Sunday, October 31, 2010 From the United States comes a timely warning courtesy of our old friend Professor John Banzhaf of Action on Smoking and Health. Adults should warn their children against visiting, going to parties, or playing in homes where adults smoke, especially in their presence. Full Halloween health warning HERE.
Sunday, October 31, 2010 
Forest Eireann's John Mallon (left) has a kind word for Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin following some very sad news. Click HERE.
Sunday, October 31, 2010 It was my son's sixteenth birthday yesterday so, at his request, we went to see the new production of Yes, Prime Minister at the Guielgud Theatre in London. I didn't think it was as sharp as the TV series (it relied too much on farce) but I am in broad agreement with the Telegraph's review HERE. Everyone - including the Russian couple behind us - seemed to enjoy it.
My only complaint was the seating. The Gielgud is a lovely theatre but like most of London's Victorian/Edwardian theatres it was clearly built for people with very short legs. I'm average height (5' 10" on a good day) yet I was very uncomfortable. Goodness know how taller people manage. At the interval I had to move to a seat at the end of the row so I could stretch my legs.
Our tickets in the front row of the dress circle cost £52 each so it's not cheap when you take a family of four. Even "restricted view" tickets are in the region of £30 or so and who wants to be stuck behind a pillar?
Comfortable seats, underground parking facilities and a huge bar for those essential interval drinks are just three reasons why you can't beat the much maligned Barbican.
Simon Clark
Oh, and I have just spent the evening watching The Godfather (Part I) because one of my son's other birthday requests was the complete box set. I hope it doesn't give him any ideas.
Friday, October 29, 2010 Following the publication of THIS Forest report on Wednesday, the director of the Institute of Economic Affairs Mark Littlewood has joined the clamour of voices calling for the Government to stop funding anti-smoking campaign groups.
Writing on the IEA blog, Littlewood comments:
No one can object to citizens establishing campaigning groups to draw attention to the potential health risks of tobacco consumption or to pharmaceutical companies aggressively lobbying to promote their alternative nicotine products, such as chewing gum and patches. But for taxpayers’ money to be given over to such causes is wholly unacceptable ...
The problem with taxpayer support of groups such as ASH is not just that it forces people to fund campaign groups they may disagree with, but that there is a danger that the public believe that such groups really are private and completely independent. There may be a debate to be had about what sort of role the Department of Health should play in encouraging or facilitating smoking cessation, but at least when you hear from a health minister you can be reasonably clear where they are coming from.
The government needs to be clear about limiting the scope of the public sector, not merely its size. Removing taxpayer-funded grants to groups such as ASH will not make a substantial impact on the deficit, but it would indicate that the government is opposed to using public funds to “load the dice” in areas of campaigning. The coalition should ensure that anti-tobacco groups are obliged to stand on their own two feet.
Full post HERE.
Simon Clark
The Forest report - and Mark's comments - have also been noted by a blogger in New Zealand. See Government lobby thyself (Offsetting Behaviour).
Thanks to Dick Puddlecote for the link. DP notes that our call for an end to state aid for anti-tobacco groups has been joined not only by the Institute for Economic Affairs but also the Adam Smith Institute and the TaxPayers Alliance - not a bad little coalition! See:
The anti-smoking boondoggle (ASI)
Lots more taxpayer funded politics (TPA)
See also my previous post for links to other (third party) posts on the subject of our report.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Forest today publishes a new report, Government lobbying government: the case of the UK tobacco control industry. I have written about it on Conservative Home: The state should stop giving anti-smoking groups public money to lobby the Government.
Click HERE to comment.
You can download the 18-page report HERE. I'm not expecting any coverage in the mainstream media (although a press release has been sent to every daily newspaper in England, Scotland and Wales) so I hope the blogosphere can make up for it. Over to you.
Simon Clark
Related blog posts - please comment:
Let's ban 'lobbying' money to pressure groups (Iain Dale)
Smoking: government lobbying government (Dizzy Thinks)
Cut funding to tobacco control industry (Tea and Cigarettes)
Someone turn that tap off! (Dick Puddlecote)
Oink (Velvet Glove, Iron Fist)
About government lobbying government (Freedom2Choose Scotland)
Simon Clark
From the Adam Smith Institute blog:
Apart from the obvious waste of money involved here – does anybody know what ‘tobacco control studies’ actually is? – today’s report shows the alarming habit the government has of pushing people around to fit its own vision of what ‘good’ habits are ...
If the government is serious about restoring some of the freedoms lost during the Labour years and scaling back the state's presence in our lives, the anti-smoking quangos would be a nice place to start.
Simon Clark
Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers Alliance, has this to say:
Simon Clark, from the smokers' lobby group Forest, wrote on ConservativeHome about the amount of money going to anti-smoking campaigns who lobby the Government.
