Review the smoking ban e-petition closes

Yesterday was the closing date for our e-petition to review the smoking ban.

Final number of signatures – 5,562.

Now, I can't gloss over the fact that this falls far short of what we would like to have achieved but I don't regret giving it a go and I disagree strongly with some of the boorish comments the petition has attracted elsewhere.

You need national or local media interest to generate significant support for an e-petition. The backing of a big public sector body helps. Ditto a large union or membership organisation. It's helpful too if the issue is topical.

We scored poorly in all these areas.

In comparison however to other tobacco-related e-petitions (including anti-tobacco ones), ours did respectably well. Consider, for example, the number of people who signed these e-petitions (now also closed):

• Amend the smoking ban 608
• Smoking ban review 207
• Amend the smoking ban 83
• Ban smoking whilst driving 80
• Extend the smoking ban to tourist attractions aimed at children 16
• Ban smoking in the UK 47
• Smoking should be banned inside motorised vehicles 2
• Ban smoking in all public places 65
• Ban tobacco 16
• Ban the sale of tobacco products 19
• Make it illegal to smoke in cars with children 7

Now consider the e-petitions that are still open. They include:

• Ban smoking in prison 8
• Ban smoking while driving 8
• Ban smoking in flats 2
• Ban smoking on TV 5
• Amend smoking ban to protect children in cars 6
• Ban smoking breaks for public sector employees 3
• Ban smoking inside the perimeter of children's playgrounds 44
• Ban smoking in cars and all other vehicles 4
• Stop the legislation that will ban smoking in cars 6
• Ban smoking on TV, theatre stage, & new films 4
• Ban smoking in cars carrying under 18's 32
• Ban smoking outside all public entrances and town centres 8
• Stop the plans to ban smoking in private cars 5
• Ban smoking in outside areas of restaurants & pubs that serve food! 33
• All out ban on smoking 3
• Enclosed smoking shelters 2
• Ban alcohol, caffeine and smoking 2
• Stop smoking on the street 23
• If smoking in cars is to banned then it should also be banned in prisons and parliament 5
• Stop all new anti smoking laws 1
• Stop smoking at the school gates 11
• Re-instate shisha smoking for indoor use and prevent further banning of shisha 13
• Investigate legislation to remove or reduce nicotine in cigarettes 1
• Smokers' clubs 4
• Increase the price of tobacco/cigerettes [sic] 3
• Ban small children from cars 7
• Freedom of choice to smokers 5

Add the responses to ALL these e-petitions together and the total number of signatories (some of which may be duplicated) is 1,405.

In that context our e-petition did OK. In fact I can't find a single tobacco-related e-petition (for or against) that has attracted close to 1,000 supporters let alone 5,000+.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it was a success, I'm just saying it wasn't the embarrassment that some armchair critics seem to think it was.

My final word on the subject is to thank everyone who supported it. Thanks too to all the bloggers who promoted it and added the e-petition button to their own blogs.

Thanks, most of all, to Forest patron Antony Worrall Thompson for lending his name to the petition. He didn't have to but he was prepared to stick his head above the parapet. Not many 'celebrities' would have done that.

Anyway, if you don't at first succeed, try, try and try again. (Have I mentioned that 235,000 people signed our petition against plain packaging of tobacco?)

Comments

[Julie]

Thanks for this interesting post; it is really helpful with putting my own ideas about popular support for anti-smoking in perspective.
If it makes you feel any better, this;
'You need national or local media interest to generate significant support for an e-petition. '
is certainly right - in terms of getting people to hear about you and getting petitions signed (for whatever that is worth).

If I had heard about this petition, I would have signed it- as it was, I *did* hear about the 'plain packaging' one, and signed that one.

I'm a non-smoker. I wear contact lenses and I don't like going into smoky venues because it makes my eyes really sore - but what I dislike even more is the sanctimonious attitude of the illiberal anti- brigade.

There are other ways of managing areas where people smoke than banning it. In pubs, smoking- and non-smoking-rooms, for a start, where people could choose where they want to go.

The idea of criminalizing smoking- the aim of the anti-smoking brigade - is an affront to civil liberty and the right of a morally autonomous individual to choose for themselves.

If someone knows about all the health risks and yet continues to smoke - that's fine by me.
It should be their own *choice*, after all.

[Chris]

What value Government petitions?
Smokers know they will be ignored -Clegg said so 'cos, just like the death penalty , amendments to the smoking ban are not negotiable = How can you criticize me - I'm an clever Oxford University 'beyond criticism' Plonker and my certificate tells me the people are wrong.

[Jay]

Are we going to start another petition or what? Might I suggest Stephen Fry as our next petitioner? Who doesn't love him?

[Mark Butcher]

any chance of using the database of those who signed the anti-plain packs petition to re-launch a smoking ban campaign?

[Mark]

Excluding people from society with a smoking ban that forces them to stand outside in the cold or stay at home is morally wrong. This has got to be changed.

[Pat Nurse]

Thanks Julie - such tolerance and understanding is rare these days but I am convinced your view is more typical of the average non smoker than the hysteria screeched constantly by the smokerphobic Tobacco Control Industry.

I say try again and keep on trying with the e-pet but next time maybe we should get those cards made to hand out while standing in the cold in the forthcoming winter and it should be pushed with all the gusto of the HOOPs campaign.

The Govt must get the message that we are people too and we will never surrender our aim to be treated as equally and humanely as other consumers of legal products who have a right to use those products in public however harmful they are - cars as one example - and what we expect is a solution that doesn't exclude us and treat us as criminals.

[MSP]

Forget the smoking ban, plain packaging etc., what we should all be really worried about is the "fire safe cigarette" that has been forced upon us - tastes and smells disgusting - "speed bumps" in cigarette papers so that cigarette goes out automatically if put down for a few seconds (in an ashtray of course) - it seems us smokers cannot be trusted not to burn our houses down - they are using carpet glue! I have complained to manufacturers but just get standard reply saying they have to comply with government regulations.

[Kevin]

"You need national or local media interest to generate significant support for an e-petition"...er, one doesn't like to be over critical, but isn't that your job?

Or, perhaps you might consider that given the number of petitions there have been on the subject, and that over a year you could only persuade a miniscule percentage of the voting population that the subject should be given a hearing in parliament, democratic opinion is simply against you on this one?

[Lyn]

I agree, MSP, but not only do the cigs go out when left in an ashtray, they also go out whilst actually smoking them! You don't take a puff for a short time, perhaps because you are driving, picking up after the dog, or whatever, go to take the next puff and the darn thing is out! Ruddy annoying, especially when driving!

I agree too about the taste. Earlier this year, when on holiday, I decided to treat myself to a pack of Winston, a once much loved smoke but to my dismay found they tasted no different to the cheaper brands we buy to bring home. Next day I tried a pack of Marlboro and found exactly the same. I mixed the remaining Winston and Marlboro in with the cheaper brand and picked one at random and lit if for my husband. After a few puffs I asked him if it tasted any different and he said No and asked why. When I told him he looked at the cigarette to see what he was smoking and it was a Marlboro! They used to have such a distinctive and pleasant taste. Now, it seems, the only difference is price and packaging.