emptying the bin. We waited for him to finish but he was old and slow and he wasn't going to hurry for our benefit.

The NBC journalist and I both found it quite funny so when, eventually, the bin was empty and our friend moved on, I found it impossible to look her in the eye without laughing, especially when I began a sentence with the words, "I'm angry that ..." (cue giggles).

Usually I do an interview in one take. Yesterday, I'm ashamed to say, I experienced the dreaded words: "Forest, take six".

In the media spotlight

Well, you're probably all now aware of the government's latest tobacco control strategy paper which includes a raft of proposals including plain packaging, plans to extend the smoking ban to doorways etc etc etc.

The only "good" thing to emerge from the announcement is Health Secretary Andy Burnham's preference for smokefree homes and cars without regulation. The problem is, who can believe that a Labour government would stick to this voluntary code? After all, the party promised it would only introduce a partial ban on smoking in enclosed public places. There was no mention, in its 2005 election manifesto, of the comprehensive ban we are now subjected to.

I've been pretty busy today responding to the government's announcement. Last night's GMTV interview popped up (as a soundbite) on the GMTV news bulletins this morning. This morning I did back-to-back interviews on the Today programme (with John Humphreys) and Five Live Breakfast (with Nicky Campbell).

Between eight and nine I was also interviewed by BBC Radio Leeds, Three Counties Radio and Radio Wales.

I later gave interviews to Sky News Radio, SunTalk Radio and ITV Lunchtime News and in a few minutes I am being interviewed by Al Jazeera. NBC want to speak to me too.

This afternoon, from 4.00-6.00pm, I will be holed up in a small BBC studio in London conducting a series of live and recorded interviews for various local radio stations. Full list:

1600 Coventry and Warwick
1608 Humberside
1615 Tees
1622 Northampton
1630 Stoke
1638 Newcastle
1645 Oxford
1652 Three Counties Luton
1708 Lancashire
1715 Cambridge
1722 Sussex
1730 Devon
1738 Surrey
1745 Essex
1752 Shropshire
1810 London

Forest has also been widely quoted in today's media. Here are some examples:

Government targets cigarette packaging (Independent/Press Association)
Smoking ban could be extended to cover office doorways (Daily Telegraph)
Ministers aim to halve number of people smoking by 2020 (BBC News)
No smokebling in house or car (The Sun)

Update: the Al Jazeera interview will be broadcast at 3.00pm if you're interested!

No rest for the wicked

Driving to London shortly to be interviewed by GMTV. They want to film in a pub near the GMTV studios on the South Bank. That's a 180-mile round trip for what will probably be a ten or 20-second soundbite.

Update on Sunday, January 31, 2010 by Simon Clark

21:45: I'm typing this from our office in Soho. I've decided to stay in London overnight. You'll find out why in the morning. But first, I need to buy a toothbrush and some toothpaste.

New tobacco control strategy to be unveiled

Oops. ITN seems to have broken an embargo on a government press release that was embargoed for 00:01 hours on Monday morning. Click HERE.

The DH's new tobacco control strategy will be unveiled officially on Monday. Forest has issued a response, also embargoed until Monday, and I shall abide by it - but it's annoying because I suspect that the story may have been leaked deliberately to ITN.

Watch this space.

Update on Sunday, January 31, 2010 by Simon Clark

The Sunday Telegraph has also gone early with the story HERE.

Holyrood: the net tightens on tobacco

Fun and games in the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday night when Labour MSP Dr Richard Simpson (a member of the BMA) proposed an amendment to the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services Bill that would have prohibited tobacco branding on lighters and other items.

Simpson's amendment was defeated, but only just. The vote was tied and as is tradition in the Scottish Parliament the Presiding Officer sided with the status quo. (Contrast this with what happened in Alderney recently - see HERE.)

Incredibly there was also an attempt to ban the "No ID No Sale" posters that you see in many shops because - get this - they mention the word "tobacco" alongside "alcohol", "solvents" and "knives". It failed but how soon before the word "tobacco" is banned from public display?

Meanwhile the display ban passed by 103 votes to 14, with only the Conservatives voting against.

An attempt by Labour MSP Rhoda Grant - supported by the Conservatives - to allow radio-controlled vending machines was defeated.

The new law banning tobacco display and vending machines will be implemented in Scotland next year.

Flavour of the month

Yesterday, for the second time this week, I had lunch at Boisdale, Forest's spiritual home. This time my dining companion was the owner (and bon viveur) Ranald Macdonald, so I wasted no time in asking an important question:

"Do the whisky-flavoured condoms (available in the gents and ladies lavatories) really taste of whisky?"

"I wouldn't know," came the reply. "I've never tasted them. I only know one person who has. But I believe they are as authentic as any artificial, chemically-flavoured product."

