Butt of the year

My final task of 2009 is to offer you this view of a very good friend, taken in August in France where we were on holiday with our respective families.

Cheers!

PS. No, it isn't me!!

Thank God for Bovril

Well, that didn't go to plan. We got to the match after an eight-hour drive to Glasgow (roadworks and blizzards in Cumbria didn't help), and the result?

Rangers 7 - 1 Dundee United

All I will say is that Rangers weren't as good as the score suggests, and United weren't as bad. It was just one of those days.

It was also very, VERY cold. (What you can't see in the picture, taken with my iPhone, is the snow swirling around the stadium.)

Thank God for Bovril.

Weather watch

I am driving to Scotland today to watch Dundee United play Rangers in Glasgow tonight. Normal journey time from Cambridgeshire is six hours. Estimated time of arrival, if road conditions are good, is four o'clock. Kick-off is 7.45 so there should be time to see the in-laws as well.

According to the BBC, however, "Extreme weather warnings have been issued for north-west England, Yorkshire and Humber, the Midlands, east and south-west England ... Severe weather warnings are in place for icy roads in Strathclyde, Tayside and Fife, central and south-west Scotland and Lothian and Borders."

Meanwhile, "The icy weather has almost wiped out the midweek Scottish Premier League card ... Rangers' match with Dundee United and Motherwell's game at Hearts are the only SPL games to survive so far."

Hmmm. I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom of this trip. Watch this space.

ConHome's end of year survey

Conservative Home has an end of year survey that asks you to agree or disagree with the statement that "Private clubs should be allowed to have smoking rooms".

You have to complete a number of other questions but it's worth the time. (If you want to add a comment about smoking in pubs, for example, you can do that too.) Click HERE.

H/T Dave Atherton

Carl Minns: voice of a true liberal

Carl Minns, leader of Hull City Council, is that rare politician - a genuine liberal. At the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth in September, Carl was a member of the audience at a fringe meeting organised by Forest, The Free Society and Liberal Vision.

One of the speakers - Colin Eldridge, another Lib Dem councillor - expressed support for further restrictions on smoking (and smokers) including the proposal to give films featuring actors smoking an ‘18’ certificate.

To his everlasting credit Carl got to his feet and made it clear that he could never support such policies. A non-smoker, he also supported an amendment to the smoking ban that would give smokers some element of choice.

His intervention was so striking that I thought I had misheard him. Could this really be a council leader speaking?

Today the local paper reports that Cllr Minns will oppose any moves to ban outdoor smoking in Hull, a plan supported by "some senior figures within the city's health sector". He is reported to have said:

"As a Liberal, I am not in favour of wholesale prohibition while some people in the primary care trust want to take a more enforcement-led approach.

"I do not believe in an extension of the existing smoking ban , either locally or nationally.

"In my view it would fundamentally undermine civil liberties and freedom of choice.

"I am aware some councils are looking at trying to introduce a ban in some public areas but I think such a ban would be unenforceable.

"As long as I am leader, this council will not be banning smoking in the open air and will not be infringing on people's rights."

Full story HERE. You can comment.

Carl Minns has a blog (Thoughts from Hull) and you can comment on this story HERE. Other posts related to smoking can be found HERE.

Blogger Charlotte Gore wrote about our meeting in Bournemouth (on the Guardian website) HERE. The headline is instructive: "Don't lose the Lib in Lib Dems".

Hockney lights up Today

Just finished listening to the Today programme, "guest edited" by David Hockney (pictured, left, with me at a Forest event in 2008). Having set my alarm for 6.00am I managed to conduct this important work whilst sitting in bed drinking coffee and eating a mince pie or two.

We were promised a programme that would address smokers' rights and, to be fair, smoking did feature prominently in a number of items. However, with the exception of a few words from Joe Jackson and a short interview with Hockney himself at the end of the programme, it was all a bit cosy.

What we got was a brief spin around Europe (well, Paris, Brussels and Berlin) where reporter Caroline Wyatt interviewed a Parisienne bar owner, a journalist, UKIP's Gawain Towler, a social commentator and Joe (who lives in Berlin but recorded his bit last week at BBC Radio Solent in Portsmouth!).

There was a brief discussion about the history of smoking with a social historian who spoke of the "unintended consequences" of the smoking ban - one of which is that the "cool crowd" is now outside smoking.

And there was a report from Cairo which was described as "smoking heaven" and a "smokers' nirvana".

