Two sides to liberal use of language

"Swearing at work can be of benefit to staff, new research suggests. The use of expletives helps employees let off steam and boosts morale ..."
See HERE.

On the other hand: "Abusive language caused work-related suicide."
See HERE.

Liberal by name, illiberal by nature

After Ming, who ... cares? Unless, that is, the new leader can finally persuade the 'Liberal' Democrats to live up to their name. I'm not holding my breath. Listening to Ming's former PPS on Five Live yesterday was to hear an old school socialist in full flow.

It is being suggested that Nick Clegg is the candidate most likely to revive the party's long dormant interest in free trade, free markets and "traditional liberal values". We'll see. The problem is the grassroots, what Simon Heffer - in today's Telegraph - calls "the men in sandals". (Full article HERE.)

The Lib Dems (the membership not the MPs) were the first to vote for a comprehensive ban on smoking in public places. Now is not the time to list all the party's other offences against social and economic liberalism, but it will take a massive change of direction to turn things around.

There are without doubt some genuinely liberal Lib Dem MPs - but do they have the courage (or the patience) to rebrand the party and thereby lose the support of the socialists and cranks who litter the ranks? Britain is crying out for a party that can offer a sensible, libertarian vision of Britain. Wouldn't it be nice if, for once, the Liberals lived up to their name?

Environmental terrorism?

One of my least favourite organisations (Greenpeace) has been complaining about my favourite (Apple) because, they claim, Apple's gorgeous new iPhone contains "two types of hazardous substances". Not for the first time, the stunt backfired when the green crusaders were forced to admit that "All components tested appear to be compliant with the requirements of the EU RoHS directive". See HERE.

Journalist and blogger Trevor Butterworth put the whole thing in perspective when he wrote:

Greenpeace has been badgering Apple to go green for quite a while now, and the campaign has generated massive publicity for the organization. Hundreds of news stories have been written - and the latest crop note that another environmental group, the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) is going to sue Apple on the basis of this new Greenpeace study and because these chemicals are a hazard to health. But it's hard, given Greenpeace's repeated failure to show a demonstrable risk to consumers from the chemicals in the iPhone, or the iPod, or the iMac, not to see this campaign as a case of environmental terrorism.

Full article HERE.

As it happens, I had dinner recently with an American friend from San Diego. During the evening he whipped out his iPhone and showed me how it works. I cannot begin to describe it. All I can say is, it looks and feels like a truly stunning piece of equipment, a genuine leap forward. I can't wait for November 9 when it's launched in Europe. Chemicals or no chemicals, I want one. And thanks to Greenpeace, I'm determined to have one.

Vice squad

'Hazardous drinking, the middle-class vice' screams the front page headline in today's Times.

"Social drinkers who regularly down more than one large glass of wine a day ... risk damaging their health in the same way as young binge drinkers. The figures will be used by the Government to target middle-class wine drinkers and to make drunkenness as socially unacceptable as smoking."

I hold up my hand. I'm middle-class and I like a drink. Three or four nights a week I share a bottle of wine at home with my wife. She normally has two (small) glasses and I knock back the rest. Drunk? Hardly ever. I drink wine (or beer if I'm in the pub) because I enjoy it and - I think - it relieves stress. The same reasons, in fact, that many people smoke.

Apparently, one large glass of wine represents three "units". According to the North West Public Health Observatory (!), a man consuming 22 units a week is in the "hazardous" category. I've no idea whether I'm a "hazardous drinker" or not but I'm certainly not going to waste good drinking time doing the calculations.

Who the hell do these people think they are? This is making me very, very cross. Seriously, I can feel my blood pressure rising. Nurse, quick, I need a drink. And it had better be a large one ..... Cheers!

Full story HERE.

Update on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 by Simon Clark

John Mortimer has written an excellent article on the subject in today's Daily Mail. See HERE.

Fun boy three

I couldn't have chosen a better time to write about Top Gear (see below). Last night's programme featured a classic moment which you can read about HERE. Scroll down - the photos alone are hilarious. Better still, see a video clip HERE.

