According to the British Lung Foundation:
Children from across the UK will visit parliament today to present a petition to the Government calling for an end to smoking in cars.
I don't know about you, but I'm a bit uneasy about children "from across the UK" being used for a PR stunt like this, and I'm curious to know how they were recruited.
On BBC Radio Cambridgeshire this morning a spokesman for the British Lung Foundation explained that over half (51 per cent) of 8-15 year olds are exposed to tobacco smoke in cars.
How do they know that? Why, the children told them, of course, and the BLF believed them!
Perhaps the BLF is unaware that only 25 per cent of adults smoke and 84 per cent of smokers say they don't smoke in the car if children are present, but their word doesn't count, does it, because "the children" say otherwise.
Btw, it's my birthday today. Some birthday! Before breakfast I had argued with a pleasant young woman from the British Lung Foundation and followed that with a serious spat with the breakfast presenter on BBC Radio Leeds who I accused of never letting me finish a sentence without interruption.
I then did an interview with Radio Mersyside. Before I was introduced they broadcast a report that included interviews with two of the children who were going to London with the BLF. The reporter finished by saying, "Success to you". Back in the studio the presenter compounded this bias by calling it a "very important mission". Asked on air what I thought of what I had heard, I suggested that it was "rather one-sided". (I was being polite.)
An hour ago I was on BBC Radio Sheffield and was forced to listen to an absurd story about a driver who was "blinded" by cigarette ash blowing back into his face, terrifying his passenger.
So this is what it has come to - public policy being driven by the opinions of young children (heavily influenced by the propaganda they are subjected to at school), and bizarre, anecdotal evidence.
I'm on the BBC Wales phone-in from midday to one o'clock. After that I think I'll have a lie down. Did I mention it's my birthday?
Update: I shall be on BBC Radio London at 5.20 and BBC Radio Jersey at 5.45.
Click here or on the image above to see how Central Regional News (ITV) covered the story. Includes a reference to Forest's response.