Noise pollution alert

Took the family to see Ian Hunter at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London on Sunday night. We arrived (in torrential rain) shortly after seven - in time to see the excellent support act (Jesse Malin) - and eventually got home well past midnight. It's fair to say that my daughter, aged 10, was the youngest person there. Review HERE.

My son, meanwhile, has just celebrated his thirteenth birthday. He requested CDs by Led Zeppelin, the Ramones and Nirvana. Damn, it just got a little bit noisier around here.

Note: download Ian Hunter's 'How's Your House' (video below) and help the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund. Play it LOUD.

Millions well spent?

The following question received a written answer in the House of Commons on Monday (October 29).

David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his Department's budget is for mass media anti-smoking campaigns in the 2007-08 financial year;
and what the budget will be in each of the financial years to 2011-12.

Dawn Primarolo: The Department’s campaign advertising budget for smoking campaigns for 2007-08 financial year is £11.39 million. This figure does not include campaign advertising expenditure to support the introduction of smokefree legislation or the increase of the age of sale of tobacco products this year. Figures for spend for each of the financial years to 2011-12 cannot be provided at this stage as budgets have not been finalised.

Update on Thursday, November 1, 2007 by Simon Clark

A little bird tells me that the Scottish Government is to undertake a review of ASH Scotland, "standard practice for voluntary organisations receiving more than £100k pa funding".

Unintended consequences of the smoking ban

The Forest website has a scrolling newsfeed - updated every day - with links to the latest smoking-related stories. Among the current headlines are 'Smoking ban sparks obesity crisis', 'Butts increase since smoking ban', and 'Pub landlord faces legal action for letting people smoke outside'.

Click on the links and we find that:

Health chiefs are being forced to plough an extra half a million pounds into fighting fat – because people who quit smoking after the public ban have piled on the pounds.

Ashtrays are to be installed across a Northamptonshire town following an increase in cigarette butts littering the streets. Northampton Borough Council said the move follows a 43% rise in the litter since the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces came into force in July.

A pub landlord could face legal action for allowing punters to smoke in his beer garden. Jeff Castledine, who runs the Queen's Head, in Boreham, Essex, has been told his council is investigating a complaint that "odour" from his beer garden is "affecting a nearby resident".

These are just three (unintended?) consequences of the smoking ban. I could list many more but you don't need me to. Check the newsfeed on a regular basis and you will find all the evidence you need that the ban - which the government and other anti-smoking agencies say has been a great "success" - is causing all sorts of problems.

The solution is simple. Give pubs and clubs the option of applying to their local authority for a smoking licence that would allow enable some (a minority) to accommodate smokers, in comfort, indoors. (Oh, I forgot, that wouldn't be a "level playing field" but if the smoking ban is so popular that shouldn't be a problem, should it?)

Instead, the government will no doubt react to the consequences of the ban with further restrictions (on what we eat, where we can smoke), supported by legislation and backed up by fines and other penalties. Still, at least there won't be any job shortages - by 2020 half of our ever expanding population will be employed as uniformed wardens and undercover enforcement officers.

You couldn't make it up - but they did

Heard about No Smoking, a new Bollywood movie? No, neither had I, until this morning. According to the Telegraph, it's "a government-sponsored anti-smoking paranoid thriller".

"John Abraham plays a chain-smoking, cock-of-the-walk executive called K who signs on for a hard-core quitting programme. There are wacky musical numbers, and an unwise equation between fumigation by fags and Holocaust gas chambers."

According to Planet Bollywood, the lyrics mostly revolve around depicting the harmful effects of smoking. Songs include 'Ash Tray' and 'Jab Bhi Ciggaret Jalti Hai, Main Jalta Hoon'.

You couldn't make it up. But they did.

UK tops EU tobacco control league table

Still on the subject of Europe, the UK has the most comprehensive tobacco control measures in the whole of Europe, according to a new survey released yesterday. (Makes you proud to be British.)

Countries were judged according to a scale of measures including price increases through higher taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products, bans/restrictions on smoking in public and work places, comprehensive bans on the advertising and promotion of all tobacco products, and large, direct health warning labels on cigarette packs and other tobacco products.

