TPA highlights cost of Big Government

The Taxpayers Alliance has today announced its first nationwide cinema advertisement - the first, they claim, by a UK campaign group for ten years.

The advert promotes a new book, Ten Years On: Britain Without the European Union, which took 22,000 orders in its first week.

Chief executive Matthew Elliott says: "This advert focuses light heartedly on the very real costs of the EU, and features a number of brief scenes exploring different ways that the EU rips all of us off."

The advert can be viewed online HERE. Copies of Ten Years On are available HERE.

Cultural differences

Earlier this week my daughter, who is 12, returned from a school exchange trip to France. Her group was staying just outside Paris so they were able to visit the Eiffel Tower and Parc Asterix and the "house and garden of some dead artist guy".

Unprompted, Sophie told me that a lot of the older French children smoked. Each morning a large group, including some as young as 14, would gather outside the school gates and light up. Inevitably, coming from England, some of the visiting children would cough theatrically and complain about the effects of "passive smoking".

"What did you do?" I asked my daughter.

"Oh," she said, "I told my friends they didn't have to stand there. If they didn't like it they could move."

"What about you?" I asked. "Did you move?"

"No, Dad," said Sophie. "Actually, I quite liked the smell."

Update on Sunday, June 7, 2009 by Simon Clark

My daughter has changed her tune. Apparently she didn't say she liked the smell of cigarette smoke. What she actually said was, "It didn't bother me". There, I've set the record straight.

Freedom party? Don't make me laugh

Andreas Mlzer is a member of the European parliament. He's also a member of Austria's far right Freedom Party and last month he submitted a written question to the European Commission, part of which reads:

In accordance with the new law on smoking, since the beginning of 2009 a more stringent smoking ban has been in force in Austria. Under the new law, pubs and restaurants with a floor area of less than 50 square metres must be run either as non-smoking establishments or as smoking clubs, and those with a floor area of more than 50 square metres must physically separate their smoking and non-smoking areas.

Many pub and restaurant owners are complaining of a massive decline in turnover, since smokers are simply choosing establishments where they can smoke [my italics]. The physical separation of smoking and non-smoking areas calls for substantial investments which are hardly realistic in the current economic and financial climate. However, even if conditions were more favourable, fitting partitions, ventilation systems, etc would be beyond the means of many owners ...

Herr Mlzer goes on to ask what plans the EU has "to introduce an EU-wide smoking ban along the lines of those in force in Italy or Ireland". The implication is that what the hospitality industry needs in is a "level-playing field" (ie a comprehensive ban) otherwise people will continue to choose - at the expense of non-smoking bars and restaurants - an "establishment where they can smoke".

So much for the free market. So much for the "Freedom" Party.

Live blogging from Brussels

Dick Puddlecote is writing a rather good live blog of the TICAP/UKIP conference HERE. At its best this is what distinguishes blogging from most - possibly all - other media. It can provide an instant record of current events, including conferences like this which are unlikely to be reported by the mainstream media. Anyone with a laptop or mobile phone can do it, so it's very democratic. It's also strangely addictive ... help!

Free speech stubbed out

Last year, as I wrote HERE, I travelled to Brussels to attend a meeting of "EU experts, civil society and social partners to support the Commission's Impact Assessment on the forthcoming initiative on smoke-free environments".

Seconds into the meeting, to which I had been invited, several hands shot up and two or three delegates announced that if I didn't leave they would leave the room. Others nodded in agreement. In the EU, it seems, free speech and tobacco operate on different planets.

Next week, also in Brussels, a group called The International Coalition Against Prohibition (TICAP) was due to hold a two-day conference under the patronage of Godfrey Bloom MEP (UKIP). The event was called "Smoking Bans and Lies" and the programme was unambiguously partisan.

Venue was the European Parliament building and I understand that several readers of this blog were planning to attend.

Yesterday morning it was reported that the conference had been moved from the Parliament to a hotel near the Parliament building. Last night I was told by Gawain Towler, press officer for UKIP in Brussels, that the original conference hosted by Godfrey Bloom has been cancelled and in its place is a "new" conference with a very similar programme. (Don't ask me why. I'm only the messenger.)

