Manifesto watch - Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats have published their election manifesto.

Labour and the Conservatives are due to publish theirs later this week and as you can imagine one of the issues I shall be keeping an eye on is further restrictions on tobacco and smoking.

Following the demise of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill after the sudden and unexpected announcement of an immediate general election, Labour and the Tories are expected to revive plans for a generational ban on the sale of tobacco.

But what about the Lib Dems whose support for the policy at the second reading of Bill in April was roundly condemned by several party activists, one of whom wrote ‘A smoking ban isn’t “unconservative” - but it is illiberal’ (Liberal Voice).

Well, it seems the authors of the Lib Dem manifesto may have heeded their comments because I can’t find a single mention of the policy in the document published today.

Yes, there’s a commitment to banning ’single use vapes’ (although it’s not clear why), but raising the age of sale of tobacco, even to 21, is noticeably absent, although the party does support a tobacco levy ‘to help fund healthcare and smoking cessation services’.

Elsewhere we are told that ‘Liberal Democrats believe that people should be in control of their own lives and health …’ Sadly, recent history suggests otherwise so forgive me if I stifle a cheer.

Nevertheless, with one major party manifesto published and no mention of a generational smoking ban I’ll count that as a small victory.

It won’t stop Lib Dem MPs voting with Labour and Tory paternalists in the new parliament, but at least we can point out that they have no mandate to support a generational ban.

Location, location, location

Bit late to this but I have just started watching Granite Harbour, first broadcast on BBC Scotland, I think, in 2022.

As the name suggests it’s based in Aberdeen where I was at university for four years from 1976 to 1980.

Aberdeen is known as the granite city for a reason, and I must say that the sight of all those silvery grey buildings when I approached the city for the first time via the old A92 didn’t fill me with excitement.

That said, it was a step up from the grim Victorian tenements of Dundee that were in the process of being demolished, so I couldn’t complain.

Anyway, while the plot of Granite Harbour isn’t great and the lead character is that stock figure, a fish-out-water (trainee) detective, it’s nevertheless quite fun spotting some familiar landmarks like Marischal College where my graduation ceremony took place.

Curiously, though (and its early doors as they say in Scotland), the harbour has played no part in the drama and has barely been seen.

The early scenes did however feature an actor I once shared a stage with when I was at school in St Andrews. By coincidence, I wrote about him only a few months ago. (See All the world’s a stage.)

Granite Harbour is one of several crime drama series that have been filmed in Scotland in recent years and although the quality varies it’s genuinely nice to see locations that I recognise and have actually visited.

A few years ago another TV channel, Alibi, brought us Traces, which was set in Dundee, a city I’m obviously familiar with.

First broadcast in 2019, series one and two were later shown on BBC One, but even with Martin Compston (Line of Duty) on board, I don’t think it was a huge ratings success and it rather fizzled out.

It was nice nevertheless to see Dundee on a mainstream channel (although the indoor scenes were filmed in Manchester), and even better to see St Andrews feature in Karen Pirie, a ‘British crime drama based on the Inspector Karen Pirie series of novels by Val McDermid’.

Broadcast on ITV in 2022, a second series is scheduled for broadcast later this year.

Meanwhile Nicola Walker (Unforgotten, Last Tango in Halifax) starred in Annika, another crime drama that premiered on Alibi before switching to BBC One.

Annika was set in Glasgow, Greenock, and the banks of Loch Lomond - all familiar territory albeit not quite as familiar to me as Aberdeen, Dundee, or St Andrews.

If you add a long-running series such as Shetland and, most recently, the re-booted Rebus, which is set in Edinburgh, that’s a pretty good picture of Scotland, right there.

A key location in Rebus is the Oxford Bar in Thistle Street which is a short walk from the Thistle Street flat we lived in for 18 months from December 1992.

(The reason the Oxford Bar features in both the books and the TV series is because the author, Ian Rankin, is a regular there.)

Other provincial towns, cities and regions that have been the location for recent UK crime dramas include Keeping Faith (Carmarthenshire), The Outlaws (Bristol), The Responder (Liverpool), Macdonald and Dodds (Bath), Vera (Newcastle and Northumberland), and Blue Lights (Belfast).

There’s even a series I haven’t watched yet called The Marlow Murder Club (broadcast on Drama and UKTV Play) that - spoiler alert - is presumably set in Marlow, another place I know quite well.

Those are the recent ones that come to mind. If you would like to recommend any more do let me know!

Farage and Forest – a brief history

Talking of Nigel Farage (see previous post), I am reminded that it is almost 15 years since we launched our campaign to allow smoking rooms in pubs and clubs, and look who was there.

Save Our Pubs & Clubs: Amend the Smoking Ban was launched in response to research that found that, in the year following the introduction of smoking bans in Ireland (2004), Scotland (2006), and England and Wales (2007), a significant number of pubs had closed.

