Scary monsters and super creeps

The Sunday Telegraph today published THIS article by Christopher Booker and Richard North. It's a chapter from their new book, Scared To Death: From BSE to Global Warming - How Scares Are Costing Us The Earth (Continuum, £16.99), published on November 8.

There's also a must read chapter on passive smoking (Smoke and Mirrors: How They Turned ‘Passive Smoking’ Into A Killer) - one of many reasons why Forest has agreed to organise a special event to celebrate the publication of what we think is one of the more important books of the year.

Scared To Death (the party) will take place in London later this month. Details to follow. Watch this space.

Freedom and technology

The Independent Magazine has published a list - '101 gadgets that changed the world'. The question I'd like to pose is this: which of the 101 inventions featured in the Independent (they include everything from medicines to labour-saving devices) have genuinely given us greater freedom?

For example: the debit/credit card has made it very much easier to get our hands on cash (no more queuing in high street banks for a start), but is this a good thing? Likewise, the digital camera may be a neat piece of equipment, but do we enjoy significantly greater freedom as a result?

My top freedom-related inventions (in chronological order) include:

• The wheel (3500BC)
• Plough (AD100)
• Paper (AD105)
• Gun (14th century)
• Spectacles (1451)
• Printing press (1454)
• Flushing toilet (1597)
• Fridge (1834)
• Hyperdermic syringe (1844)
• Light bulb (1848)
• Safety match (1850s)
• Internal cumbustion engine (1859)
• Telephone (1876)
• Radio (1895)
• Aspirin (1899)
• Vacuum cleaner (1901)
• Microchip (1958)
• Consumer PC (1977)

You could, of course, make a very different list - gadgets that, in some people's opinion, have enslaved rather than liberated us. (The mobile phone!!) Likewise, I wouldn't say that life is any better (in the UK, at least) as a result of the computer or the internet, but (it could be argued) it is easier.

For the full list of '101 gadgets that changed the world', click HERE.

Smoking and science

Thoughtful article in this week's Spectator. "It’s four months since the smoking ban was imposed in England," writes Tessa Mayes, "and most smokers I’ve met in that time seem to be quietly adapting. But if many smokers seem to be adapting to the ban, there is still plenty of strong opposition.

"Groups like Forest continue to campaign for the right to smoke. In August a crowd of people including pub entertainers marched through Glastonbury in protest against the ban. Dave West, owner of the HeyJo nightclub in St James’s, London, wants to ‘eyeball the authorities’ by taking the government to court over it."

Few would deny that smoking can be harmful to the health of smokers, says Mayes, but that doesn't mean that smokers should be barred from lighting up in public places. There has been precious little rational argument. Science has been allowed to determine and justify policy, even when the scientific evidence itself is flawed, or wrongly interpreted. Full article HERE.

Smoking icons

Artist Simon Roberts first came to our attention in June when he organised an exhibition of "smoking icons" at the Tobacco Factory (formerly owned by Imperial Tobacco) in Bristol.

"The exhibition was a great success," he tells me today, "and on the strength of that I’ve just launched a website of limited edition canvas prints. These iconic art images are for sale, personally signed and professionally produced on frame mounted canvases."

Above left: Bridget Bardot. Other featured icons include Sean Connery, Steve McQueen, Winston Churchill, Michael Caine, Uma Thurman and Bryan Ferry. For more information and to view Widescreen Art (Smoking Icons), click HERE.

A very important call

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne has been fined £100 after admitting using his mobile phone while driving. The Birmingham Hodge Hill MP, who pleaded guilty by letter, "said he had been taking an important call on a deportation matter but there was no excuse and he was remorseful". (Full story HERE.)

Let me get this right: a government minister says there was "no excuse" for his behaviour but he wants the judge - and no doubt the public - to know that he had been taking an "important call" on a "deportation" matter. (Nice touch.) If that's not an excuse I don't know what is.

Meanwhile Nick Clegg, favourite to win the Lib Dem leadership battle, vowed earlier this week that "he will break the law and refuse to provide details of his identity if the government presses ahead with plans to make ID cards compulsory". (Story HERE.)

I'm not in favour of ID cards, either. Nor am I a fan of a law which forbids, in any circumstances, the use of mobile phones when driving. The point is, here are two members of parliament, one a junior minister, the other a potential party leader, openly flouting or proposing to flout the law. I'm confused.

Government strategy to reduce smoking

The following question received a written answer in the House of Commons on Tuesday (October 30).

David Anderson (Labour MP for Blaydon): To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will consider the merits of using litigation against tobacco companies in relation to damage caused by their products to the health of British citizens.

