Lighten up - it's No Smoking Day
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 7.10 ... I have just done my first No Smoking Day interview of the day. No doubt there will be one or two more. But it's not what it used to be. NSD is a shadow of the event that used to hog all the headlines. There's a reason for that, of course. Thanks to this government, EVERY day is no smoking day so why should the second Wednesday in March be any different?
I wrote about it HERE last year so I won't repeat the story of Forest's day trip to Paris in 1999 which was the subject of a double-page spread in the Daily Record. Or our humungous smoker-friendly fry-up at Simpson's-in-the-Strand in London in 2000 which produced a full page feature in the London Evening Standard.
Instead (and this has only just occurred to me so apologies for the short notice) why don't we mark No Smoking Day 2009 by lighting up together at, say, 7.00pm this evening? Apart from identifying yourself, all you have to do is tell us where you are (at home, at work, outside the pub etc) and what you're smoking.
If you can't be online at seven, join us in spirit and add a comment now or later. And if you know anyone who wants to join us, pass this on!
Simon Clark
Not for the first time we are told that one million people in the UK will attempt to give up smoking today. No sign of that on Facebook where the official No Smoking Day group has attracted fewer than 150 "fans" since it was launched four months ago. A cursory glance shows that some of these "fans" don't even live in the UK. Instead they come from Australia, Slovakia, Saudi Arabia, Mauritius, Jordan, Denmark and America. Time, I think, to put this outdated event out of its misery.
Reader Comments (34)
I'll be lighting up more than ever today !!
And me and especially if anyone asks if I am acknowleding NSD!
Happily for me, I'll be in a bar in Cyprus where I can smoke, drink and watch the football. However, the antis have started here as well and there are proposals to adopt a smoking ban similar to UK. The classic line being that there is no evidence to suggest that such a ban will have a negative impact on the hospitality industry! (will they ever learn?). Oh well, at least smoking outside is a bearable option here for most of the year.
I will be smoking my usual number of fags today as per usual and maybe a few extra to celebrate no smoking day. Funny that, the more the tv adverts remind me of No Smoking Day I'm more inclined to smoke more on that very day.
I wonder why that is!
"Time, I think, to put this outdated event out of its misery"
Out of our misery you mean!
I'll be running through my usual twenty tabs and augmenting them with a Monte-Cristo No.3 and a few pipefulls of Golden Dice.
Sod the lot of 'em.
ann. That is why many kids start smoking. The best advert the tobacco companies could get.
It's like watching an episode of Madmen. I just have to smoke when I see that. Nostalgia probably!
I'll be lighting up at 7pm in contempt for No Smoking Day, as I have done every year since it started,
In case anyone wants to know,I'm smoking a nice hand-rolled cig made from a selection of the finest tobaccos.
We have just finished dinner polished off with a bottle of wine and 3 fags each in contempt of our pc No Smoking Day and are now settling down in our respective armchairs with a 20 pack between us for our weekly dose of Corrie while giving the fingers to all quangos of this world with a special redundancy wish for the ASH smoking gestapo.
ann and brendan chambers, dublin.
"No Smoking Day"
Yeh, right.
Just as an example of how I block out anti smoking propoganda, I did not even know it was 'no smoking day' until I looked at this less than five minutes ago, (it is now 7.31pm). Mind you, there was no hint of it when I paid my weekly visit to college today, where students are only able to smoke outside the main gates in full view of passing motorists and children. Lots of students in their teens and early twenties lighting up. Do you know what, when I see that it is a middle finger to our persecutors.
After finishing dinner, my wife and I relaxed for a few more minutes (before having to wash up, yes me as well) and watched a little of the One Show, while smoking our usual after dinner cigarette (or two).
I explained to Frances (my wife) about the little 7pm ritual of having a smoke at 7pm along with everyone else on here, and we settled back, happy in the fact that we were at least taking part in something.
Then, guess what, The One Show, decided to show an article about smoking, including their resident nurse, and 5 builders who smoked, and how she took their blood pressure, along with everything else, and after one week, surprise, surprise, everything was down (except the spin), and they were much healthier people. Imagine, she said, if that's what just one week can do, if they kept to their non smoking regime, by the end of the year, it would be Superman move over.
Well that spoilt my nice little ten minutes. What an absolute load of crap!
You can always rely on Auntie to be nanny's little helper, Peter. Bet they didn't measure the builders' contentment-quotas...
Bugger! Was it No Smoking Day yesterday?
I missed the whole thing. I was so going to join in this year too.
{cue Hamlet music}
I didn't realise that yesterday was NSD, either. If I remember, I smoked a cig at 6.40pm, one at 7pm and one at 7.15pm, making up for time lost during the day when I couldn't smoke - this is what happens: denied the chance to smoke, I then smoke more when I can.