The pub estates in all four nations had been in decline for decades but the stats for the twelve months after the bans were implemented demonstrated an acceleration in closures far above the historic trend. That in turn suggested a clear correlation between the two.

The launch of the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign took place on Tuesday June 23, 2009. As I wrote here:

We were joined at the Buckingham Arms in Westminster by the Rt Hon Greg Knight MP (Conservative) and David Clelland MP (Labour). Lib Dem MP John Hemming sent a message supporting the campaign.

The campaign is supported by Forest, the classical liberal think tank Progressive Vision, the Adam Smith Institute, which champions the free market, and the Manifesto Club which campaigns for “freedom in everyday life”.

Apart from Antony, Greg Knight and David Clelland, speakers included Progressive Vision's Mark Littlewood and Josie Appleton of the Manifesto Club.

The other speakers were landlords Paul Lofthouse (Queen's Head, Coggleshall), Simon Esnard (Butcher's Arms, Luton) and Sean Spillane (Luton Social Club).

Ukip leader Nigel Farage made a surprise appearance and said his party would support the campaign in any way it could.

It wasn't the first time Nigel had made a 'surprise appearance' at a Forest event. The previous year the Ukip leader attended a drinks party for 200+ people at Boisdale of Belgravia that marked the first anniversary of the smoking ban in England.

We didn't know he was coming and he wasn't due to speak but when he did turn up it was impossible to deny him the microphone.

To be fair, he was the best speaker on the night but there was one person he didn't impress – legendary journalist (and smoker) Lynn Barber who wrote:

Presumably the party was meant to inspire us poor huddled masses to rise up against our oppressors, man the barricades and charge the gun emplacements or at least to write to our MPs. But frankly, we are a raggle-taggle, defeated army, never very disciplined at the best of times, and if it means getting into bed with Ukip, I think I'll pass.

Barber's comments illustrated, I think, how Nigel's patronage can work both ways. It can inspire supporters but it can also alienate potential allies.

Undeterred, we invited him to join us at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester in 2013.

Having heard that he was going to speak at a Freedom Association event at the Town Hall in the afternoon, we suggested he might like to be interviewed by Mark Littlewood (who was now director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs) at the Comedy Store where we were also hosting an hour-long comedy gig called Stand Up for Liberty.

He accepted our invitation to take part in A Pint and a Fag with Farage and the combination of the two events – with a drinks reception sandwiched in between – was a success, although it suffered a bit because it coincided with another fringe meeting that featured the darling of the Conservative conference, Boris Johnson.

Nevertheless, the juxtaposition of the two led the BBC to publish this account of the 'rival' events – Tory conference: Boris Johnson v Nigel Farage.

The last time we joined forces with Nigel was at the Ukip conference in Doncaster the following year, although 'joined forces' might be stretching things a bit.

The Forest-run Hands Off Our Packs campaign had booked a stand in the exhibition area with the aim of promoting our long-running campaign against plain packaging.

With the recent defection of Conservative MP Douglas Carswell, Doncaster 2014 was arguably a peak moment for Ukip, so it was understandable that Nigel was incredibly busy. He agreed nevertheless to come to our stand for a photo op.

The problem was, we couldn't pin him down to an exact time so we had to make sure that someone was on the stand all the time over two days.

With limited staff that was quite difficult but when he did finally appear, after lunch on the second day, he did what Nigel Farage does best. Surrounded by cameras, microphones, and journalists, he extemporised.

Unfortunately, as I explained here, any hope of him appearing on the evening news with our banners behind him disappeared when, an hour or two later, a second Tory MP, Mark Reckless, announced his defection to Ukip.

I know Nigel has been invited to one or two Forest/Boisdale dinners since then but although his name has been on the guest list I don't remember seeing him, so I assume he wasn't there.

(Put it this way, if he had been there I think we would have known.)

Either way, I won't lie to you. I like him but, as Richard Tice has just discovered, if Nigel is involved in anything it's usually his way or the highway.

Meanwhile I'm a bit confused by the latest volte-face.

A few days ago, if the media is to be believed, he said his post election plan was to take over the Tory party. Now the aim is to lead Reform UK for the next five years.

His problem, if elected, is how to maintain his profile when reduced to one of 650+ MPs faced with a mountain of problems that constituents want solved. (I know he's been an MEP but that's a bit different.)

Alex Salmond, another larger than life figure (in Scotland at least), struggled to make much impact as an MP in Westminster.

Caroline Lucas, the former Green Party leader and an MP from 2010 to 2024, has also slipped down the pecking order as a national figure (or that's my impression).

If elected as an MP, could the same fate await Nigel Farage? I don't know, but it will be interesting to find out.

Above: Nigel Farage at the launch of the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign in June 2009; below: endorsing our campaign against plain packaging at the Ukip conference in Doncaster in September 2014

Curtain call for Giles Watling?

Nigel Farage’s decision to run for election in Clacton is bad news for several people, not least the candidate originally chosen to represent Reform.