Despite this, ASH say that smoking is still only declining at a rate of 0.4 per cent per year, which reminds me of the old saying - you can force a horse to water, but you can't make it ... Full story HERE.

EP supports EU-wide public smoking ban

STOP PRESS - the European Parliament today called for wide-ranging measures to restrict smoking in public places. A report by Karl-Heinz Florenz (EPP-ED, DE) was adopted with 561 votes in favour 63 against and 36 abstentions.

The EP says that 650,000 people a year die from smoking, including 80,000 from passive smoking. It also claims that while 70 per cent of Europeans are non-smokers, 86 per cent are in favour of a ban on smoking at work, 84 per cent in other public places, 61 per cent in bars and pubs and 77 per cent in restaurants.

DeHavilland, which provides Forest with political information, adds that:

MEPs want the Commission to designate environmental tobacco smoke a class 1 carcinogen and recommend that - within two years - member states impose smoking bans in all enclosed workplaces, including catering establishments, as well as in all enclosed public buildings and transport.

MEPs are also asking the Commission to examine measures such as introducing an EU-wide ban on the sale of tobacco products to people under 18 years of age, allowing cigarette machines to be placed only where they are inaccessible to minors, removing tobacco products from self-service displays in retail outlets ,and banning distance sales of tobacco products to young people (eg over the Internet). 

The report calls on member states to commit themselves "to reduce smoking among youth by at least 50 per cent by 2025" and for the Commission to consider "an EU-wide high minimum level of taxation of tobacco products".

All pretty predictable. But don't cancel those Europeans holidays just yet. This one could run and run.

Signs of the times

Smoking outside is now banned in and around play areas in Exeter. According to the local paper, "One hundred no smoking signs have been put up at 50 playgrounds in the city by the authority. The council believes the radical move is the next logical step following the nationwide banning of smoking in enclosed public spaces in July." The initiative, it says, is designed to protect children's health. Story HERE.

Badger cull - politics or health?

It was reported this week that Britain's chief scientist has called for large numbers of badgers to be culled to stop the spread of tuberculosis among cattle. I don't think the word 'epidemic' has been used (yet) but according to Sir David King, who will today give evidence to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee, "now was the time for action".

Various parties have lined up on either side of what could become a pretty bloody battle (literally). Wildlife supporters are up in arms, while farming leaders support the cull. As one who is now automatically suspicious of the many fanciful claims made by scientific and medical "experts", I'm firmly on the side of the badgers.

The Daily Mail reported that:

Critics of culling, including the RSPCA, accused Sir David of advocating 'senseless slaughter' and relying on political rather than scientific arguments.

Professor John Bourne, who wrote the report of the Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB, said Sir David's advice was not consistent with current science. He said such a policy was more in line "with the political need to do something" about the problem.

The RSPCA said a cull would mean "senseless slaughter, enormous suffering and would be scientifically bankrupt". Rob Atkinson, the charity's head of wildlife science, said: "This latest report seems to be less about science, and more about caving in to pressure to do something even if that something is the worst possible option.

I am further persuaded, not only by my own healthy scepticism (born of experience), but by comments attributed to Meurig Raymond, deputy president of the National Farmers' Union, who said: "Now that we have scientific endorsement for the principle of badger culling, there can be no further excuse for the Government not to act."

"Scientific endorsement ... no further excuse for the Government not to act." Now, where have I heard that before?

Full story HERE and HERE.

"Libertarian paternalism" unveiled

The Independent today leads with a report concerning a stunning speech given last night by Professor Julian Le Grand (left), chairman of Health England and a former senior Downing Street aide to Tony Blair. The full article is HERE but this is the bit that will attract most attention:

Professor Le Grand said instead of requiring people to make healthy choices – by giving up smoking, taking more exercise and eating less salt – policies should be framed so the healthy option is automatic and people have to choose deliberately to depart from it.

Among his suggestions are a proposal for a smoking permit, which smokers would have to produce when buying cigarettes, an "exercise hour" to be provided by all large companies for their employees and a ban on salt in processed food.

The idea, dubbed "libertarian paternalism", reverses the traditional government approach that requires individuals to opt in to healthy schemes. Instead, they would have to opt out to make the unhealthy choice, by buying a smoking permit, choosing not to participate in the exercise hour or adding salt at the table.