The "new" conference will be called "Thinking Is Forbidden" and officially it will be hosted not by Godfrey Bloom but by the British arm of the Independence/Democracy Group (aka UKIP). Delegates who were due to attend "Smoking Bans and Lies" will be invited to attend "Thinking Is Forbidden" instead.

The reason for this game of musical chairs seems to be related to THIS outrageous letter which was sent, in December, to Hans-Gert Pöttering, president of the European Parliament, by Florence Berteletti Kemp, director of the Smoke Free Partnership (which includes Cancer Research UK).

In her letter, Kemp argues that "this event should not under any circumstances take place on the premises of the European Parliament". She then gives the following reasons:

• "the event appears to be in contravention of Parliament’s own rules of procedure and is detrimental to the dignity of Parliament"

• "the event goes against all of Parliament’s adopted reports and the European Community’s legislation and commitments on this topic"

• "it violates the spirit of the International Framework Convention on Tobacco Control"

There's a lot more of this high-handed nonsense in Kemp's letter and any self-respecting institution would have torn it up and sent her packing. But not the European Parliament. I am told that on on Tuesday 12 January a committee met in camera and decided that permission for the conference to be held within the Parliament building had been withdrawn.

Neither Godfrey Bloom nor anyone else associated with "Smoking Bans and Lies" were told that the conference was on the agenda. In their absence, the committee acted as judge and jury. According to UKIP's Gawain Towler, the organisers only discovered that they were barred from using the Parliament building on Tuesday this week, a full seven days after the meeting.

What has happened beggars belief. I am assured that the venue was secured months in advance. Delegates and speakers have made travel arrangements. Hotel accommodation has been reserved. Video conferencing links have been booked.

And yet ... is anyone surprised? The anti-tobacco lobby is ruthless and will happily suppress any form of debate, or opposition.

Ironically, thanks to these unelected bureaucrats, news of the conference will almost certainly reach a far wider audience than would otherwise have been the case.

Note: as I understand it, "Thinking Is Forbidden" will take place at the Hotel Berlyamont Silken, Blvd Charlemagne 11, Brussels, on 27-28 January. For details/confirmation contact Gawain Towler, Independence/Democracy Group, telephone +32 (0)2 284 6384.

Entropa - symbol of free speech

It is reported that "The Czech EU presidency has apologised for an art installation it commissioned that lampoons national stereotypes" (see HERE and HERE). Sadly, even the artist David Cerny has expressed regret. He has no need to. This is the most wickedly funny artwork I have ever seen.

Normally you would have to drag me kicking and screaming into an art exhibition. This, however, is something I would happily cross the Channel to see. As The Times reports:

Entropa, a garish depiction of the 27 member states created to mark the Czech Republic’s presidency of the EU, revealed its full glory when it was switched on. The eyes lit up on the vampire representing Romania, Greece glowed red with bushfires and Italian soccer players began to masturbate with their footballs.

If the EU can't see the funny side then we really are better off out. Actually, I suspect that the installation - currently on view at the European Council building in Brussels - will be a smash hit with visitors from all over the world.

Entropa is a welcome symbol of free speech. It demonstrates that political statements don't have to be hectoring or boring. They can be funny as well.

How ironic that genuine liberals in countries like Britain now look to former Eastern bloc states like the Czech Republic for inspiration and leadership.

Apologise? I should think not.

Smoking ban on trial in The Hague

Colleagues in Holland will tomorrow be taking part in a mass protest against their country's public smoking ban. Organisers of the rally in The Hague hope to attract up to 5,000 supporters.

Earlier this month it was reported that Dutch bar and cafe owners are putting ashtrays back on tables because the ban is driving hundreds of small businesses towards bankruptcy. (Story HERE.)

Tomorrow's event is organised by Red de Kleine Horecaondernemer (KHO), an alliance of Dutch smokers' rights groups and over a thousand bar and cafe owners. Protestors will be addressed by members of the Dutch parliament representing three political parties.

