Smoking will be banned in cars with children in England from October 1.
The news was announced this evening. At 6.10, sitting in the car waiting for my daughter to finish her dance class, I received a text from a producer on the BBC News Channel.
"We would like to hear your views on the smoking ban in cars if they're carrying children. Would you be available at 7pm or 8pm?"
"I can do 8pm from your Cambridge studio," I replied.
I waited for Sophie to finish her class, drove home, shaved (I hadn't shaved since Sunday), and drove the 20 miles to Cambridge, arriving at 7.50.
At 8.00pm I was in the studio with my earpiece in, waiting to be interviewed.
The time ticked by. Eventually, after I'd reminded the producer I had an interview with LBC at 8.30, I was on.
I was asked for my reaction to the ban but what the clip above doesn't show is the presenter's final thrust.
Apropos of nothing that had gone before he said, quite abruptly: "Mr Clark, can you tell us who funds Forest?"
Well, I'm used to dealing with that question but it struck me as a cheap shot. After all, I'd given up my evening to go on a 40-mile round trip at the BBC's request yet the presenter was clearly determined to undermine me if he could.
Anyway, after I came out of the studio and did my LBC interview sitting in my car, I checked the BBC News website.
A report, England bans smoking in cars with children, had a prominent position on the home page.
At 6.44 we'd sent the BBC online news desk our response to the ban. Were we quoted? Of course not. In fact, there were no comments from anyone opposed to the ban.
So I did what I often do. I rang the news desk to point this out. In particular I said how ironic it was that at that very moment I was sitting in a BBC car park having done an interview for the BBC News Channel yet BBC News online hadn't quoted Forest despite the fact that we'd sent them our response.
To be fair the person I spoke to was perfectly reasonable and the upshot was that at 8.57 the BBC News report was updated:
But Simon Clark, director of the smokers' group Forest, said the legislation was excessive.
"The overwhelming majority of smokers know it's inconsiderate to smoke in a car with children and they don't do it. They don't need the state micro-managing their lives," he said.
"The police won't be able to enforce the law on their own so the government will need a small army of snoopers to report people."
In addition they've added a link to my BBC News Channel interview which can now be seen via the home page too.
Update: An hour ago Good Morning Britain (ITV) asked me to appear on the sofa at 6.00 in the morning. That would mean getting up at 3.00am and driving to London to arrive at 5.30.
I'm usually up for such requests. This time I declined. I'm just too busy (as I'll reveal tomorrow).
Hopefully someone else will do it. I gave them a few names.