Top of the blogs

Writing a blog is not unlike keeping a diary. To the best of my knowledge, however, only one blog has, to date, made it into print. Out Of The Tunnel by Rachel North is based on a blog that was written in the aftermath of the London terrorist bombs of July 2005. (A second blog, Wife In The North by Judith O'Reilly, was reported to be the subject of a £70k publisher's advance - see HERE - but I have yet to see it in print.)

Anyway, buy Iain Dale's Guide to Political Blogging in the UK (as I did last week) and you will find that Rachel from North London is listed at number 49 in the UK's top 100 political blogs. Top dogs (in the political blogging world) are currently:

1. Iain Dale's Diary
2. Guido Fawkes
3. Dizzy Thinks
4. Conservative Home
5. Political Betting

My favourites are:

1. Iain Dale's Diary

Er, that's it.

I have nothing against the other blogs - I just haven't got time to read them, religiously, every day. A year ago, according to Iain, there were around 500 political blogs in the UK. Today there are 1200 and ID's Guide to Political Blogging lists all of them, including this one.

Blogging is a growth industry, but whether it can ever influence government policy remains to be seen.

Adventures of Mr Benn

I succumbed to a fleeting (?) sense of vanity the other day. Browsing around Waterstones in Cambridge, I spied the latest volume of Tony Benn's diaries (More Time For Politics: 2001-2007). Having met - and interviewed - Benn in Edinburgh in 2002, I couldn't resist a quick peek to see if our brief encounter was mentioned, in passing. The answer (a quick search of the index revealed) was 'no'. But I bought it anyway.

You see, much as I abhor his politics (naive at best, downright dangerous at worst), Tony Benn struck me as one of the most charming men I have ever met - generous with his time and genuinely interested in other people. (I have interviewed quite a few famous people and this is unusual, believe me.) We enjoyed a pot of tea together and I went away favourably impressed - albeit hugely relieved that the man never got to lead his party or (horror of horrors) the country itself.

Health and hyperbole

The public health threat posed by obesity in the UK is a "potential crisis on the scale of climate change", the health secretary has warned. (Full story HERE.) On the scale of climate change? That's a relief. For a nanosecond I was genuinely worried.

On a more serious note, expect more cataclysmic warnings from a government desperate for a "vision" to explain all those new rules and regulations it intends to roll out over the next few years. It's also a perfect excuse to tax anything that moves (or tastes nice!).

This is how modern government works. They scare us to death with a load of scientific mumbo-jumbo and phoney statistics, then introduce legislation to resolve a "problem" that has been hyped out of all proportion to the actual risk. This, in turn, enables them to appear proactive and justifies their existence.

Proclamations such as this are part and parcel of today's political news management. I know, because I've read Alastair Campbell's absorbing book, The Blair Years. The aim is to dictate and dominate the news by issuing an endless stream of soundbites while announcing a million new initiatives.

Today's "warning" is a classic of its kind. It is clearly intended to grab back the initiative from the Conservatives (who have enjoyed their best week for years) and put the government in the driving seat, albeit by frightening us into an early grave!

The story led BBC News last night but was only third top story on ITV. Compare this to the coverage of Prime Minister's Questions last week. Gordon Brown's humiliation at the hands of David Cameron was top story on ITV News, but over on the BBC it was relegated to third place. Make of that what you will.

Why everyone should watch Top Gear

Commenting on the return of Top Gear (BBC2, Sundays, 8.00pm), TV critic Stephen Pile writes, in today's Telegraph:

"Above all, [Top Gear] is a study of the masculine principle that is everywhere else avoided on TV, but the programme has a second and equally important atavistic function. In return for creature comforts, lifestyle opportunities and a golfing bolthole in Bulgaria, the newly spineless British have lost their freeborn yeoman virtues and tamely accepted CCTV cameras, health and safety regulations, armed riot police on the streets when there is no prospect of a riot, political correctness, spin, jumped-up cooks on TV and a nanny state. Top Gear is a belated reminder of lost Anglo-Saxon strengths, certainties and freedoms ..."

Not to be missed.

Coach for hire!

Final call ... if there is anyone in London and the South East who wants to take part in the protest march against the smoking ban in Bristol this coming Saturday, October 20, please contact us NOW!