Ton Wurtz, a spokesman for KHO and an old friend of Forest, says the alliance wants the owners of small bars and cafes to be able to choose between smoking or non-smoking - as is currently the case in Spain and (for the moment) Germany.

We are keeping an eye on developments and are in close contact with Ton (and others in Holland). Watch this space.

MEPs vote to slash tobacco guidelines

There aren't many things that leave me speechless. The news that the European Parliament wants to reduce to 400 the number of cigarettes that can be brought into the country for personal use is one of those moments.

A brief recap: prior to 2002 the guideline for the number of cigarettes that could be brought into Britain from the EU was 800. Thanks to record levels of taxation in the UK, thousands of British residents travelled abroad in search of cheaper tobacco - and the guideline was frequently ignored.

In order to enforce the guideline - and crack down on genuine cases of smuggling - Customs took a tough line with consumers and the many coach operators who were ferrying people across the Channel.

Lots of innocent people - smokers who were quite legally purchasing tobacco abroad for their own personal use - had their goods (sometimes even their cars) confiscated. On any Monday morning, the Forest office was awash with tales of woe from people who had endured a weekend in hell courtesy HM Customs & Excise.

Following a successful court case on behalf of one smoker whose tobacco had been seized, Forest started a campaign that led eventually to the government increasing the guideline to a more reasonable 3,200 cigarettes. Since then we have received very few calls from cross-Channel shoppers and order appeared to have been restored.

Now MEPs want to reduce the guideline to 400, which will presumably over-ride current British policy. If this goes ahead, I guarantee that smuggling will go into over-drive. Criminal gangs will make a fortune selling cigarettes at half their retail price on the black market.

Some consumers will benefit from the easy availability of cheap tobacco. Others, especially the elderly and the low paid, who have been able to save hundreds of pounds by going on cheap coach trips every six months or so, will be hit hard.

The government, meanwhile, will lose billions of pounds in lost taxation (as they did in the years immediately prior to 2002). Imagine, moreover, the cost of enforcing the new guidelines. More Customs officers, more scanning equipment, and further inconvenience for passengers at Britain's ferry ports.

Finally, it is reported that the European Parliament is driven by a desire to impose "stricter guidelines on what constitutes personal consumption". Excuse me? Some people smoke ten cigarettes a day; others 20, 30 or more. Surely it's up to the consumer, not politicians, to decide what "constitutes personal consumption"?

Full story HERE.

Germany: smoking ban unconstitutional

The Press Association reports that "Germany's high court says smoking bans in two states are unconstitutional, a decision which will force country-wide reviews of smoking prohibitions.

"The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe today ruled on appeals brought by the owners of one-room pubs in the states of Baden Wuerttemberg and Berlin.

"Most German states currently allow larger establishments to have smoking rooms but the court ruled that this discriminates against the single-room pubs which can't offer smoking areas.

The court says either states have to eliminate smoking entirely in all establishments or change their rules regarding the smaller pubs. It gave state parliaments until the end of next year to come up with new laws."

It's an interesting development but there is a very real danger that in order to create a level playing field, the German states will now ban smoking in every bar. (Don't forget that in England, when it was suggested that private members' clubs might be exempt, the pub industry lobbied hard for a total ban.)

The best solution - for Germany, the UK and the rest of Europe - is to follow the Spanish example whereby bars and restaurants over 100 square metres can opt to have a separate smoking room; smaller establishments can choose to be "smoking" or "non-smoking".

But will common sense prevail?

Update on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 by Simon Clark

I have just received the following email from a reader in Germany: "Today the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled that smoking must be allowed in small pubs. Formally this decision is valid only in the Laender (states) Berlin and Baden-Wuerttemberg, but it will change the law in the other laender as well.

"Up to the moment smoking was banned in all small one-room pubs whilst in larger pubs smoking could be allowed in a separate smokers room. In Germany smoking is also allowed in all private clubs, so many former pubs closed formally and refounded themselves as 'Members only Smokers Clubs'.

