Apologies for the lack of posts this week. I've been on a short break.
We began with a couple of nights in Harrogate then drove up to Glasgow.
When visiting Harrogate it's usual to visit Betty's Tea Rooms but I'm no longer prepared to queue outside for a cup of tea and a scone, or even something more substantial, when I've been there several times before.
Instead I'd recommend Weetons for breakfast and for dinner you could do much worse than dine at an impressive Turkish-run restaurant called Istanbul.
In Glasgow we visited my mother-in-law and watched the first UK screening of the pro-vaping documentary A Billion Lives. As soon as I get a moment I'll post a review here.
In the meantime I'm amused to see that ASH Scotland are a bit discombobulated by our Smokers' Survey. Funded by Forest, the survey is being undertaken by the Centre for Substance Use Research in Glasgow.
CSUR devised the questions and will analyse the responses (over 600 to date) but the survey seems to have touched a nerve because earlier today ASH Scotland posted a rather confused little piece on their blog.
The gist of the article – and subsequent tweets – is that smokers who support Forest aren't representative of "smokers as a whole".
In response we pointed out that the survey is designed, quite openly, to give a voice to smokers whose opinions are routinely ignored by anti-smoking lobby groups like ASH Scotland.
Furthermore, what on earth do they mean by "smokers as a whole"? Smokers are individuals (remember them?) with a wide range of opinions on many issues, including smoking.
"Millions of adults enjoy smoking," we tweeted. "Some want to quit. Many don't. Sorry if that doesn't fit your prohibitionist agenda."
Anyway, it's instructive to see a state-funded tobacco control group trying to belittle and undermine the views of a substantial number of smokers even before the CSUR report has been published.
Once again it's a power trip. Tobacco control is allowed to commission or fund research (often with the help of public money) but if anyone else invades what they consider to be their exclusive territory the gloves are off.
Oh, and woe betide anyone who challenges popular perceptions about smoking and smokers that tobacco control has spent decades (and a small fortune) nurturing and developing.
If you have a moment you might like to pop over to their blog and add a comment of your own. Let me know if they publish it.
See The “smokers survey” that can’t tell us anything about “smokers” (ASH Scotland).
The survey is designed to give a voice to smokers whose opinions are routinely ignored by anti-smoking lobby groups such as @ASHScotland.
— Forest (@Forest_Smoking) October 28, 2016
You ARE going to publish comments on this post, aren't you? Nothing yet. Why the delay? @ASHScotland https://t.co/cjhEKxhHow
— Forest (@Forest_Smoking) October 28, 2016