I don't know about some of the groups his research looks at, like No Smoking Day, but ASH are an outright political campaign. They lobby for changes in the law and it is outrageous that taxpayers' money is being spent supporting private political agendas.
Proposals like a ban on displaying cigarettes in shops will create significant costs for small businesses and there should be a fair debate over them, one side can't enjoy a massive advantage funded by taxpayers who may not agree with them.
Link HERE.
Monday, October 25, 2010 
Great interview with Forest supporter Jenty Burrill on BBC Radio Kent this morning.
We were asked to provide a smoker who enjoys smoking and has no intention of giving up. Endearingly honest about her health, Jenty, 71, fitted the bill perfectly. Sample quote:
"I hope to die with a cigarette in one hand and a glass of whisky in the other."
Cue laughter from presenter Julia George (an ex-smoker), who added, "Jenty, you're fabulous!".
Click HERE to listen to the four-minute interview. It begins around 1:05:00 minutes in. If I had time to transcribe the whole thing I would.
Simon Clark
Click HERE to read a transcript of Jenty on Breakfast With Frost, April 4, 2004. Note the contribution by the then Health Secretary John Reid towards the end.
Monday, October 25, 2010 Look out for an item on Newsnight tonight inspired by Nick Clegg's fondness for the occasional cigarette. The programme hopes to feature a high profile yet unrepentant smoker who is not embarrassed to talk about his (or her) habit. I was happy to suggest a few names ...
Simon Clark
The unrepentant smoker will be Nigel Farage. Sadly they have dropped the proposed studio discussion in favour of a (very) short report. Blink and you might miss it ...
Simon Clark
I've probably moaned about this before but Newsnight is the one news and current affairs programme that I have never appeared on.
I've been on Newsnight Scotland a couple of times but never the UK version. The closest I came was in June 2004 when I was invited to take part in a studio discussion that was to follow a filmed interview with David Hockney.
The producer asked me to appear opposite Sam Etherington of the British Medical Association and the opportunity was so good that I cancelled plans to catch a train to Liverpool for an early morning interview on BBC Radio Merseyside.
Around 8.00pm the producer rang to say that the studio discussion was off. He didn't give a reason so when I watched the programme and saw Etherington being interviewed on his own by an unusually tame Kirsty Wark I almost hit the roof.
In fact I was so annoyed that I rang Newsnight immediately after the programme and complained bitterly that a whimsical interview with a national treasure followed by an unchallenging interview with a senior member of the BMA did not constitute a balanced report.
My heated protests fell on deaf ears and I have never again been invited to appear on the BBC's flagship news programme.
Simon Clark
Former landlord Nick Hogan tells me that he is on Five Live (Tony Livesey) from midnight tonight.
Meanwhile Forest supporter Jenty Burrill was featured on BBC Radio Kent this morning (around 1:05:00 minutes in) ... Oh, and I shall be on BBC Radio Jersey at 08:05 tomorrow.
Monday, October 25, 2010 Further to the revelation that Nick Clegg's luxury item on a desert island would be a "stash of cigarettes", the Daily Mail reports that "Mr Clegg began smoking as a teenager, when he would take girlfriends to the local ‘caff for a furtive Silk Cut and a glass of Diet Coke’."
The prime minister is also believed to have smoked Silk Cut in the days (not so long ago) when he too smoked.
The question, therefore, is this: was it a mutual fondness for Silk Cut that helped bring Cameron and Clegg together?
Sunday, October 24, 2010 This morning on Radio 4 Britain's deputy prime minister - the man who refuses to even review let alone amend the smoking ban - will reveal that his preferred luxury item on a desert island would be ... a stash of cigarettes. You couldn't make it up.
What is remarkable about this revelation is that it will have been thought through extremely carefully not just by Clegg but, I suspect, by a whole team of advisers. (Remember the trouble the Lib Dem leader got into when Piers Morgan persuaded him, in an interview, to reveal how many women he had slept with?)
My guess is that the message here is: Nick Clegg, the man you can trust because he tells the truth, warts and all. Then again, Clegg strikes me as the type of man who wants to be seen as quite cool and trendy.
Perhaps it's best not to over analyse his response. Let's just be grateful that in 2010 the deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom isn't afraid to broadcast the fact that he enjoys smoking. If only he demonstrated a bit more empathy for his fellow smokers who would like to light up not on a desert island but in some pubs and clubs.
Desert Island Discs with Nick Clegg will be broadcast at 11:15 this morning and 09:00 on Friday October 29. The BBC has the story HERE.
PS. This explains the phone call I got from the Sunday Times late yesterday afternoon asking if there are any other members of the Cabinet, apart from Clegg, Ken Clarke and Andrew Mitchell (cigars, apparently) who smoke. Truth is, I don't know.