By preserving individual choice, the approach could be defended against charges of a "nanny state," he said. "Some people say this is paternalism squared. But at a fundamental level, you are not being made to do anything. It is not like banning something, it is not prohibition. It is a softer form of paternalism."

Before we dive in and ridicule his grand scheme, I should mention that I have a certain regard for Julian Le Grand because (a) I've met him and, (b) unlike many people in his position, he appeared to listen.

Three years ago, when John Reid was health secretary and struggling to come up with a policy on smoking in public places, I was invited - together with Forest chairman Lord Harris of High Cross - to meet him and three of his advisors. It was a private meeting, just the six of us, and the senior advisor was Julian Le Grand (who Ralph Harris knew of old).

For five uninterrupted minutes Ralph and I talked about passive smoking, epidemiology, the major studies, how the evidence didn't support a comprehensive ban etc etc. When we had finished, Reid turned to Le Grand and asked, "What do you think?" Le Grand replied, "I agree with them."

For the next 30 minutes we had a very agreeable discussion (Reid, it has to be said, doing most of the talking). Nevertheless, we were struck by their open-mindedness, their refusal to lecture us about the impact of smoking, and by John Reid's obvious desire to find a compromise that would give smokers some element of choice, although he made it clear that further, significant, restrictions were inevitable.

A few weeks later came the policy announcement - later included in the Labour Party's 2005 election manifesto - that smoking would be banned in all enclosed public places with exemptions for private clubs and pubs that don't serve food.

Personally, I welcome Le Grand's latest ideas - this is what politics is about - and I'm certainly not going to reject them out of hand without considerable thought. The (very clever) phrase "libertarian paternalism" is clearly designed to appeal to both camps, and especially middle England. That said, I believe that "libertarian paternalism" is an oxymoron and any attempt by government (or anti-smoking campaigners) to hijack the word "libertarian" for their own (restrictive) ends must be challenged and defeated.

At the same time, government needs our help: we have to relieve the pressure on politicians, civil servants and advisors by demonstrating that many of the health scares we read about are grossly exaggerated and the measures that are being taken (or proposed) are out of all proportion to the risk. 

It's a garantuan task - the momentum is with the prohibitionist health lobby - but I wouldn't be writing this blog if I didn't think that, one day, those of us with genuinely libertarian views will prevail.

Taking Liberties on DVD

I forgot to mention, last week, that Taking Liberties (the movie), which I wrote about at length earlier in the year (see HERE), is now available on DVD.

Although it got a huge thumbs up from the critics, a cheap as chips, documentary style film highlighting the way civil rights are being abused in Britain was never going to be major box office.

With Tony Blair consigned to history, it would be easy to dismiss Taking Liberties as yesterday's news. That would be a mistake. John Kampfner's article in the Telegraph on Friday (HERE) reiterated many of the points that were made in the film. Issues such as ID cards, CCTV cameras, freedom of speech and the right to protest will not go away.

The truth is, Taking Liberties barely scratched the surface. As director Chris Atkins admitted in the summer, there was so much more they could have included, but they had to draw a line somewhere. Nevertheless, it was a brave effort and I recommend the DVD.

The question is - apart from a handful of newspaper columnists and a smattering of lobby groups, who is going to take up the baton and run with it? As Kampfner put it:

The issue of liberty cuts across all parties. Labour's steady path to authoritarianism is a matter of shame for anyone such as myself. It also presents a tailor-made opportunity for its political opponents, one that they should have the courage to pursue.

BBC in alliance with anti-alcohol group

A new lobby group has been set up to spearhead a major drive against alcohol. Headed by the Royal College of Physicians (which founded ASH in 1971), the Alcohol Health Alliance will comprise 21 bodies, including Alcohol Concern, Action on Addiction, the Royal College of General Practitioners, Royal College of Nursing, and the Royal College of Surgeons.

The alliance is expected to call for a 10 per cent increase in alcohol taxation and government regulation of the drinks industry, including health warnings on alcohol advertising and other promotions.

