Message to BBC Scotland
Saturday, March 26, 2016 at 8:53 To the BBC Scotland online newsdesk:
I have just read your report 'Benefits of smoking ban hailed 10 years on' which is currently the lead story on the BBC News (Scotland) page.
It includes not a single dissenting voice – no mention, for example, of the 1200 pubs that have closed since the ban was introduced, the jobs lost, the many social lives ruined etc.
Nor is there any mention of a recent poll that found that 54% of adults living in Scotland would allow designated smoking rooms in pubs and clubs. (40% were opposed to the idea.)
Forest has sent two press releases to the BBC Scotland online newsdesk in the past week:
Poll: Majority of adults in Scotland would allow smoking rooms in pubs and clubs
Allow smoking rooms in Scotland's pubs and clubs, say campaigners
STV News took the trouble to interview us for their evening news programme Scotland Tonight and STV News online today featured our comments alongside those of ASH Scotland, the real ale group CAMRA and the anti-smoking commentator Archie Macpherson:
Ten years on from the smoking ban: Was it the right decision?
The Populus poll mentioned above was featured by the Scottish Mail on Sunday (with quotes from Forest). We have also been quoted by the Scottish Sun and the Dundee Courier.
Why does BBC Scotland think it's acceptable to ignore opposing views and publish what is nothing more than propaganda on behalf of the tobacco control industry?
Update: I received this response at 9:17.
Thank you for your feedback.
The story currently on the BBC website is the first version which went up overnight but will be added to today. I take your point that we should include both sides of the argument and will endeavour to have info and quotes from Forest added asap.
We have also gathered an interview with Paul Watterson of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association and his quotes are being added to the story now.
All well and good. What a pity whoever wrote the original report (posted eight hours ago) didn't think to include our quotes in the first place.
Reader Comments (10)
Ray Turpie of Camra's views seem to have been severely edited in that article from STV.
Look at the difference between his statements on the 21st of March to the Daily Record and his words on the STV article published on the 26th.
Hundreds of Scots pubs take a hit after new figures reveal closure of over 1000 bars since smoking ban
21 Mar 2016
"Ray Turpie, Camra’s Scotland and Northern Ireland director, expressed concern that pub closures could impact on communities.
He told The Scottish Daily Express: “Over the last 10 years, there have been quite a lot of outlets lost. It is a crisis the whole of the UK is experiencing and there are a lot factors coming into play.
“The anti-drinking lobby is now more active and there are more health guidelines from the Government, which are really just plucked out of the air to be honest.
“They are just against people going out and enjoying themselves, really.
“There are certain aspects of wellbeing in going to the pub, especially for older people on their own. It’s a good place to go to engage with people.
“It might be the only people they see all day, so there’s a social aspect - the promotion of wellbeing - and that contributes to mental health.”
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/hundreds-scots-pubs-take-hit-7599615#KoWD03gcETMqW6dm.97
STV
Ten years on from the smoking ban: Was it the right decision?
26 March 2016
The drinker
"The Campaign for Real Ale's Ray Turpie says landlords were initially up in arms, but views have softened in the decade since the ban.
"The ban had a small effect on pubs, but the public kept up quite quickly and things started to pick up again.
"But a lot of things change in 10 years. Attitudes are different now, and pubs have attracted different crowds who were maybe put off by the smoky atmosphere.
"When it came out I think Landlords were up in arms but i think they are quite at ease with it these days, and it is better for people working in pubs as there is no more passive smoking.
"They have taken into account the ban, and man smoking areas are covered or heated, so people can still enjoy a smoke at the pub while those who don’t can still feel comfortable."
Can it be the same man?
I don't see much difference between the two statements. Typical CAMRA. Just the usual hand-wringing about the loss of pubs and the impact on local communities. Neither statement opposes or condemns the smoking ban because CAMRA effectively supports the ban. As far as they're concerned, smokers can sit outside.
They do it on purpose because they know the first impact is the one that stays with the reader/viewer who won't go back to read part 2.
