Tea for twelve?
Tuesday, July 1, 2008 This afternoon Philip Davies MP will host, on behalf of Forest, a small reception tea party in the House of Commons. (Sandwiches, cakes, scones, cream and, er, champagne.) A dozen MPs have indicated that they will pop in. If they all come I shall be very pleased - it's been quite a struggle - and they will each be rewarded with a complimentary cigar (a Montecristo No 2).
We have also invited a handful of guests - a representative group of smokers, non-smokers, pub and bar owners - for whom the ban has had an enormous social and financial impact.
Every MP in the House will receive a pack containing THIS press release and the following documents: Economic Impact of the Public Smoking Ban and Social Impact of the Public Smoking Ban. The latter, as you will see, features comments from many people on this blog (as promised a couple of weeks ago).
Thanks for your help - and your support.
Simon Clark
We exceeded expectations. Including our host Philip Davies, 17 MPs turned up, plus five peers. Report to follow.
Reader Comments (9)
Thank you for including my comment, Simon.
Likewise, Simon, thank you for including my comment too.
Having just read all the comments included, it is hard to see how the MPs can completely ignore the pleas and the disgust that is shown, but being very cynical these days, I bet they will!
I too have been reading all the comments and I too am annoyed that all these pubs, are having to close down. Its always us poor smokers. Whats wrong with good ventilation??? Why wont this stupid government see sense? All the young people have no where to go apart from street fights and then drink heavily out side .what an awful country this is. amandah
I have never listened to The Archers. I missed the first episode because I was so fed up that Dick Barton, Special Agent, had ended, so I never got round to catching up. However, The Archers have got into our culture and from what I know of it I wonder whether the smoking ban has been reflected in the annals of Ambridge. Is old Isaac, 90, who for 70 years carved his flake off a waxy black tobacco cake, sitting as of old in the public bar of The Bull? Yes, of course he is and what’s more, he’s got a woman friend. Giving up tobacco has put lead in his ancient pencil, as they say. There’s ‘research’ to prove it. He’s quite frisky now. Village maidens should beware. Thankfully the lady vicar has, it is reported, moved away. There would have been problems about her cigars. Meanwhile, Roxanne and her boyfriend Larry, who work at Waitridges in Borchester have broken up. He really can’t stand her cigarettes. She has loved him for years, although, as her mother says, ‘he’s no oil painting.’ What’s love against abstinence from cigarettes? In the fields the grazing cows are happy and their milk yield has increased threefold since Fred, the cowman and his girl gave up nicotine and went to the Ambridge gym. And now, hoorah, Borchester Rural District Council has a certificate that it runs the healthiest local authority area in the world. And the ‘chair’ of the PCT has been awarded a knighthood. All his beds are empty. Everyone’s left for Greece and Spain.
Thankyou simon for printing my comments as well. I would however like to make another comment. Tonight on the Anglia news they featured a report about pubs and clubs having to close because of the smoking ban and also the heavily taxed beer.I would like you to ask MP,s if they happened to see the report. Who is going to fund the unemployment benefit that will have to be paid to these failed buisness owners???????
Hope that the reception went well, Simon.
Pat. I watched BBC Look East yesterday evening and they stated that the number of smokers in Corby had increased from 35% to 40% since the ban.The ban is certainly working in Corby.
I'd like to make it clear that, despite the heading given to my comment in the document, I didn't write or say, and have never done so, that "Labour has lost my vote." I remain a member of the Labour Party, and thus a Labour voter.
I've just noticed that Amanda appears twice. First she pops up under Depressed and Angry. And then, a bit later, she reappears under Angry and Depressed, saying more or less exactly the same thing.