AWT ditches the fags - for now
Thursday, January 28, 2010 The London Evening Standard reports that Antony Worrall Thompson, "a long-time supporter of pro-smoking lobby Forest", has given up smoking. It adds, however, that "he still defends the rights of people to smoke". Full article HERE.
I know Antony has been a lot more health conscious since being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Nevertheless, in the years that he been patron of Forest I am pretty sure he has given up smoking ... oh, three or four times at least. (The last time he gave up he was training to run the London Marathon and I believe he's doing it again this year.)
I hope to catch up with him in a few weeks - a visit to his pub near Henley is pencilled in my diary - so I'll be able to ask how he's getting on without the fags.
Don't be surprised however if the answer is lost in a fug of smoke ...
People
Reader Comments (5)
The thought that immediately springs to mind is whether it's a good or a bad thing when a high-profile patron gives up smoking? On the whole, I think it does no harm when 'even' non/ex-smokers defend the rights of smokers but I'm not sure that I'd like to get to the position where only non/ex-smokers are speaking on behalf of smokers. I can't believe that when smokers quit, their attitude doesn't change.
People who quit smoking don't necessarily change Joyce. The people who do change, and become hand waving, militant, antisocial bores, were in the majority of cases, horrible people to start with. As we all know, just being a smoker hardly qualifies you for a degree in niceology!
A few years ago, I used to own a bar/restaurant in Islington. I suddenly found myself smoking up to 100 cigarettes a day, and hardly eating. It was only seeing a photo of myself one day, that I realised how much weight I had lost, and so decided to stop smoking, in the hope that it would help me start eating properly once again.
Fortunately for me, I have never found it difficult to stop smoking, as I do it purely because I love the taste and the smell, not because it is a habit. I stopped straight away, and immediately started to put the weight back on again. I didn't smoke at all for the next 3 years, but in all that time, I never once considered myself as a non-smoker. When anyone offered me a cigarette, I would say, "no thank you, I am not smoking at the moment".
I still loved people smoking around me, just to smell the beautiful smell of tobacco smouldering was, and still is, a complete joy to me.
I took up smoking again after I sold that business, but I have never gone back to the vast amounts I used to smoke. I smoke now an average of between 3 and 5 per day, with the occasional cigar, usually at the weekend. I personally do not mind if friends smoke or do not smoke. The only thing I complain about are the self righteous, hand-waving prigs, who are always going on about the smell. I LOVE IT.
Good luck AWT. I'm sure that if you have given up smoking because you really want to, and becuse you no longer enjoy smoking tobacco, then you will be successful and I wish you well.
If, however, you are doing it to please others then you will become a bitter and twisted anti. Those who give up from their own choice remain sociable people. Those who give up through bullying, coercion, or force, resent the fact that smokers continue to smoke while they are denied.
Isn't that what 'freedom to chose' is all about? Anyone who wants to give up fags or alcohol or eating chocolate, whether it be for lent or for ever, has the perfect right to do so.
If I gave up fags, I would still be against this damn fool law which stopped publicans from deciding for themselves whether smoking in their own, private premises would be allowed.
Well said Junican, I absolutely agree with you.