"In Germany it is unconstitunal to ban smoking in private clubs and instutions, which are formally private rooms. You may become a member of such a smoking club by signing a list, stating your personal data, which includes a declaration that you willingly join the club understanding that there might be a danger by smoke or even 'second-hand' smoke and mostly by paying a nominal one time fee."

Update on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 by Simon Clark

The BBC is reporting the story HERE.

Comment is free

My latest post on the Telegraph's new Ways and Means blog can be found HERE. Readers of Taking Liberties will find the subject (Europe, tobacco, freedom of speech) familiar so feel free to add a comment. (Note: once registered, you can comment on any of the Telegraph blogs so it's worth taking a moment to do it.)

Why Roger is hopping mad

By coincidence, Conservative MEP Roger Helmer has sent me a copy of a post he has written for his blog. It concerns a hearing he has just attended in the European parliament. (Note: the hearing is NOT the reason I am in Brussels, although it could have implications for an initiative we are working on with our European partners.)

Roger writes:

A series of anti-smoking campaigners vied with each other to vilify the tobacco industry, accusing it of dreadful things like lobbying, and seeking to influence legislation, and promoting the interests of its shareholders, and doing other cynical things like awarding prizes for Corporate Social Responsibility and contributing to anti-AIDS programmes. The sort of things that just about all major industries do, in fact.

The World Health Organisation has initiated the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which the EU and 26 member-states have signed up to (The Czech Republic, God bless it, has declined to sign). They are now producing "guidelines for implementation". Anti-smoking lobbyists are proposing that the guidelines should preclude legislators from speaking to the industry. Yep. You read that right. They want to ban MEPs from speaking to tobacco companies.
 
Frankly, I was hopping mad when I heard this proposal. It is absolutely fundamental to any kind of good governance that legislators should discuss proposed legislation with those affected, and that parliamentarians should talk to businesses in areas they represent. I represent the East Midlands, home to Imperial Tobacco. Hundreds of their employees are my constituents, and a quarter of my constituents smoke. I personally hate smoking, but I respect the right of my constituents to make grown-up choices. Imperial has already been hammered by the EU's Tobacco Directive, which like so much EU regulation had the primary effect of moving jobs, production and investment out of the EU altogether.
 
The WHO proposal is an assault on democracy. Listening to constituents, and to businesses, is a key part of what I am paid for, and I shall continue to do so without let or hindrance from the WHO.
 
If we start with tobacco, where do we stop? Many of my colleagues would like to start restricting the drinks industry. They believe that "Big Oil" is frustrating their attempts to curb global warming. Packaged food companies contribute to obesity. Cars cause accidents and pollute the atmosphere. They have problems with the pharmaceutical industry.  This could grow into a full-scale assault on business and capitalism - which of course is exactly what many in the green lobby want.

The full post should appear HERE shortly.

Update on Thursday, July 17, 2008 by Simon Clark

Full blog post HERE.

Food for thought

Last night we ate at Tribeca, a delightful French restaurant on the famous Avenue Louise. If you're a vegetarian or animal rights' campaigner, look away now because one of my companions insisted that I order the foie gras as a starter. Unexpectedly, I got a double helping because the waiter then recommended that I have foie gras sauce on my Argentinian beef - and before I could say "Enough, think of the birds!", there it was on my plate.

It was a warm evening so we sat outside on the terrace. This was one of two smoking areas - the other was inside, on the first floor. (In Belgium restaurateurs can allocate rooms for smokers as long as no food is served there.)

In fact, smoking continues to be permitted in many cafes and bars, so for most smokers there isn't really a problem. What a pity British politicians aren't as sensible about this as most of our European neighbours.

How long this will last remains to seen. Dick Engel, a colleague from the Netherlands, was also at last night's dinner, and we know what has happened in Holland. Sadly, an attempt to delay or reverse the ban failed in the Dutch courts last week, and the anti-smokers march on.

So, plenty to talk about over dinner. And the food wasn't bad, either.