The BBC should be ashamed for buying into this hate campaign but of course it doesn't see it like that.
What it has done is ensure that people like me can't trust what is supposed to be a credible, impartial and balanced news service because it clearly isn't any of those things anymore.
It's aboard the agenda, Comrade, and allows the persecutors to speak for us even though they speak for the smokerphobics who hate us and wouldn't know the true views of smokers, historic child smokers, or today's well informed consumers.
Why don't these people get it. Forest speaks for us and no other organisation and certainly not the smoker hating, smoke "free" quangos. If they silence Forest it's because they don't really want the true views of the smoker in any news report in case it clashes with what their viewers are being groomed to believe about us.
...' the first impact is the one that stays with the reader/viewer who won't go back to read part 2.' I agree Pat. We're journalists. We can see how the system works. Not sure whether this generation of subs, news editors and copytasters have the discernment or time to ask questions.
Typical BBC bias against smokers. CAMRA were always anti smoker. None of these anti smoking twats give a toss about the way British society is becoming so much less sociable and that we have very many old people who used to love going to the pub, club, or bingo and having a drink and smoke with their friends. Now many sit at home lonely.
Hear, Hear, Timothy Goodacre. I do wonder whether oldies (I write as an 80-year-old) are regarded as expendable in a social engineering jihad.
'Benefits of smoking ban hailed 10 years on' Thousands of pubs, clubs and bingo halls have closed across the UK since the bans were introduced. More than 100,000 jobs have been lost across the Uk as a direct result. A couple of million people have stopped using pubs and clubs due to the change in the law as they can no longer be accommodated inside.. Many of our elderly that smoke have stopped going to their pub, club or bingo hall they may have frequented once a week or so leaving many with just a tv set for company. The majority want smoking rooms in pubs and clubs perhaps this needs to come from some group other than Forest, for it to be treated seriously. It is after all what the majority of people want and the law should be changed to reflect this. Its a great shame I don't think that any government will ever listen to Forest. The smokefree laws ensure that UK smokers remain persecuted and the balance of power ensures the views of the majority wanting the ban amended continue to go totally ignored; I find this bit more disgusting than anything else. The majority have always been against the smoking bans introduced across the UK, isn't it about time the majority had its say ?
Mark - they won't listen to Forest, they won't listen to individual legitimate consumers, they will not listen to industry related to the service of smokers, nor of course will they listen to the industry that knows smokers best - tobacco.
Anyone who says the opposite of what Herr Public Health want to believe is silenced as vested interests. They tweak and manipulate the law to push it beyond boundaries to ensure that only their voice is heard and what is worse, they lie and claim to speak for us. They don't care what they do to enforce their orgasmic utopia and sterile world without smokers in it. That's the aim. That's the goal. They will stop at nothing to get it.
They are salivating at the thought of criminalising us and laughing at the thought of seeing us locked up and forced to quit. They are not normal.
That is the only agenda on the table. I call it fascism, it certainly isn't caring.
I honestly believe that the only way to get these thugs off our back is to show them up as the anti-social bullies that they are.
I do not want my grandchildren's future to be dictated to and controlled by these nutjobs. They are dangerous to social equality and social cohesion.
You are right Pat. ASH and the like are anti-libertarian fascists. All pubs should be allowed to have a room for smokers.
A friend of mine who is anti-smoking, but not anti-smoker, said today that although she supported the smoking ban, she is now embarrassed and ashamed to have done so because she thinks it's awful and morally wrong that smokers should be stigmatised and attacked in the way they so clearly are, and if she ever thought for one one moment that the ban was the deliberate start of that, she would never have supported it.
Like many others she was fooled with the lie that it was about health.
Another way we win back our rights here is to reach out to people every day on the street, at work, in our daily dealings, at the shops, wherever and whenever we can, we must counter the hate campaign and reach out to the normal people who don't like what is happening to people, branded and stigmatised, they once shared lives and pints with.