Well, I think that's what he said. I don't really remember. What I do remember is the admission: "I don't think there are many repeat customers!"

McCondoms - available at Boisdale and online HERE.

Update on Friday, January 29, 2010 by Simon Clark

Jimmythejock writes: "Being a Scot I liked the idea of whisky flavoured condoms ... you can taste the flavour but the spermicide taste from the condom overpowers the flavoring after a minute or so."

Too much information?

Eye spy an MP

I'm not a fan of Twitter but this is quite funny. Eye Spy MP describes itself as "crowd sourced gossip" and invites us to report any sightings of MPs and what they are doing. It's only been going a few days and already it has over 2000 followers.

Invasion of privacy? Perhaps, but enjoy it while you can. Click HERE.

PS. Here's one entry I can confirm: "Edward Leigh & Julian Lewis at the National Liberal Club honouring Cold War Warrior George Miller" (January 26). Others are more, er, personal.

H/T Guido Fawkes

Freedom and technology

I'm in meetings most of the day so I'll leave you to talk about the new Apple iPad (I know you want to). Or, more generally, the role of technology in modern life. Does it help or does it hinder? Does it improve or does it reduce our quality of life? Or does it make no significant difference?

It's a common assumption (which I share) that the car changed and improved people's lives because it gave us the freedom to go more or less where we wanted with far less effort. Likewise, inventions such as the vacuum cleaner and the washing machine were seen as huge steps forward from the drudgery of household work.

More recently the personal computer has freed us from the typewriter and, via the Internet, has opened up a whole new world. Some would argue that communication technology was responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, in which case millions - possibly billions - of people have reason to be grateful.

The iPad is simply the latest in a long line of innovative products. But has technology genuinely improved our lives? Or have we become slaves to things like computers, televisions and mobile phones?

Readers might like to suggest one product from the last 50 years that has given us greater freedom, and one that has "enslaved" us.

As Frasier Crane would say, "I'm listening".

AWT ditches the fags - for now

The London Evening Standard reports that Antony Worrall Thompson, "a long-time supporter of pro-smoking lobby Forest", has given up smoking. It adds, however, that "he still defends the rights of people to smoke". Full article HERE.

I know Antony has been a lot more health conscious since being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Nevertheless, in the years that he been patron of Forest I am pretty sure he has given up smoking ... oh, three or four times at least. (The last time he gave up he was training to run the London Marathon and I believe he's doing it again this year.)

I hope to catch up with him in a few weeks - a visit to his pub near Henley is pencilled in my diary - so I'll be able to ask how he's getting on without the fags.

Don't be surprised however if the answer is lost in a fug of smoke ...

National smoking day ... WTF?

I'm confused. On Sunday, courtesy of Peter Thurgood on another thread, I learned that National Cigar Smoking Day is today, January 27. Peter had received an email from TomTom cigar shop in Belgravia, just around the corner from Boisdale. It read:

27th January National Cigar Smoking Day! You are warmly invited to relax with our single original coffee and a 5% discounted cigar on that day. Our shop is open from 10am to 6pm - please come in when you feel like smoking.

Researching this post I discovered that the "The second annual National Cigar Smoking Day will take place on January 14th 2010. The main event will be a luxurious 3 course meal at one of the best restaurants in London, Boisdale".

January 14? January 27? What's going on?

Yesterday I popped into TomTom to see the owner Tom Assheton. Tom is an old friend of Forest who comes to some of our events. He explained that they had heard about National Cigar Smoking Day and so they issued their invitation on the back of it.

Unfortunately, there seems to have been some confusion. January 27 was the date of the first National Cigar Smoking Day - in 2009 - which was linked to National Smoking Day, World Smoking Day and European Smoking Day, which were all on the same date. (Essentially, they were variations of the same publicity stunt.)

Not that it matters. As things stand no-one's really interested - although I did do a ten-minute interview for City Talk, the Liverpool radio station, late last night which was prompted by TomTom's email.

The problem - and this is putting it mildly - is that there are too many people running around, doing their own thing. We're not communicating (even though we all know one another), which is crazy.

Last year, if I'm honest, I was sceptical about the idea of a National Smoking Day. I thought it might even be counter-productive. Now I'm beginning to think it's not such a bad idea, but if it's going to get off the ground in any meaningful sense there has to be proper coordination between interested parties, including commercial interests such as TomTom and Boisdale.

I know who is behind the original idea. He's a top bloke with a good track record so I'll have a chat and see what can be done. No promises (I'm still sceptical). But watch this space.

Meanwhile, if you like cigars and coffee (or coffee and no cigar), I strongly recommend that you visit TomTom today or any other day. Ask for Tom or Lidia and mention my name. (Note: the coffee shop is a very short stroll from the cigar shop.)

Above: Tom Assheton of TomTom with his assistant Lidia