Further to my previous post, I've been thinking about the reason for Deborah Arnott's bad mood.
This is pure speculation but could it be the gradual marginalisation of ASH London within the tobacco control movement?
Think back to 2006 when Deborah and her then deputy Ian Willmore were happy to claim credit for persuading MPs to vote for a comprehensive ban on smoking in public places ('Smoke and mirrors', Guardian).
Halcyon days. Mind you, I've always wondered how that went down with other tobacco control campaigners. Perhaps they were too busy patting each other on the back to notice.
Since then - and I'm sure it's not my imagination - ASH's influence has waned. The campaign for plain packaging has been driven by Smokefree South West, Cancer Research and other bodies; the ban on smoking in cars with children was a triumph for Labour's public health spokesman Luciana Berger and the British Lung Foundation; and since the BBC's move to Salford, Forest spokesmen are far more likely to be sat alongside Andrea Crossfield of Tobacco Free Futures, formerly Smokefree North West.
The North East is ably covered by Fresh so one has to question the purpose of a 'national' London-based group whose role is duplicated by so many other organisations. Do we really need them all?
In Scotland the anti-tobacco crusade is driven by the far more dynamic ASH Scotland whose CEO, Sheila Duffy, is rarely out of the papers and probably never sleeps. (I imagine she's composing a letter to the Scotsman even as I write.)
Likewise ASH Wales - and associated campaigns such as The Filter - prove that anti-tobacco campaigns can have style and occasional flashes of humour. Compare that to the leaden, po-faced pronouncements favoured by Deborah Arnott's ASH.
As for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, which is run by ASH, it seems very quiet. I don't even know who the new chairman is, the previous incumbent, Stephen Williams, having stood down when he became a junior minister last year.
On e-cigarettes ASH is hopelessly conflicted. Are they for or against? Who knows. A belated attempt to 'own' the issue at the recent E-Cigarette Summit backfired spectacularly with Deborah Arnott's extraordinary presentation, highlighted here by Chris Snowdon.
No Smoking Day is run by the British Heart Foundation and Stoptober is an NHS initiative, I think.
So what does ASH do that justifies its continued existence? I'm damned if I know.
Forest may not, ahem, be the most successful pressure group in the world but at least we have a unique selling point and don't cost the taxpayer a penny.
The same can hardly be said of ASH who, let us not forget, spend most of their time pushing on an open door.
"You want to stop people smoking? Come in, m'dear. How can I help?"
It's hardly challenging work, is it?
Perhaps - and I say this with great respect - it's time Deborah got on her bike and cycled off into the sunset.
As for her replacement - if indeed ASH has a future - I believe Clive Bates is available.
If I was a vaper I'd start a campaign to get Clive (re)appointed as soon as possible.
Now that would be fun, wouldn't it?