H/T Rose W
Sunday, October 24, 2010 
OK, there were (by my estimation) at least 700 other people in the room but on Thursday night I spent a good hour in the company of Tess Daly who was compering the 2010 SLTN (Scottish Licensed Trade News) Awards.
I'm not entirely sure why the SLTN would invite an English TV personality to host their awards (was Jackie Bird unavailable?) but Tess worked hard to control a crowd that was well oiled by the time she came on stage. Publicans on a night out are unlikely to be teetotal and Diageo - among others - made sure that they weren't.
The Billy Connolly style comedian from Canada (who lives in Devon) did particularly well. I am told that two years ago the after dinner entertainment was booed off stage. That was never going to happen this time. He went down a storm.
Anyway, back to Tess who had the difficult job of following a loud sweary comedian by hosting the presentation of no fewer than 22 awards including Community Pub of the Year, Barperson of the Year and, er, Mixologist of the Year.
Our table, like many others, was interested in one award only. In our case it was the award for Best Smoking Facilities sponsored by Imperial Tobacco. I had a special interest in this because I was actually invited to spend two days in Scotland in August judging the nominees. Unfortunately I was on holiday at the time so I couldn't enjoy what would have been the longest pub crawl of my life.
Anyway the chosen finalists were The Secret Garden at Hawke and Hunter (Edinburgh), The Three Sisters (Edinburgh) and The Victoria Inn (Carronshore, near Falkirk) and by a remarkable irony the winner was The Secret Garden in Edinburgh.
I say irony because you may remember that I visited The Secret Garden last year and raved about it HERE. We subsequently booked it for a private event to mark the launch of Brian Monteith's book The Bully State but had to cancel when the venue changed its smoking policy under pressure from the council. See HERE.
I am told that the problem was subsequently resolved (albeit by removing the overhead panels that sheltered customers from the rain) so if you're in Edinburgh on a reasonably fine day check it out. Ditto The Three Sisters and Tigerlilly, a venue whose smoking area matches the best that even Dublin has to offer (or so I am told).
Sunday, October 24, 2010 Earlier this week I was invited to attend the 25th Showman's Show in Newbury, Berkshire. I couldn't go but the reason for the invitation became clear when organiser Stephen Lance told me, "We are rather proud of our Smoking Area at the Showman’s Show this year."
I am delighted to support any event that makes an effort to cater for smokers. However I couldn't help wondering why an "Outdoor Events Services Exhibition" needs a smoking area when a substantial part of the event is, er, outside in a field.
PS. I have asked Stephen to send me a photo of the smoking area. Watch this space.
Friday, October 22, 2010 I've been a bit busy this week so I haven't had a chance to post about an open letter to Vince Cable from Peter Kellner, president of YouGov and a trustee of ASH. Now is the time, we are told, to choose between the smoking lobby and the British people. Note the implication that you can be one or the other but not both.
And since when did Peter Kelner and, by implication, ASH represent "the British people"?
You can read the full article and the comments HERE. I particularly like this response:
Many people believes that YouGov is independent but how can it be when 'Peter Kellner is president of YouGov and a trustee of ASH'. He should resign now in order that YouGov can be trusted.
I agree and I urge you to comment too.
But first you might like to read a post I wrote in 2008 on the subject of Kellner's links with ASH and the potential conflict of interest this creates when ASH commission YouGov to conduct opinion polls on their behalf:
Peter Kellner, YouGov and ASH (October 2008)
Friday, October 22, 2010 Further to yesterday's post about the bashing given to the RAND report at the meeting I attended in Brussels on Wednesday, I am delighted/intrigued to note that a disclaimer has been added to the RAND report link on the EC website. It now reads:
This document does not represent the point of view of the European Commission. The interpretations and opinions in it are solely those of the authors.
Now that's what I call a result.
Thursday, October 21, 2010 It's been a mad month: Birmingham, Bangalore and, yesterday, Brussels. Tonight I'm in Glasgow for the annual SLTN Awards that honour "the best venues and individuals Scotland’s licensed trade has to offer". Must dash. I've a train to catch.
Simon Clark
Currently sharing a coach with David Dimbleby. I assume he's en route to wherever Question Time is being broadcast tonight. I don't know what he's eating but I've just had a very nice cottage pie washed down with a (small) bottle of shiraz.
Update: The Question Time web page reports that "David Dimbleby is joined in Middlesbrough by Philip Hammond MP, John Denham MP, Caroline Lucas MP, General Sir Richard Dannatt, George Pascoe-Watson and Polly Toynbee". So that's where he's going.
Update: Love the east coast of Scotland from the Borders up to Edinburgh via Dunbar, North Berwick and Haddington. Sun shining. What's not to like?