According to one report, "The alliance plans a launch in late October or early November in conjunction with a BBC survey looking at the availability and use of services for those suffering from alcohol-related illnesses."

In conjunction with the BBC? Just fancy that! Story HERE.

Why? Because they can get away with it

Another thought-provoking article on Michael Siegel's tobacco-related blog, The Rest of the Story. In recent years, Prof Siegel's site has become required reading for anyone with an interest in the smoking debate. According to his blog profile:

I am a physician who specialized in preventive medicine and public health. I am now a professor in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, Boston University School of Public Health. I have 20 years of experience in tobacco control, primarily as a researcher. My areas of research interest include the health effects of secondhand smoke, policy aspects of regulating smoking in public places, effects of cigarette marketing on youth smoking behavior, and the evaluation of tobacco control program and policy interventions.

Tobacco industry stooge? I think not. The title of his most recent post asks, 'Why has the tobacco control movement lost its scientific integrity?'. He addresses this question (which, you will notice, includes a very clear statement) before concluding:

This is the new era of tobacco control ... And it has truly become a free-for-all for anti-smoking organizations.

Imagine this: the anti-smoking groups can actually claim that 30 minutes of secondhand smoke exposure is enough to cause hardening of the arteries. They can actually claim that 30 minutes of secondhand smoke exposure increases your risk of a fatal heart attack to the same level as that of an active smoker. They can actually claim that two hours of secondhand smoke increases your risk of sudden death from a cardiac arrhythmia.

And they can get away with it. That's why I think the anti-smoking groups have lost their scientific integrity. Because they can get away with it.

Full post HERE.

Update on Monday, October 22, 2007 by Simon Clark

Further to Michael Siegel's comments (above), I have just received an email thanking me for attending the Towards a Smokefree Society Conference in Edinburgh last month. Most of the presentations are now available on the conference website - click HERE. As you can see, it was a pretty comprehensive programme - if you enjoy being brainwashed. Debate? Don't be silly. In their world, there is no debate.

Dinner with David Cameron

Forest has negotiated a special 'Friends of Forest' reduced price ticket to attend a timely black tie dinner with David Cameron. Organised by Conservative Way Forward, the CWF Annual Dinner is at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London, on Monday November 5. The price (£100, reduced from £125) includes complimentary wine and a complimentary pre-dinner drinks reception supported by Forest.

I appreciate that, even with the reduced rate, this still isn't cheap. These are interesting times, however, and it is important that groups such as Forest take every opportunity to engage in the political process and support other groups, many of whose members are, by and large, on a similar libertarian wavelength. If more like-minded people can join us at these events, so much the better.

For additional information and to order your tickets online click HERE, or telephone 020 7403 3990 (Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5.30pm). All you have to do is say you are a 'friend of Forest' and you qualify for the reduced price. Over half of all available tickets have been sold and remaining tickets are selling fast – so book now to guarantee your place.

PS. We'll be handing out some promotional items - CDs, t-shirts etc.

Bristol protest march

Paul Toole (above) leads a protest march against the public smoking ban. Following protests in Wells and Glastonbury, marchers gathered in Bristol yesterday where they were joined by local students. Story HERE. Paul and his partner Chris now plan to take their protest to London in the new year.

Battle of Ideas at the Royal College of Art

Claire Fox (left), director of the Institute of Ideas and a regular panellist on Radio 4's The Moral Maze, has been a friend for many years. We first met at Auberon Waugh's Academy Club (see HERE) shortly after I was appointed director of Forest. Later I tried to win her support by sending her a giant sponge cake that resembled a packet of her favourite Silk Cut. Somehow our friendship survived and over the years she has chaired or spoken at numerous Forest events - most recently our Revolt In Style dinner at The Savoy Hotel in June.

I mention this as the preamble to publicising the latest Battle of Ideas at the Royal College of Art, London, next weekend (October 27-28). Described as a "two-day festival of high level, thought-provoking debate", the Battle of Ideas is Claire's creation. As you would expect, there is a strong libertarian theme - but the emphasis is on intelligent debate so don't go expecting some sort of mindless political rally.

Subjects include arts & culture, health & well-being, liberty & law, lifestyle & society and much, much more. Full details, including ticket prices, HERE. Warmly recommended.