AWT petition update

Thanks to the following for uploading the web button (right) with a link to Antony Worrall Thompson's petition:

Dick Puddlecote
Freedom2Choose
Nothing 2 Declare
Orphans of Liberty
Tea and Cigarettes
Underdogs Bite Upward

The following blogs have also linked to the petition:

Frank Davis
Fuel Injected Moose

See also:

E-petition launched to review the smoking ban (ConservativeHome)
New Petition to Amend the Smoking Ban launched (Progressive Vision)
The smoking ban must be reconsidered (Freedom Association)

And:

Worrall Thompson calls on government to amend smoking ban (Retail Times) and Antony Worrall Thompson launches petition for smoking ban review (CatererSearch.com)

At the time of writing there are 504 signatures on the petition.

Update on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 23:37 by Simon Clark

I've been at a wedding most of the day.

Just got back to find that the London Evening Standard featured a short item about AWT's petition ('Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson has downed knives to take part in the e-democracy revolution ...').

The petition also attracted the attention of the Mail Online. In an article entitled Why e-petitions are proving to be more than just a gimmick) Harry Phibbs wrote, 'New petitions keep appearing all the time. This week saw one launched by the celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson to allow smoking rooms in pubs.' Sadly the Mail didn't link to it.

At the time of writing the petition has 841 supporters. Tomorrow we will send an e-newsletter to supporters of the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign. That should push the figure beyond 1,000 but there's a long way to go before we reach our target of a place in the top 20 petitions.

Meanwhile two more blogs have linked to the petition:

English Pensioner
The Angry Exile

Comments

[Chalcedon]

Is there a link where we petitioners can view the signatories?

Thank you

[Wikipedia]

Is this the AWT that put his restaurant business into administration leaving 60 staff jobless and wages unpaid, rather than investing in the company with money he then used to buy two of the properties back? Or could it be the AWT who boasts of cheating on his first two wives? Or maybe the AWT who advised readers of a food magazine to sprinkle Henbane, a toxic plant, in salads? Or the AWT whose Greyhound business was inspected by South Oxfordshire environmental health officers where food hygiene was 'poor' and 'standards generally low'? Or AWT, whose produced a dessert recipe the Food Commission regarded as one of the most unhealthy ever? Or the attention craving AWT who set up the Antony Worrall Thompson Trophy - a 'charity' football cup he gave up on after only one season? Or the one who lost the BBC Great British Menu because he burnt the food? Or is it the AWT that is a patron of Forest, the front for tobacco companies, that wrote his petition for him? Just wondering.

[Frank]

Wiki: Does it matter, you fool?

[Fredrik Eich]

Wiki, apparently mother teresa was approached first but was sadly unavailable.

[Bev Bailey]

I'm guessing Wikipedia has just given up smoking. He's terribly stressed isn't he? I'm worried about him.

[nisakiman]

"wiki" has posted exactly the same comment on the F2C blog - methinks he'll be repeating the exercise elsewhere. As BB points out, he does sound stressed about something. I also get the vague impression that he's not very keen on AWT - just a feeling I have....

Ok, pedant time - Simon, there's a typo in the header (Thompon ?).

[Jon]

Simon, does Forest have patrons? I can't find any record of AWT having that or any similar connection with Forest. Incidentally, hats off to AWT if he did produce the unhealthiest dessert ever.

[Jon]

Link to henbane story. Slip of the tongue. Not a problem. No fatalities

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article4454270.ece

All publicity is good publicity. We are not trying to get AWT canonised. We just want to draw people's attention to the petition. Wiki, perhaps you could dig up something about children or animals.

[Smoking Hot]

I feel left out ... no wiki on mine. That's discrimination that is!

[TheBigYin]

I couldn't be bothered answering wiki, he's a chump and probably in the pay of Big Pharma...well, what's good for the goose.

[Jon]

Each day the number of signatures more than doubles. After 64 days we will have more signatures than there are atoms in the universe.

[nisakiman]

Well I've sent out an email to a few in my address book.

"You may have heard of the government e-petition that has recently been introduced, the idea being that if 100,000 signatures are collected then the subject will be raised in parliament. A petition has been proposed by the chef Anthony Worrall Thompson:

REVIEW THE SMOKING BAN
We petition the Government to review the impact of the smoking ban on pubs and clubs and consider an amendment that would give licensees the option of separate well-ventilated smoking rooms.

