Simon Clark - Taking Liberties

As promised, we have printed 50,000 cards to promote Antony Worrall Thompson's e-petition to review the smoking ban.

They are available in boxes of 100 and we are looking for volunteers to distribute them to smokers outside pubs, clubs, offices and cafes – anywhere, in fact, where adults are smoking.

If you would like to join our team of distributors please email info@amendthesmokingban.com with your name, address and occupation. (If you have already been in touch you don't have to do it again.)

As I write, 3,290 people have signed AWT's petition which has dropped back to number 43 in the pecking order (from a high of 38 two weeks ago).

Don't panic! As I have said several times, this is a marathon not a sprint.

Update on Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 18:21 by

Simon Clark

I know some of you are disappointed with the level of support AWT's petition has attracted to date.

To put it in perspective, search for other smoking or tobacco-related e-petitions on the Government website. AWT's is easily the most popular.

Here's a selection (AWT's petition is in caps):

REVIEW THE SMOKING BAN (3,290)
Amend the smoking ban (474)
Smoking ban review (173)
Amend the smoking ban (71)
Abolish all smoking restrictions (14)
Allow pubs to have seperate indoor smoking rooms (12)
Allow smoking in certain licensed venues/areas (5)
Equal number of smoking and non-smoking pubs and nightclubs in the UK (5)
Re-instate shisha smoking for indoor use and prevent further banning of shisha (3)

And here's another reason to be cheerful. Note how badly the anti-tobacco petitions are doing in comparison to AWT's petition:

Smoking ban in all prisons (192)
Stop smoking at MKGH (78)
Ban smoking in all public places (22)
Ban smoking whilst driving (42)
Ban smoking in the UK (11)
Ban smoking in cars carrying under 18's (11)
Ban the sale of tobacco products (11)
Ban smoking in the Palace of Westminster (10)
Extend the smoking ban to tourist attractions aimed at children (8)
Smoking illegal if born post 2012 (7)
Increase smoking age by one year every year (7)
Make smoking illegal for parents until the child is at the age of 18 (6)
Get tobacco covered under the misuse of drugs act (6)
Ban the "fag break" (5)
Stop smoking in childrens park (4)
Make spending benefit money on tobacco and alcohol illegal (3)
Make tobacco illegal in England (3)
Criminalise smoking and alcohol (3)
Stop smoking at the school gates (2)
Limit tobacco sales to small retail outlets (1)
Raise the legal limit to purchase tobacco in the UK to 25 years old and above (1)

It's true that AWT's petition has stalled a bit in recent weeks, but we expected that would happen after the initial surge of support from a handful of libertarian blogs.

Hence the printed cards.

Stage two of our e-petition campaign is to reach out to people who don't read Dick Puddlecote, Taking Liberties, Velvet Glove Iron Fist, Tea and Cigarettes, Underdogs Bite Upwards, Orphans of Liberty etc etc and one way to do that is to distribute as many e-petition cards as we possibly can.

Help distribute the first 50k and we'll print another 50k. And another 50k after that. In fact, with your help we'll keep printing cards (and promoting the petition online) until we have exhausted every possible avenue of support.

Over to you.