Joe Jackson's tour diary
Monday, May 21, 2007 
Joe Jackson, a good friend of Forest, is currently touring the UK as part of his 2007 European tour. Over the next ten days you can catch him in Nottingham, Sheffield, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Belfast.
Two years ago, when Joe toured the US and Europe with Todd Rundgren and a New York string quartet called Ethel, I asked him to write a tour diary - from a smoker's perspective. Some entries have clearly been overtaken by events. Nevertheless, it's still an interesting read - see HERE.
Simon Clark
Email from Joe today: "Have just been in Holland: even the Dutch are now barely holding out. The new government wants a ban and the head of the hospitality industry group is apparently about to concede a ban in restaurants, with a ban in bars postponed until at least 2011 (in the hope, apparently, that something will change by then). It sometimes seems quite surreal to me that even in places where almost no one really wants a ban (eg Holland and Germany) there is a totally defeatist attitude that it is 'inevitable'. I do believe that united opposition by the hospitality industry could have made a real difference, but all they seem to care about is the so-called 'level playing field'."
Reader Comments (8)
I just read the diary. I find that I like Joe Jackson more with each piece of his that I read. There seem to be very few celebrities with his level of intellect and sanity.
I am a huge Joe Jackson fan. I love his writing. Clear, logical, irrefutable.
We need to share Joe's work with everyone we know.
And everyone we dont know.
The world needs education, education, education!
Even Joe Jackson refers to a 'level playing field' as the excuse the hospitality industry uses for not opposing a total ban. There is not one anyway! Here in N Ireland where the ban has been already introduced the differences are huge. Some pubs have the space to provide beer gardens and smoking areas while others cannot.Many pubs have tried to increase their food sales to compensate for the loss of business while others do not have the kitchen facilities.
This is why there should have been exemptions for certain types of pubs as the smaller 'local'style pub will suffer and the larger chains will reap any benefits. The small trader does not stand a chance and this pernicious ban may help the large pub estate owners by forcing a lot of small competitors out of business. Is this why there has been few complaints from the vintners as the big chains control their PR side?
Michael I disagree with the idea there should have been exemptions or that the law should have been different in some other way. No one in government should have even contemplated the idea of abridging the property rights of the owners of these properties. End of story.
ASH wouldn't even exist unless it was funded either directly by the State or those pharma companies who benefit from the laws that ASH can get the State to enforce.
I don't think we should ever compromise with evil and the idea of modifying the law is just that, because it reinforces the idea that government has a right to interfere with property rights.
Either we have rights and they are defended or we don't. If we have rights and they are inviolable then we can truly say we live in a free society. If we don't then we live in an arbitrary tyranny and none of us knows who or what is next. As great as democracy sounds in theory I think it always leads to tyranny because it does not put human rights above and out of reach of what can be declared fair game to a majority of one kind or another.
Bernie I agree with your sentiments but in reality we do not live in a free society. Whatever rights we ever had have been eroded by successive governments of all persuasions. The first past the post voting system effectively disenfranchises a huge proportion of the population who live in 'safe' seats but do not support the incumbent. And the right to vote is a fundamental right. Our telephones and mail are routinely examined and CCTV cameras are everywhere invading our right to privacy.
Internment without trial was used here in N Ireland and is now in effect in England with the government using scare tactics to push through legislation extending the time people can be held without charge. The right to a jury is under threat as they can sometimes bring in verdicts that the governments do not like.
This ban is a perfect example of what can be achieved through false information and scare tactics and SHS is the new WMD.Iraq still got invaded and even though no WMDs were found the invasion is still being justified by Blair and his cronies.
Michael I agree entirely. I was not meaning to suggest that we do in fact live in a free society. My aim is to point out exactly the things you mention above along with many other things like income tax, the ID database and a host of other things.
I question the idea that voting is a fundamental right. It is in a democracy but I think democracy is one of the biggest con tricks ever to be foisted on us.
To explain a little... If you have a nice car and I come to you and say I want your car and you need to give it to me and no I am not willing to pay you anything for it then you will probably object to that. And if I brought 10 of my friends along and we all agreed that you should just give me your car you would still object. If I brought the entire population of Earth and you were the only one to disagree about who should have the car then you might feel a bit overwhelmed but you are still likely to object. There are some things more fundamental than the right to vote and if democracy is supreme then those things are at the mercy of the whim of whatever majorities can be conjured up.
In protesting and taking action on the current problem I want to protest the erosion of property rights and I would not regard a compromise in the law to be a victory. That may allow some smokers to smoke in places where the current law won't allow them but it doesn't strike at the root of the problem of government. They still think they have the right to do anything they please and will continue that way until we find some way to effectively limit the powers of government.
... and we still got the smoking ban under a PR system in Scotland!
Pleased to see Joe's email with regard to Holland. I work for a Dutch company and visit my office every month. One of the best aspects of my Dutch trips is a "return to normality". It will be very annoying when they ban smoking in restaurants there. Thankfully the bars are safe until 2011.
Now, if only we could get them to extend that until 4011.
The "level playing field" is, of course, a fallacy. You could easily replace the phrase with "lets punish all venues" or "misery loves company" and it will have the same effect.