Ireland: democracy in action

It seems the Irish have rejected the Treaty of Lisbon. Oh, to be in a Dublin bar tonight! I am tempted to jump in the car, drive to Stansted and catch the first available flight.

But first, a word of warning. Defeat in Ireland should put a stop to the treaty, which needs to be ratified by all 27 member states, but the EU doesn't work like that. The BBC is reporting that European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso is calling  for other states to continue their ratification processes and said "a solution should be sought". I bet he is.

Let's remind ourselves how the Lisbon Treaty came about. It was drawn up because voters in France and the Netherlands rejected the draft European constitution in 2005. Even the BBC admits that the treaty is remarkably similar to the original constitution and "contains many of the changes the constitution attempted to introduce". See HERE.

The BBC is also reporting that "The British government is expected to continue ratifying the EU Treaty despite its rejection by Irish voters." Perhaps David Davis should include this issue in his civil rights campaign. We were promised a referendum. We should get a referendum. (For more information see the excellent I Want A Refendum campaign website.)

Which reminds me ... we were promised exemptions to the smoking ban (in the 2005 Labour party manifesto). We should get exemptions to the smoking ban. Never let them forget it.

Whatever happened to ...?

Talk of Europe (below) reminds me that Forest used to belong to an association of European smokers' rights groups. Founded in 1992, it was called Smokepeace and members eventually included groups from Germany, Italy, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Greece.

In 1995 a "secretariat" was set up in Brussels. Apco, a worldwide public affairs company, was recruited to run it facilitate meetings. Representatives of each national group would meet several times a year and international conferences were organised in Amsterdam and Seville.

I joined Forest shortly before the Seville conference in 1999. The organising team, led by Apco's Mark Dober, did a great job. Seville was a fantastic location, the  food and wine were magnificent, the company was terrific, and I have never inhaled so much smoke in all my life. Socially, it could not have been better.

Two years later Smokepeace was quietly wound up. Starved of funding, it had neither the means nor the resources to have any serious political clout. Over the next few years most of the individual member groups bit the dust too.

Today - out of curiosity - I visited Apco's website to see what became of Mark Dober. This is what I found:

[His] main area of expertise is in health care and he has represented numerous influential companies and associations in the sector. He is a regular conference speaker on health care issues, recently chairing the European Pharma Marketing Congress, and speaking at the Drug Industry Association Congress.

You've got to laugh.

Update on Monday, April 21, 2008 by Simon Clark

Last night someone posted a potentially libellous comment on this post which I have deleted. I actually think this story is quite funny so, please, no diatribes against Mark Dober (or Apco). Mark's a good guy and doesn't deserve it. He's only doing his job.

Question time

If you read about my experience in Brussels last month (HERE and HERE) you may be interested to know that Forest has now submitted a formal complaint about events on March 19.

I won't reproduce the full three-page letter (although it's not every day that I find myself writing to the Secretary-General of the European Commission), but it includes the following questions:

•  
  • Is it normal or acceptable for a stakeholder who has received a written invitation to a consultation meeting to be asked to leave that meeting by other stakeholders?
  • Is it normal or acceptable for stakeholders with a clear vested interest to dictate who can take part in a consultation meeting?
  • Why were the representatives of four pharmaceutical companies present at a meeting described as a “consultation meeting with EU experts, civil society and social partners”?
  • Do written minutes of the meeting exist and are they available to the public?
  • Is there a formal list of stakeholders at the meeting and is it available to the public?
  • If the answers [to the two previous questions] are “No”, why are stakeholders allowed to attend consultation meetings – and make verbal contributions – anonymously?

If and when we get a reply I'll let you know.

In a separate letter to the EU's Health and Consumer Protection Unit, I have written:

Forest is keen to play an active role in the consultation process and I would welcome the opportunity to attend future meetings in Brussels. However, having read the background document and considered the impact assessment procedure, I am concerned that the outcome of the consultation is a foregone conclusion.

Well, that's the diplomatic way of putting it. Watch this space.