Dawn Primarolo: Smoking is the biggest cause of premature death and one of the most significant causes of health inequality in the United Kingdom. The Department’s approach to tobacco control is based on a six-strand strategy to reduce smoking prevalence through the following action:

• Reducing tobacco advertising and promotion
• Supporting smokers to quit through the national health service
• Running effective smoking communications and education campaigns
• Regulating tobacco products
• Reducing availability and supply of tobacco
• Reducing exposure to second-hand smoke

While the Department has no intention at this point in time to use litigation against tobacco companies in relation to the damage their products cause to health, individuals may take such action.

Luck of the draw

As a Dundee United supporter since 1969 (when my family moved to Scotland) I was naturally interested to see who we had drawn in the semi-final of what I still call the Scottish League Cup. The answer? Hearts. (Not bad, I thought, considering that we beat them 3-1 at Tynecastle two weeks ago. However, since we have also beaten the other semi-finalists, Rangers and Aberdeen, in the league this season, I wasn't especially fussed who we played.)

Anyway, when I got home this evening I read that there had been a mistake. Instead of playing Hearts, United will face Aberdeen, while Hearts will play Rangers. According to the BBC website:

Scottish Parliament presiding officer Alex Fergusson mixed up the numbers, and miscalled the ties when the four balls were drawn. "This was a genuine error and I can only apologise for the confusion caused," said Mr Fergusson ... First Minister Alex Salmond helped make the draw, televised live at lunchtime on BBC Scotland.

Whoever said sport and politics don't mix was right. Story HERE.

Update on Friday, November 2, 2007 by Simon Clark

I am currently listening to Five Live's Midday News. The Scottish Football League is denying all responsibility and putting the blame firmly on the Presiding Officer who - it is implied - may have been guilty of personal vanity for removing his glasses for the draw which was broadcast live on television! My favourite quote, however, is still that of United chairman Eddie Thompson. Thompson told the BBC: "It's a total farce ... It was a member of the media who contacted me long before I heard from the SFL and I thought he was off his head." I'm not sure why Eddie was so surprised. Look at it this way: Scottish Parliament, Presiding Officer, balls. I rest my case.

Update on Friday, November 2, 2007 by Simon Clark

Incredibly, it now emerges that "[Scottish] Government rules meant control had to be handed over by the SFL as [the draw] was being held at the Scottish Parliament". According to SFL president Brown McMaster, "There's a strange rule at the Scottish Government that, when you have something held at the Scottish Parliament, they have got to control it, they have got to introduce it and the Presiding Officer has got to be the man." You couldn't make it up. More HERE.

Public enemy number won

Evidence today that "public outrage" can have an effect on public policy. The Times reports that "The number of drivers caught by speed cameras has fallen for the first time, according to government figures which reveal that widespread complaints about excessive enforcement have finally caused the police and local authorities to retreat."

I won't bore you (again) with my own dark thoughts on speed cameras, but there is a lesson here for all of us. Full story HERE.

Noise pollution alert

Took the family to see Ian Hunter at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London on Sunday night. We arrived (in torrential rain) shortly after seven - in time to see the excellent support act (Jesse Malin) - and eventually got home well past midnight. It's fair to say that my daughter, aged 10, was the youngest person there. Review HERE.

My son, meanwhile, has just celebrated his thirteenth birthday. He requested CDs by Led Zeppelin, the Ramones and Nirvana. Damn, it just got a little bit noisier around here.

Note: download Ian Hunter's 'How's Your House' (video below) and help the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund. Play it LOUD.

Millions well spent?

The following question received a written answer in the House of Commons on Monday (October 29).

David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his Department's budget is for mass media anti-smoking campaigns in the 2007-08 financial year;
and what the budget will be in each of the financial years to 2011-12.

Dawn Primarolo: The Department’s campaign advertising budget for smoking campaigns for 2007-08 financial year is £11.39 million. This figure does not include campaign advertising expenditure to support the introduction of smokefree legislation or the increase of the age of sale of tobacco products this year. Figures for spend for each of the financial years to 2011-12 cannot be provided at this stage as budgets have not been finalised.

Update on Thursday, November 1, 2007 by Simon Clark

A little bird tells me that the Scottish Government is to undertake a review of ASH Scotland, "standard practice for voluntary organisations receiving more than £100k pa funding".

Unintended consequences of the smoking ban

The Forest website has a scrolling newsfeed - updated every day - with links to the latest smoking-related stories. Among the current headlines are 'Smoking ban sparks obesity crisis', 'Butts increase since smoking ban', and 'Pub landlord faces legal action for letting people smoke outside'.

