Busy day.
It began with an alarm call at 5.30 which I slept through. Instead I woke up at 6.30 when the radio by the bed sprang into life and I heard the instantly recognisable sound of the Today programme on Radio 4.
Set off by car for Birmingham at 7.15. Got caught in heavy traffic on the M6 but arrived in good time for my first meeting – at the International Conference Centre – at 9.30.
After that, another meeting – this time at the Hyatt Hotel – and then I wandered around Brindley Place (by the canal) checking out possible venues for an event during the Conservative Conference in October.
At 12.30 I was back on the road listening to George Osborne's Budget statement in the car. I can't remember the exact moment I heard that tobacco duty is to go up by eight per cent (an average of 37p per packet) but I was on the A14 at the time and my response was already in my head.
Back in Cambridge we issued this press release and within an hour Forest's reaction had appeared here – Smokers slam tobacco duty rise . I've now been quoted (online) by the Guardian, Mirror, Daily Mail and Daily Express to name a few.
It's now 5.30 and in the next hour I am doing a couple of radio interviews. I also have to collect my daughter from her ballet class and meet my son at the train station. (He's been in London on a school trip.)
I then have to drive my daughter to another dancing lesson and the BBC has just rung to ask if I will return to Cambridge (a round trip of 40 miles) to be interviewed on the BBC News Channel shortly after nine.
Meanwhile the Huffington Post wants an article on the same subject – tonight. I have asked them if tomorrow morning will do. I'm just a little bit busy at the moment.
Update: Broadcasting legend and LBC presenter James Whale to Yours Truly this evening: "I do wish you'd find a better outlet for your talents."
He's not the first radio presenter who has said this to me!