Get ready to watch Pat Nurse smoking and driving!
Monday, February 10, 2014 at 17:32
Simon Clark

Forest has had several requests in recent weeks for smokers who smoke in their car with (or without) children.

The requests have come from television and radio programmes.

We've passed them on via Facebook and Twitter, and contacted people we know. With little success.

If you do smoke in your car with children you probably don't want to broadcast the fact on air. In the current climate you might get lynched.

And if you smoke in your car without children, why bother

Anyway, following a request from BBC News on Friday, Pat Nurse stepped forward and she was filmed on Saturday for the Six and Ten O'Clock News programmes tonight.

What I didn't know when I put her name forward is that Pat has only just recovered from a broken leg.

Here's her description of filming and what she said:

BBC News came, filmed and stayed two hours. They interviewed me at home and as I drove my son's car which I find easiest to drive.

He's a non smoker and said he didn't mind at all if I smoked in it. I can smoke and concentrate while driving but ask me to talk and drive and my concentration is gone. I stalled a few times, bump started, and forgot how to reverse.

The best part of the day, however, was finding out that I can drive with my recovering broken leg and it's the first time I've been off crutches since December 4.

(I wasn't smoking when I had my accident. I tripped while teaching, and then crashed into a whiteboard in front of a class of students.)

The interviewer asked me if I was a member of Forest. I said I was just an ordinary consumer but I supported Forest because it was the only organisation that echoed the consumer's voice and certainly far more accurately than anti-smoker organisations that claim to speak for us.

They wanted my smoking daughter and grandkids to be here while filming took place but I didn't want to expose her or the grandchildren in a national report by a broadcaster I don't trust because it is not known for impartiality on this issue.

My message to government is leave us alone. We've had enough. The vast majority of people are considerate and only a tiny minority of people smoke with kids in cars these days.

Parenting and culture is changing which means that smoking in cars will be gone naturally within this generation. The government doesn't need to make a law to stop that which isn't happening and is dying out.

Education is always the best way forward. Government should be pleased that our culture is changing without the need of heavy handed laws in knee jerk response to propaganda.

The vote on smoking in cars appears to have been delayed by an hour or two but we should get the result tonight.

In the meantime watch Pat smoking (while driving) on tonight's BBC News!

Update: OK, they didn't show her driving, merely smoking in her own home. And she got, oh, 15 seconds.

But, as I always say, better to be involved than not.

Article originally appeared on Simon Clark (http://taking-liberties.squarespace.com/).
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