I think I may have found a new way of working.
Last week I spent seven days in Corfu with my wife and two friends. Thanks to Covid the holiday had been postponed twice but we got there in the end.
As in 2019 we stayed at the Ikos resort in Dassia, 20 minutes north of Corfu town.
From our room overlooking the sea we could see Albania but after a few days we tired of our panoramic view and moved to a ‘bungalow’ that had its own swimming pool (diving not allowed).
Prior to the trip the weather forecast hadn’t been great and when we arrived we discovered the island had recently been hit by storms and flooding.
Thankfully, after the first two days that were overcast with periods of light rain, the weather changed dramatically and for the rest of our holiday we enjoyed dawn to dusk sun and beautiful blue skies.
I say ‘holiday’ but one thing I have learned from working for Forest is that breaks from work will inevitably be interrupted with requests for comments and interviews.
It’s always been thus and although it pains my wife (who once had to sit in a remote car park in Scotland while I wrote a press release and conducted a succession of interviews for three hours) she’s generally fairly stoic when our holidays are interrupted.
And so it proved again.
I pre-warned her about the Budget, of course, keeping Wednesday afternoon free to issue Forest’s response and reply to individual requests for a comment about yet another increase in tobacco duty.
The result was coverage in a significant number of reports at home and abroad. For example:
Cost of pack of cigarettes to go up to £13.60 from 6pm TONIGHT as Chancellor hikes tobacco tax (The Sun)
Have tobacco and cigarette prices gone up? Increase comes in tonight after 2021 Budget (Mirror)
Price of pack of cigarettes doubles in ten years to £13.60 (Metro)
Smokers feel the pinch: Pack of cigarettes goes up by 88p to £13.60 TODAY after Chancellor hiked tobacco tax (Mail Online)
Cigarette HIKE: Rishi Sunak's tobacco tax comes in as smokers feel pinch (Express)
How much did cigarettes go up? Budget 2021 price increase explained and when rise came into effect (iNews)
But it wasn’t just the Budget that kept me busy.
Hours after landing at Corfu airport the previous Saturday I was contacted by the Mail on Sunday who wanted a response to an exclusive report (published the following day on page 4 of the print edition) that suggested that Number Ten had rejected calls to ban smoking outside pubs, bars and restaurants.
I thought the story would get more coverage but it wasn’t to be. Nevertheless it did lead to interviews on GB News and Talk Radio.
The latter was with James Whale at 11.20pm UK time on Monday night. Corfu is two hours ahead which meant it was 1.20am when I sat in front of my iPad that was perched on a suitcase on a narrow desk to achieve the necessary height for the video call.
Ignoring this, shock jock Whale decided to lay into me and after the first minute I barely got a word in.
I think I bore his attack with reasonably good grace (I honestly didn’t care) but it was enough to prompt his producer to apologise when I came off air. ("Sorry about that," she said.)
Meanwhile my wife slept through the whole thing even though she was only a few feet away.
The point I am making is that in this day and age it makes relatively little difference where in the world I am. With modern communications I can still do my job which makes me think I should spend more time away!
Ironically the only interview I missed out on in the past week was a request to appear on GB News after we returned from holiday.
It was sent at 6.30am yesterday to the Forest email account which I failed to check until it was too late because I was too busy collecting our dog from the kennels where he had been having his own holiday!
PS. By coincidence Facebook yesterday reminded me of a 2011 post in which I wrote:
James Whale (LBC) just told me on air that I am charming but I talk a load of rubbish. Pot. Kettle. Black.
That was mild compared to last week. He even retweeted a tweet from one of his regular listeners that described me as a “twat”.
Charming.
Above: Dinner at the wonderful Venetian Well restaurant in Corfu town. Below: My ‘office’ for the first few days before we switched to the ‘bungalow’ with its own heated swimming pool.