Nevertheless this felt like a sanitised and, at times, rather patronising view of smokers' rights. There was little or no challenge, for example, to the status quo in the UK where smoking is now banned in every "public" building and there are plans for more legislation to restrict even further smokers' rights.

For once the likes of ASH, BMA et al didn't get a word in. But there was little sense of the anger and frustration felt by so many smokers on this blog and elsewhere. Nor was there any debate about issues such as secondhand smoke, or the impact on pubs and clubs and local communities as a result of the smoking ban.

Nor was there any attempt to explain the pleasure so many people get from smoking - a step too far, perhaps, for Today which (I thought) preferred to humour Hockney rather than take his message too seriously. (The sound of an avuncular David Blunkett responding to the claim that we are living in a more authoritarian age was particularly hard to bear.)

Beggars can't be choosers but I thought it was a lost opportunity to balance the BBC's usual hostility towards smokers and their habit.

Click HERE to listen to 'Europe's smoking attitudes' featuring (among others) Joe Jackson. Joe talks of Britain being "rather repressive" compared to Germany where smokers are "fighting back a bit". He also quotes Hockney: "You can't have a smoke-free bohemia".

Brian Monteith: in his own words

Following the publication of The Bully State: The End of Tolerance by Brian Monteith in October, The Free Society has now published a collection of Brian's articles from the Edinburgh Evening News, The Scotsman, Times Educational Supplement Scotland and websites such as ThinkScotland.org and Conservative Home.

The Full Monty 2009 reflects what Brian calls an "impatient year". In his introduction he explains that:

Many of us are impatient for the coming general election that will finally give us the chance to show Gordon Brown what we think of his management of the country's affairs ...

It was an impatient year waiting to see if the Conservatives might have a strategy to deal with the recession ...

It was an impatient year waiting and hoping that Ireland would not vote for the Lisbon Treaty or that we in Britain would get our own chance to show what we think of it ...

Needless to say Brian reserves his own impatience for those who support the smoking ban and are impatient to ban smoking in our homes and other private spaces. "They can wait a lot longer as far as I am concerned."

He also expresses impatience with the Tory party (on both sides of the border):

I'm naturally a Conservative at heart, but I cannot drum up a great deal of enthusiasm for the current mob and could still be tempted by another party once I know exactly what they stand for. I suppose I'm impatient for a party to actually represent my views - and I suspect the views of many others.

In the words of John McLellan, editor-in-chief of The Scotsman Publications, who has written the foreword: "The best way to enjoy Brian's writing is with a fine malt and a Partagas 'P Series' Number 2 ..."

You read it here first.

Note: The Full Monty 2009 is available from Amazon HERE.

They'd do anything to make you quit

The Government yesterday launched yet another quit smoking initiative. According to a BBC report, "The NHS Stop Smoking Quit Kit contains calming audio downloads, a stress toy and a tool to help smokers work out how much money they are saving by quitting".

Complementing the Quit Kit is a series of television adverts showing children singing 'I'd Do Anything' from the musical Oliver and asking: "If they'd do that, why won't you give up smoking?" (Seriously.)

Among those quoted by the BBC are public health minister Gillian Merron, Amanda Sandford of ASH and me.

Full story HERE.

Eat, drink and be merry

OK, I think I've done enough blogging this side of Christmas - and I'm sure, like me, you've got better things to do with your time.

Yet again this has been a rollercoaster year for liberals and libertarians and I hope that this blog offers a useful vehicle to express your opinions.

Occasionally - as happened last week with Keep Britain Tidy - it gives you the opportunity to speak directly to those in positions of influence.

Lest there be any doubt, I read most if not all of your comments. I may not agree with every one but they provide useful feedback for which I am grateful.

Anyway, I'd just like to wish you all a very happy Christmas. Unless something completely unforeseen happens that is worth commenting on, the next few days will be devoted to mince pies, turkey and Christmas pudding. Oh, and plenty of alcohol.

Normal service will be resumed in a few days.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas at the cathedral

We went to Ely Cathedral last night for the Christmas carol concert featuring the Cathedral Choir, the Ely Imps (junior choir) and a brass ensemble called, er, Prime Brass.

It was a really lovely occasion. Great music, wonderful singing and very festive. Funny, too - the director of music had a good sense of humour and made everyone laugh as he escorted us through the two-hour programme.

We were all freezing, of course, even though we were assured that the heating was on full blast. Luckily there was plenty of mulled wine (sponsored by Waitrose) to act as a winter warmer and it was only the prospect of driving home that dissuaded me from getting quietly sozzled in the south transept (where we were sitting).

