I was on GB News last night.

In the wake of weekend reports that Philip Morris wants to stop selling cigarettes in the UK within ten years I was invited to discuss whether smoking should be banned, period.

The presenter was Mark Dolan who has just moved to GB News from TalkRadio, and the other guest was Rebecca Jane from mental health support group RJ8.

If Rebecca’s name was familiar it was because she was on Good Morning Britain last month when she called for a complete ban on smoking in public.

On that occasion she was described merely as a “writer”.

Anyway we were due on at 9.20pm so I assumed we would get eight or nine minutes, as would normally happen on the BBC, LBC or TalkRadio where there would usually be a break for a summary of the news headlines on the half hour.

Instead we were given a generous 15 minutes and although there was a lot more I could have said (about smoking and mental health, for example) neither of us were short-changed.

Mark Dolan was excellent. It was pretty clear (I think) that he was opposed to a ban on smoking but he gave equal weight (and time) to both of us.

Prior to our debate I tried to judge the tone of the programme by listening to the discussion that preceded ours.

It was a fairly sombre review of the week’s politics featuring Mail on Sunday journalist Dan Hodges so I was slightly taken aback when Dolan followed it by announcing that our segment of the programme had been dubbed ‘The Clash’.

“Sparks will fly!” he added cheerfully.

I’m not sure if they did but judge for yourself - ‘The attack on tobacco is class warfare!'.

PS. I don’t know if ASH are declining to appear on GB News or just haven’t been asked but I’ve yet to see anyone from any tobacco control group on the channel, despite the fact that this was the third time smoking has been discussed on GB News in the last two weeks.

Correction: Pat Nurse has just reminded me, via the Comments, that ASH CEO Deborah Arnott was a guest when Pat appeared on GB News discussing smoking during pregnancy. Apologies, I had forgotten about that so it is obviously not true to say that ASH have (a) declined to appear or (b) not been asked.

Either way it’s pleasant not to have to take part in what are often rather sterile and ill-tempered ‘debates’ with organisations whose spokesmen are often more interested in highlighting the (well known) source of Forest’s funding than discussing the actual issues.

How nice too to be interviewed by a host whose default position isn’t anti-smoking. It’s not unique but it is quite rare.

Update: Late last night I received an email that began, ‘I have just watched the discussion on GB News. A very interesting debate done to a high standard.’

It was from an ex-smoker who gave up in 1993 ‘due to having a persistent cough plus my wife telling me that my clothes were stinking of stale tobacco smoke’.

It was quite a long email and it finished with this endorsement of the new channel: ‘I watch GB News often and it is debates like yours tonight that keep me doing so.’

At the same time a friend sent me this message via WhatsApp:

Good interview with a host who gave you time and space. So refreshing!

Couldn’t agree more.