Are you a lockdown quitter?
Tuesday, April 13, 2021 at 13:49 As I wrote in my previous post, ASH is determined to double down on the claim that “at least” one million smokers have quit since the pandemic hit Britain.
As part of this confidence trick the group yesterday tweeted a quote by ‘lockdown quitter Joanne'.
“The cues I associated with smoking had gone; the commute to work and meeting up with other fellow smokers.”
When I think about my own ‘addiction’ - to caffeine - it’s true that successive lockdowns have weaned me off a daily routine that included one and usually more visits to various coffee shops.
I'm not overly fussy but one of my favourite coffee shops is Fitzbillies in Bridge Street, Cambridge.
The smaller of two Fitzbillies cafes, it's a short walk from the Forest office. With a laptop or an iPad it's a great place to work.
Unlike many of the students who come in though I don't hog a precious seat for hours whilst nursing a single cappuccino. I keep those coffees coming. The sausage rolls and chocolate cake are pretty good too.
We've always been lucky with our proximity to good coffee shops. When Forest had an office in Palace Street in Westminster there was a coffee shop a few yards away that doubled-up as a sandwich shop to catch the lunchtime trade. It also served pretty good breakfasts, if I remember.
For years I thought it was run by an Italian family (the coffee was that good) but I found out later they were Spanish.
Funnily enough, the building where we had our office – Audley House – is now home to the Independent British Vape Trade Association (IBVTA). Small world.
Half a mile from Audley House, closer to the Houses of Parliament, was Politicos Bookshop which was owned and run by Iain Dale, now an LBC presenter.
Overlooking the bookshop, which had a good selection of low circulation political magazines, was a small mezzanine where you could sit and read while consuming coffee and cake.
It also had a direct feed to the BBC Parliament channel so you could watch parliamentary debates if you were so inclined.
The mezzanine was rarely busy (which is why I liked going there) and sadly the coffee 'shop' closed even before Politicos left the building.
From Westminster – where the rent eventually proved prohibitive – we moved to a shared office near Broadcasting House (Portland Place) and, later, Wardour Street in Soho.
I loved working in Soho. It was only for a year or so but it definitely had some of the best independent coffee houses. Sadly the one I particularly remember seems to have closed permanently.
However the coffee shop I've probably gone to more than any other in London is Caffé Grana which sits among the small group of shops at St James' Underground station.
Again, it's run by an Italian (or Spanish!) family and I've been going there for 20 years. Most customers are there for a takeaway coffee but those, like me, who are early for a meeting or have time to spare can drink and eat in.
Space is tight so customers perch on stools at small circular tables. I wouldn't make a special journey to go there but if you're passing by I'd recommend it. The coffee is just as good and a lot cheaper than the former Intercontinental (now the Conrad London St James) Hotel across the road!
But I digress.
Have changes to my routine during lockdown cured my addiction to caffeine? Not a bit of it. Working from home, I drink even more of the stuff – morning, noon and night – because I can.
It may be true that some people need a 'cue' to smoke but working in an office – which most people haven't been doing during lockdown – is a far bigger discouragement I would have thought than working from home where you can smoke indoors (at your desk) or outside whenever you want.
When the smoking ban came in I remember someone telling me he had quit because it was just too far from his desk on the third or fourth floor to the smoking area outside.
Clearly he wasn't the norm because most smokers adapted to the ban and continued smoking.
Meanwhile, apart from last year's ASH/UCL research which is based on self-reported behaviour, there is scant evidence that vast numbers of smokers have quit.
Nor, beyond one or two anecdotal accounts, is there evidence that smokers have stopped because they are no longer commuting to work which, as we all know from travelling on 'no smoking' buses and trains, or standing on 'no smoking' platforms, was a great opportunity for smokers to indulge their nicotine habit.
Social smoking apart, there has been far more opportunity to smoke during lockdown, not less.
As for my caffeine 'addiction', I don't think it's made the slightest bit of difference. Regardless of circumstances, the first thing I do every day, after waking up, is make myself a coffee.
