Bad day to be out of the country
Monday, July 20, 2015 at 23:09 Timing, they say, is everything.
Mine couldn't have been worse because just as I was boarding a Ryanair flight to Dublin this morning a small storm was brewing.
A report in the Daily Mail - Brighton could become first to outlaw lighting up - but campaigners brand move 'attack on personal freedom' - included this quote from me:
"Smokers should smoke responsibly, with consideration for others around them, but extending the smoking ban to open spaces is unnecessary and unjust.
"These persistent attacks on people's lifestyle, and the unfounded scaremongering about the risk to others, must stop."
The story wasn't new – several papers and the BBC News website ran it last week – but the Mail report gave it additional momentum.
The paper also had a short leading article on the subject.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, by the time I landed in Ireland there were several messages on voicemail requesting interviews.
Several were for television news programmes but I couldn't do them because I wasn't in the UK.
The Press Association wanted a quote and although I missed their initial deadline because I was still in the air they later issued a second report – Plans for smoke-free Brighton beach 'unjust' – based on our response:
Dick Puddlecote has already commented on ASH's reaction and his searing post (Beach bullshit) is worth reading because it highlights, not for the first time, the complete lack of empathy Deborah Arnott and her colleagues have for smokers.
Worse, they seem to hold many smokers in complete contempt. How else can you explain their support for an extension of the smoking ban to parks and beaches?
Anyway, I may be in Ireland but others aren't and tomorrow my colleague Rob Lyons (Action on Consumer Choice) will be on ITV's Good Morning Britain. (Set your alarm for 6.20 and 7.20.)
After that Rob is giving interviews to ITV Lunchtime News and Channel 5 News.
I'm on BBC Radio Sussex around 7.30 and someone else (I don't know who) is on Five Live at 7.45.
Reader Comments (2)
These outdoor smoking bans should be soundly rejected, They are an outright assault on liberty and social engineering aimed at denormalizing smokers. It's time to stop persecuting smokers and abandoned bans as a means of lifestyle control.
We also have Richard Davis on the council in Lincs who is very fair minded about this issue and thinks things have gone far enough. That won't please the Echo which has gone from being very fair minded on the issue to being rabidly smokerphobic which is why after decades of buying the paper. I no longer bother to buy or read it.
They got their useful idiot in chris pain - thank god he's no longer UKIP - and they really should take a good look at Ingoldmells - if they are ever allowed out of their now tiny office. I was there a few weeks ago. Mountains of litter on the beach, mostly plastic cups, wet wipes, fast food rubbish, but not one single cig end - unless the huge amount of rubbish on the beach completely hid them from view.
Excellent quote from you though Simon. The scaremongering should stop. It's becoming abusive.