If there is sufficient interest we will hire one, two or even three coaches to take marchers from central London to Bristol and back. Cost: £10 per head. To reserve your seat call 07071 766537 or email contact@forestonline.org. 

More details HERE and HERE.

Sinner repents

Fined £50 for smoking in his cab (even though he wasn't carrying a passenger), taxi driver Iftikhar Ahmed says he has learned his lesson. He told the Daily Mail: "The smoking ban is a good law. I was caught breaking it and have been punished. I have been smoking 40 to 60 cigarettes a day since 1971, and could do with cutting down anyway."

Aaaaarrrrgggghhh! Full story HERE.

California screaming

The anti-smoking juggernaut rolls on. Motorists in California face a fine if they are caught smoking in cars if children are present. Also in Calif0rnia, residents of Belmont whose secondhand smoke "invades" their neighbours' apartments  have 14 months to kick the habit, work out a compromise with their nonsmoking neighbours or, in the words of the San Francisco Chronicle, "get out of town". Charming.

How soon before similar legislation is introduced here? Full stories HERE and HERE.

Smoking, sin and science

Forest is about to re-enter the book publishing business. Some years ago we produced what - in publicity if not commercial terms - were two highly successful titles: The Forest Guide to Smoking in London and The Forest Guide to Smoking in Scotland. The former even featured an introduction by the late, great Auberon Waugh and a preface by the late, great Jeffrey Bernard. (Do you spot a trend here?) Sadly, if either volume were published today, I fancy they would be somewhat slimmer.

Neither title was cheap to produce so our first foray into book publishing proved to be our last. Until now. Earlier this year I received a 40,000-word manuscript from journalist and author Mat Coward. Mat's books include crime novels, science fiction, children’s fiction, a history of radio comedy, and the "notorious" Success And How To Avoid It. He has also written for radio, television, and innumerable magazines and newspapers.

The manuscript lived up to Mat's impressive CV. He describes it as "a short book (or long pamphlet) which I’ve been writing, on and off, for over 20 years. It’s a polemic in which I consider the anti-smoking movement as a religion and explain why I think it’s so dangerous."

Forty Lashes: Smoking, Sin and Science is an engaging and substantial piece of work. I loved it. Mat wants it to be read by as many people as possible so the plan is to print a few thousand copies for those who want to buy a hard copy, and also make it available, free of charge, as a pdf, from the Forest website. Watch this space.

A week is a long time etc etc

Politics just got very, very interesting again. I was listening to PMQs on Five Live and couldn't believe what I was hearing - a prime minister well and truly on the ropes. Whatever my political colours (which are not a secret, as it happens), this has to be good news. Suddenly, everything is up for grabs and the winner has to be the electorate - as the Chancellor's hilarious U-turn on inheritance tax has shown. It just goes to show the benefit of competition, in any field you care to mention.

The good news - in a wider sense - is that the events of the past week give hope to those of us (myself included) who saw nothing but a long-term continuation of the present government's policies, whoever was in power (Labour or Conservative). The lesson for David Cameron, surely, is that there is clear electoral advantage to be had from pursuing a different path to Labour.

Our job is to persuade Cameron's Conservatives that there are also votes in pursuing a more liberal, less intrusive regime on issues such health and personal responsibility. (You never know, it might force another about turn from Labour!) Education not coercion is our mantra. Roll back the bully state! I may be wrong, but I swear I can see a tiny chink of light at the end of a long dark tunnel.

Protest and survive - the sequel

Paul Toole and Chris Elliot, who masterminded protest marches against the smoking ban in Wells and Glastonbury in the summer, are organising a third rally - in Bristol on Saturday October 20th.

Marchers are invited meet outside La Tasa Restaurant, 1 Clifton Heights, Bristol BS8 1EJ at 1.30pm. The march itself begins at two, ending up at College Green, outside the Council building. For full details call Paul and Chris on 01749 672747, 07885 437854 or 07722 852224. Report HERE.

If the event is a success, the pair hope to organise further marches in other cities, the long-term goal being a large-scale rally in London itself.