The link to the petition is below, and I would ask you to take two minutes to sign it, and then pass this email on to seven friends, asking them to do the same.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/14103

This is not just about smoking, it is about freedom of choice and property rights.

The ban is predicated on the dangers of second-hand smoke, but apparently with little or no justification.

http://daveatherton.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/more-scepticism-on-the-harm-of-passive-smoking-from-professor-philippe-even/

http://daveatherton.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/scientists-and-scholars-dissent-on-the-harm-of-passive-smoking/

And for the non-smokers among us, this is important to you too. We are at the top of a slippery slope; the neo-puritans have the bit between their teeth and are ready to start the "de-normalisation" process on the drinkers and the overweight. And then who is next? Because there will be a next. These people are never satisfied. They always want more. Niemoller Sums it up well:- ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came%E2%80%A6 )

http://www.news.com.au/national/cigs-war-won-now-cancer-campaigners-set-their-sights-on-beer/story-e6frfkw9-1226088686962#ixzz1RHTDSEKQ

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/07/public-health

This drive to remove our basic rights of self-determination needs to be nipped in the bud, and this petition is a good place to start.

So regardless of whether you smoke or not, if you value your freedom, take the time to sign.

Thanks.

ps. If this subject interests you (and it should), there is a mine of information and useful links here:

http://dickpuddlecote.blogspot.com/"

I've nicked a couple of links from DP (I figured you wouldn't mind, DP!) and included a couple from Dave A. Hopefully it will get passed on, and the tally will rise.

[Belinda]

couldn't add the link, blogspot said it was broken but perhaps I'm doing something wrong.

[Helen]

Another way of spreading word of the petition is by placing the link into the comments section of news articles that are forever appearing - every little bit helps!!

[Neil McIntee]

The FairFuelUK e-petition is more prominent, but it's also on the home page here. Van drivers have a tendency to smoke.

[Misty]

Aww! Poor diddle Wikeee! He's vewwy vewwy cwoss, so he is! He's going to skweam and skweem and skweem until he's sick. So there!

[Martin V]

Wikipedia ?

Hope this isn't the same 'Wikipedia' that gives such a splendid account of the perils of 'Global Warming' (AGW, as opposed to AWT) - complete with fatuous Hockey Stick Graph (Pseudoscience's answer to Osama bin Laden).

If so, I can't wait for his/its equally reliable account of the 'liberation' of Libya by the murderous gangs of MI6/CIA-backed thugs, known as 'The Rebels' to the BBC propagandists in this context - but as 'Al Qaida' in others.

Only asking !

[Wikipedia]

Would this be the same Harry Phibbs, whose 'work' led to the disbanding of the Federation of Conservative Students by Norman Tebbitt? Imagine being too right-wing for Norman!

What a funny lot you spittle-flecked people are! And not one of you considered I might be female!

[Frank]

Wiki: I did. And I'll say no more.

[Dave Atherton]

If you guys get bored with the TV tonight I should be on Manchester Radio tonight at 9.30 pm. The E petitions and the Comedy Club on the 4th October in Manchester will no doubt be mentioned.

I hope you can join me.

http://www.manchesterradioonline.com/

[Pat Nurse]

Wiki seems to me to be a bitter smokerphobic who can't stand the thought that smokers have any support and in true anti fashion, she or he, must therefore attack the support we have.

I think you're right Misty - the bigot is having a toddler tantrum - I can see the spittle showering all over (his or her) computer as (he or she) writes in rabid rage because not everyone hates smokers as (he or she) would like.

These are truly disgusting people who pretend to "care" about other people and their health when in fact they care only for their own prejudices and having the world in the image that they selfishly demand. Yuk!

[Dave Atherton]

@Wikipedia

Are you Gordon Ramsay exacting revenge?

Or 'And not one of you considered I might be female!'

Delia Smith on a bad hair day?

[Junican]

Isn't Wikipedia that online encyclopedia? Ah....that would explain it.......a bit of a know-all.

[chas]

Also sign this one to cut the funding of ASH:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/6507

[Junican]

Hope Simon does not mind....

Dave Atherton....are you there? Is the programme that you are on called 'The Odd Couple'?