Fact and Friction
Sunday, June 17, 2007 
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.
Videos
Reader Comments (4)
Great that you're redeveloping the Forest site, Simon, but can we please loose all those negative newspaper headlines running up the middle? If you are defending liberty you need to be totally positive about it and a lot more punchy too.
Martin Dockrill is just another brick in the wall - not much to offer other than the usual bunkum propaganda and I wonder how people like him have never thought to question beyond the usual ASH clap-trap. Dockrill is boring, has the brain of a pea and the mind to match.
I find the news headlines useful to check "the state of play". What I'd like to see between now and the Government review of the smoking ban in three year's time is a planned, organised campaign to aggressively counter it and, in the meantime, hear interviewees who have the opportunity to speak out against the ban mention forcibly that it is based on junk science. We will never win any arguments while it is believed that smoking damages other people's health.
Well said Blad. I wonder when the Charities Commission accept and register Al Qaeda as a charity. Martin Dockrill's propaganda showed the apathy of ASH. sod how many people die as long as they get 'Brownie Points'. Having read the full Judge's report on the McTear versus Imperial Tobacco I found nothing regarding their arguments regarding SHS.
In all their propaganda they clearly make no attempt to justify their claims but expect others to prove their point.
The DOH brought out several adverts regarding the dangers of smoking, however, they should checked outthe definition of smoke as in the Oxford English Dictionary. Smoke is a visible suspension of carbon or other substances in the air. it cannot therefore be regarded as 'UNSEEN'. If the Minister of Health is so illiterate - how can their reasoning been taken seriously?
One more point you might be interested in is as follows
While Martin Dockrill's ASH receives £1million each year from the Government as a charity, there are other more worthy charities who receive nothing. ASH has no real interest in saving lives as proved. However, St John Ambulance received nothing. They cover the ambulance service particularly at weekends but does receive any funding from the Government. They save many lives, unlike ASH. Again, they can be called upon by this Goverment in the Falklands and Gulf campaigns at short notice. Do ASH offer any such assistance? Of course not!!! They are all a waste of space.