Pater. I liked the bit where they showed the colour of their skin by using infa red (or what soever). The builders were stripped to the waist and the doctor was fully clothed and had long hair. What a surprise that he builders showed up as more red.
Sorry. Sould read Peter.
Smoking Day is in April or is that only in Newham at the G20 summit?
Simon, do you know anything about the smoking lounges at the G20. On ASH UK's news page they go as to state that the law has not been changed to allow it. I guess it would be a disaster for ASH if the Gov tacitly admitted that there was no health risk to the employees who had to enter the rooms; and it wouldn't do the Government much good if they were seen not to care about the deadly effects of ETS. It's all very well saying the law hasn't been changed, but I can't see Newham Council enforcement officers barging past the FBI to take the names and addresses of world leaders. The law will just be broken. It's tempting to suggest Forest applies for an injunction to forbid smoking in the building through the duration of the conference, but I'd rather see it go ahead with some covert film footage taken of smoking going on. The ban would be toast. People would be lighting up in pubs all over the country. What do you know?
Jon this is a big story and the Foreign Office are being obstructive. They refuse to admit smoking is allowed.
I agree Dave, a very big story.
What a wonderful way to treat 'service users' by ignoring them in this 'the user/customer is always right' society that we live in.
Have the employees at the FCO not been indoctrinated yet into the NuLab list of essential audit lists to do a job in the service industry?
An acknowledgement certainly wouldn't go amiss!
Yes, as it has already been said - one rule for them and another for the plebs (as they treat us). They utterly disgust me.
I'm ranting a bit, I know. But this is sheer hypocrisy and needs challenging.
Well if the G20 can light up, everyone else needs to do so. I'm sure that would be the end of the smoking ban.
Let the smoke police try it!
But will everyone ?
In Atlanta Georgia airport in america there are indoor smoking rooms with a bar. It is mostly filled with troops heading for Iraq but civilians can smoke in them too.
In Shannon airport in Ireland the troops in transit to Iraq have an indoor smoking room but civilians have to smoke outdoors.
How ironic is this, funny how the irish govt cant extend this privilidge to its own citizens.
'Smoking Day is in April or is that only in Newham at the G20 summit?' (chas)
G20 summit starts 2nd April, which seems a nice enough date but, as Peter James says, would anyone bother supporting it? Perhaps it depends how long this story remains visible, and who in the mainstream media decides to take it up.
My OH informs me that it hasn't found its way on to Forest's home page, yet.
I was surprised it wasn't brought up on last night's Question Time. Or was I? After all, it was the Beeb.
I agree that if smoking goes ahead inside at the G20 then, in principle, the rest of us should light up wherever. The problem to this however, is the same one we have been faced with all along - the owner/person responsible for the venue will be faced with a fine of £2,500 - much greater than that of the actual perpetrater.
For this reason alone I cannot see any of us taking advantage, especially in these economically challenging times!
Ann wrote: "In Shannon airport in Ireland the troops in transit to Iraq have an indoor smoking room but civilians have to smoke outdoors."
The government rational, no doubt,is that troops facing death and injury should not be denied this pleasure.
Similarly, world leaders at the G20 should not be denied this pleasure. Similarly, nor should our MPs and MEPs within their respective parliament buildings, both of which have indoor smoking bars.
Government, therefore, recognises smoking as a pleasure. It denies this pleasure to its citizens.
The smoking ban has nothing to do with health.
Where does one get tickets to the G20?
And, are there vending machines inside it?
"The smoking ban has nothing to do with health."
Margot, you know it, I know it, and many other people know it, but it is still nice to see someone say it. Thanks also for your kind comments in another thread.
Lyn, it is nice to see your name. Hope everything is as good as it can be.
The day i call no smoking day is the day when i decide for myself to give up smoking and not be told i should by a load of smoking facsists.
I appologise for my error i meant anti smoking facsists
The Quit (ante smoking)lobby makes endless claims to the effect that their campaign is working. Isn't it now time to consider cancelling all funding and rendering them redundant. This is a gravy train which needs to be bankrupted befor they all line up for huge redundancy paid for of course from tobacco tax. They should be the first to feel the effects of a drop in revenue from the tobacco tax by too many smokers quitting. From Bridget
wanted for treason blair prestcot brown straw flint reid hewitt collaborators and there enforcers the price is working stubbing out blairs legacy and labours war of mass destruction imposed on liberty respect tolerance equality identity compassion democracy integrity united kingdom who gave who the right to impose persecution bullying abuse and the deaths of innocent people under their controlled democracy are traitors have no elusions they are accountable for this so this is your better united kingdom as in war you pay the price for liberty its not what we want its what thay gave in memory of anthony mcdermott who was bullied and persecuted into suicide and hanged himself and all others so this is your new healthy united kingdom to all parties protect demands liberty and movments reinstated no liberty no peace lest they forgot no compromise this is an afront to our forfathers from protect
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