Update on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 by Simon Clark

Last year Dr Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute had this to say about a trip to Ely Cathedral:

Last weekend I took some American relatives round Ely Cathedral. The Cathedral asks for a donation from non-worshippers to go in, which seems quite reasonable, and I was asked if I would like it to quality for gift aid – to which I readily agreed. (Better that my tax should go to this fine old building rather than our hapless Chancellor of the Exchequer.) I gave my postcode and house number, and in an instant my name and those of my family flashed up on the teller’s screen. My US relatives were shocked that we should be so minutely catalogued and easily accessible. Given the incongruity of this high-tech intrusion happening in an eleventh-century stone vaulted cathedral porch, I must say I was surprised too.

The full article is on The Free Society website HERE.

Save our pubs and clubs ...

Over the past week or so we have been busy signing, addressing and posting hundreds of Christmas cards. Copies of the Forest/Save Our Pubs and Clubs card (above) have been sent to politicians, journalists, broadcasters and other opinion formers.

Today we sent an electronic version to supporters of the Save Our Pubs and Clubs campaign. If you didn't receive it you haven't registered your support. Click HERE now!

Note: inside the printed version of the card it reads: "This year 52 pubs up and down the country closed each week ... Save Our Pubs and Clubs: amendthesmokingban.com".

On the back cover is a copy of the poster we shall be distributing to pubs and clubs in the new year. Under the headline "52 pubs are closing each week!" it reads:

The public smoking ban continues to be a major factor in the closure of pubs, the loss of thousands of jobs and the decline of local communities.

Amend the smoking ban - if your business or social life has suffered since the introduction of the ban, please join our campaign.

We'll have more news of the campaign in the new year. Watch this space.

Bullying smokers

Remember the letter I sent to the Telegraph last week (see HERE)? Well, the Sunday Telegraph published it yesterday. Click HERE and scroll down until you come to the words "Bullying smokers".

Mandelson versus the DH

On Tuesday I reported that the Department of Health had decided, at the very last moment, to delay the expected announcement of its latest Tobacco Control Strategy paper. Clearly, a big argument was taking place behind the scenes.

Today's London Evening Standard has an explanation for what was going on. It confirms what we suspected. See HERE.

To put it in simple English, we believe that the DH wants to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products but the policy is being opposed by Business Secretary Peter Mandelson.

This, of course, is very reminiscent of the battle that took place a year ago when Mandelson opposed the introduction of a display ban. Eventually, he negotiated a reprieve for retailers with the ban being delayed until 2011 (large stores) and 2013 (small stores).

We'll have to wait until the New Year to find out what's going to happen. In the meantime you might like to write to Health Secretary Andy Burnham making it clear what your views are on this latest piece of anti-smoker legislation - and how it could influence which way you vote in the forthcoming election.

Update on Friday, December 18, 2009 by Simon Clark

Write to Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP, Secretary of State for Health, Department of Health, Richmond House, 79 Whitehall, London SW1A 2NS or email the Department of Health at: dhmail@dh.gsi.gov.uk

Are you listening, Jamie Oliver?

The overnight snow has led to the closure of the local secondary schools. My daughter is delighted but my son is disappointed because he was looking forward to the school "talent" show which was due to take place this morning.

He had helped write the following words which were to be sung by his entire class to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Note: what you are about to read demonstrates the sheer futility of lecturing teenagers about junk food and (I suspect) alcohol or cigarettes.

I won't bore you with every verse but the finale goes like this:

On the twelth day of Christmas
I bought from KFC:
Twelve Mexican wraps
Eleven chicken caesars
Ten saucy baked beans
Nine popcorn chickens
Eight tasty Fantas
Seven turkey burgers
Six chocolate cookies
Five ... onion rings
Four french fries
Three Diet Cokes
Two chicken wings
and a bargain bucket for the family

Jamie Oliver, eat your heart out!

Disclaimer: while I regularly (two or three times a month) take my children to McDonalds, I don't think I have ever taken them to KFC. I, on the other hand, do occasionally go to KFC - on average, once every three or four months when my body, inexplicably, cries out for a finger lickin' good variety meal.

Snow patrol

Here's my village at nine o'clock this morning. I took these pictures a couple of hundred yards from where I live. However it wasn't as peaceful a scene as it looks. While I was taking them a passing motorist slammed to a halt, leaped out and berated some teenage children for throwing snowballs at her car as she crossed the narrow bridge (above). She insisted that the principal culprit apologise to her four-year-old child who was (allegedly) cowering in the back seat!