Click on the links and we find that:

Health chiefs are being forced to plough an extra half a million pounds into fighting fat – because people who quit smoking after the public ban have piled on the pounds.

Ashtrays are to be installed across a Northamptonshire town following an increase in cigarette butts littering the streets. Northampton Borough Council said the move follows a 43% rise in the litter since the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces came into force in July.

A pub landlord could face legal action for allowing punters to smoke in his beer garden. Jeff Castledine, who runs the Queen's Head, in Boreham, Essex, has been told his council is investigating a complaint that "odour" from his beer garden is "affecting a nearby resident".

These are just three (unintended?) consequences of the smoking ban. I could list many more but you don't need me to. Check the newsfeed on a regular basis and you will find all the evidence you need that the ban - which the government and other anti-smoking agencies say has been a great "success" - is causing all sorts of problems.

The solution is simple. Give pubs and clubs the option of applying to their local authority for a smoking licence that would allow enable some (a minority) to accommodate smokers, in comfort, indoors. (Oh, I forgot, that wouldn't be a "level playing field" but if the smoking ban is so popular that shouldn't be a problem, should it?)

Instead, the government will no doubt react to the consequences of the ban with further restrictions (on what we eat, where we can smoke), supported by legislation and backed up by fines and other penalties. Still, at least there won't be any job shortages - by 2020 half of our ever expanding population will be employed as uniformed wardens and undercover enforcement officers.

You couldn't make it up - but they did

Heard about No Smoking, a new Bollywood movie? No, neither had I, until this morning. According to the Telegraph, it's "a government-sponsored anti-smoking paranoid thriller".

"John Abraham plays a chain-smoking, cock-of-the-walk executive called K who signs on for a hard-core quitting programme. There are wacky musical numbers, and an unwise equation between fumigation by fags and Holocaust gas chambers."

According to Planet Bollywood, the lyrics mostly revolve around depicting the harmful effects of smoking. Songs include 'Ash Tray' and 'Jab Bhi Ciggaret Jalti Hai, Main Jalta Hoon'.

You couldn't make it up. But they did.

UK tops EU tobacco control league table

Still on the subject of Europe, the UK has the most comprehensive tobacco control measures in the whole of Europe, according to a new survey released yesterday. (Makes you proud to be British.)

Countries were judged according to a scale of measures including price increases through higher taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products, bans/restrictions on smoking in public and work places, comprehensive bans on the advertising and promotion of all tobacco products, and large, direct health warning labels on cigarette packs and other tobacco products.

Despite this, ASH say that smoking is still only declining at a rate of 0.4 per cent per year, which reminds me of the old saying - you can force a horse to water, but you can't make it ... Full story HERE.

EP supports EU-wide public smoking ban

STOP PRESS - the European Parliament today called for wide-ranging measures to restrict smoking in public places. A report by Karl-Heinz Florenz (EPP-ED, DE) was adopted with 561 votes in favour 63 against and 36 abstentions.

The EP says that 650,000 people a year die from smoking, including 80,000 from passive smoking. It also claims that while 70 per cent of Europeans are non-smokers, 86 per cent are in favour of a ban on smoking at work, 84 per cent in other public places, 61 per cent in bars and pubs and 77 per cent in restaurants.

DeHavilland, which provides Forest with political information, adds that:

MEPs want the Commission to designate environmental tobacco smoke a class 1 carcinogen and recommend that - within two years - member states impose smoking bans in all enclosed workplaces, including catering establishments, as well as in all enclosed public buildings and transport.

MEPs are also asking the Commission to examine measures such as introducing an EU-wide ban on the sale of tobacco products to people under 18 years of age, allowing cigarette machines to be placed only where they are inaccessible to minors, removing tobacco products from self-service displays in retail outlets ,and banning distance sales of tobacco products to young people (eg over the Internet). 

The report calls on member states to commit themselves "to reduce smoking among youth by at least 50 per cent by 2025" and for the Commission to consider "an EU-wide high minimum level of taxation of tobacco products".

All pretty predictable. But don't cancel those Europeans holidays just yet. This one could run and run.

Signs of the times

Smoking outside is now banned in and around play areas in Exeter. According to the local paper, "One hundred no smoking signs have been put up at 50 playgrounds in the city by the authority. The council believes the radical move is the next logical step following the nationwide banning of smoking in enclosed public spaces in July." The initiative, it says, is designed to protect children's health. Story HERE.