Thereafter I continue to drink coffee throughout the day. Living dangerously, I've even been known to have a large cup (never decaffeinated) late at night before I go to bed.
Whether my habit for visiting coffee shops as often as I did will return, I don't know. I haven't missed them as much as I thought I would.
What I do know is that my caffeine 'addiction' got so bad during lockdown we had to replace our coffee machine with an expensive new one (below right) because the old one got worn out.
But at least I'm not a lockdown quitter!
Reader Comments (6)
I'll smoke until I die whatever age that is.
I wonder if "Joanne" was supplied by ASH as a contact for the Mirror's story?
The idea behind using "Joanne" of course is to try and force Government into thinking "Joanne" is an average smoker who quit when her "triggers" - ie: places outside where smokers are permitted to smoke by law - forced her to smoke when she didn't want to and I'll bet it is prep for demanding outside bans too.
I also wonder what in earth she's been smoking if 15 cigs a day stop her climbing stairs.
I smoke at least that and still take the stairs at 61 despite a doctor telling me aged 27 that if I didn't quit, I wouldn't be able to walk a flight of stairs by the time I was 30.
I trust nothing that comes from ASH and that includes convenient self hating smokers in propaganda articles from pet publications.
I still remember the cringeworthy crowing from editor of Mirror group Kevin McGuire on some newspaper review show at the time of plain packaging when he named Debs Arnott as his hero of the week. "She beat Big Tobacco! " He said not realising nor caring that she beats up the little consumer because she cannot get at Big Tobacco any other way and in doing so clearly attacked something McGuire does not use nor ever will but hates to see others enjoy.
The Mirror does not sound like a paper that values impartiality to me but one that ASH can use as a mouth piece for its political lobbying.
"Have changes to my routine during lockdown cured my addiction to caffeine?"
Simon, do you usually take the word of oldtime prohibitionists as the only element in a drink you enjoy?
Someone once seriously suggested to me that I was addicted to caffeine because of how much instant coffee I drank every day.
As this was an interesting question that I could not easily disprove I changed to decaff for a month.
At the end of the month I found that I had drunk no more and no less decaff coffee than I did ordinary coffee
Having been late to the battle with tobacco, I then researched coffee so that if there was a next time, I could mount a defence.
For a start, I suggest you check out the content of niacin in your coffee. I drink far more than my RDA in coffee alone.
I could go on at considerable length about the interesting things I've found about coffee, but I'll spare you.
Not sure I understand you, Rose, but when I talked about my ‘addiction to caffeine’ I was being tongue-in-cheek. I don’t for one second think I am addicted to caffeine or anything else including alcohol (although I enjoy that most days as well!).
Like many of my posts I was being a little facetious to make a point, which in this case was to question whether ‘lockdown quitter Joanne’ might be right that changes to her normal routine may have helped her (and by implication others) quit smoking.
I realised that, Simon, but never give them an inch.
Coffee is another popular substance that has had it's detractors in previous times.
There will always be quitters. ASH using one person as an example is clutching at a straw with no real substance. If they produced lockdown quitters in their thousands then the story might have some merit.
I would be interested in how many lockdown starters there are. Even lockdown re-starters because the physical barriers that encouraged people to quit were removed with WFH and no going to pubs and clubs.
Some of us no longer go to pubs since July 1, 2007. Never forget we exist. The narrative might be that everyone has adapted. But banning smoking lost pubs, cafes and restaurants the ambience that smoking gave them. They are no longer places to relax and enjoy and as one who would go to health club if I wanted to keep fit rather than a pub, I don't see much attraction in sitting in constrained environments where my money is welcome but I am not.
The hospitality industry could be given a real post pandemic boost if the Government took off the jackboots, allowed a bit of entrepreneurial spirit and allowed smokers to open their own clubs, pubs, cafes and restaurants. After all, there are now plenty of places where one can go to avoid smokers so there can be no more excuses about "being forced to be around smokers" if we could all be given choice to enjoy life how suits us best.