In truth, Tony Mack was unlikely to overturn a Tory majority of 24,702, one of the largest in the country, but another victim of Farage’s decision to stand in the Essex constituency could be the sitting MP, and here I must declare an interest.

You see, Giles Watling (above) sponsored the reception Forest hosted at the House of Commons in February.

He stood in at the last moment after our original sponsor, Philip Davies (now Sir Philip), pulled out because of a conflicting engagement.

It was a generous gesture by Giles because without an MP to sponsor the event it would have been cancelled and with hours to go we had very few available options.

In truth, I knew very little about the MP for Clacton so I did a quick online search (for my introduction) and discovered that he was, in fact, a former actor whose best known role was that of the vicar in the sitcom Bread (1988-1991).

More recently, in 2013, he appeared in the UK tour of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

He was also the younger half brother to actress Dilys Watling who I remember well. Her credits included The Two Ronnies (1972-1979) and the Morecambe & Wise Show (1976) on which she appeared as Flossie, a ‘serving wench’.

Having been a local councillor before standing for Parliament, Watling regained Clacton for the Conservatives in 2017, winning it back from Ukip with 61% of the vote, then increasing it to 72% in 2019.

Last night he reacted to Farage’s announcement, telling the local media:

“My first reaction is that it’s not entirely a surprise. He was probably waiting to see what happened to Donald Trump and his job out there.

“Plan B would be standing in this country, and he would regard Clacton as a high target because of its history.

“I don’t think he gives two hoots about Clacton, he doesn’t live here, this is all about sacrificing the residents of the town to his vanity.

“I intend to fight him all the way. He said a few weeks ago, when he was asked if he would want to spend his Friday nights in Clacton, he said no.”

A self-declared centrist, Watling voted to stay in the EU but I got the impression he accepted the result of the referendum with good grace, unlike many Remainers.

Speaking to him, he struck me not only as a decent man with a good sense of humour, but a pragmatist.

In January, for example, he urged Rishi Sunak to drop the generational smoking ban and raise the age of sale of tobacco from 18 to 21 instead.

It’s not a policy I agree with, but I accept it would be preferable to a generational ban.

It’s probably a stretch therefore to call Watling a friend of Forest. Nevertheless, it’s unfortunate that by standing in Clacton (an understandable choice, to be fair) Nigel Farage could defeat one of the minority of Tories prepared to oppose the generational smoking ban.

But that’s the brutal world of politics.

Let’s hope that, if the new leader of Reform is elected, he will make it one of his priorities – if and when a new tobacco Bill is introduced by the incoming (Labour) government – to vocally oppose the generational ban and further restrictions on smoking and tobacco.

Nigel Farage v. health secretary Wes Streeting? I’d pay to watch that.

That said, I won't be disappointed if Giles retains his seat. Farage may have energised the general election by standing but Watling appears to be a good local candidate whose commitment to his area – as a councillor and then an MP – should not be ignored or under-rated.

Parliament needs big characters but it also needs MPs like Giles Watling.

Below: Giles addresses our guests at the House of Commons in February

As I was saying …

Last week, commenting on the news that broadcaster Iain Dale was stepping down from LBC in order to seek selection as the Conservative candidate for Tunbridge Wells, I wrote:

I would be very surprised if Iain did not have an arrangement with LBC whereby, should he fail to get selected (or elected), he quickly returns to his evening programme.

What I didn’t anticipate when I wrote that was the manner or the speed with which his bid for selection would implode.

Tonight however Iain was back presenting the evening show as if the past week had never happened.

I don’t know if there was an understanding (informal or otherwise) in place, but fair play to his bosses at LBC for sticking by him.

Common sense has prevailed, which is good to see.

Tapas and Teslas

Just back from sunny Spain where the temperature averaged 26 degrees by the coast, and near 30 degrees inland.

We stayed at the Greek-owned Ikos resort near Estepona in Andalusia, our second visit to this particular resort and our fourth Ikos holiday, two of them in Corfu.

Most days were spent doing very little other than reading and enjoying the weather and the food.

Surprisingly, my wife and I were recognised by two members of staff, one of whom said we were known as the couple who “read and drink cocktails”, which seemed an accurate description although I would probably add ‘eat’ to that.

Most days we stayed within the resort, enjoying the all-inclusive food and drink. On Thursday however we took advantage of the offer of a ‘free’ Tesla for the day.

Last year Ikos swapped its fleet of Minis for Teslas so this was my first opportunity to drive an electric vehicle of any sort, and I rather enjoyed it.

We were given a Model 3, which is the smallest Tesla, and I have to say it was incredibly easy to drive.

The stalk to the right of the steering wheel had several settings including up for forward, and down for reverse. Pressing a button on the end of the stalk took you into ‘park’ mode.

I’ve been driving automatic cars for 20 years and this was even easier. Parking in particular, was a doddle.

Like automatics there are two foot pedals - one to accelerate, the other to brake, but it was possible to drive for miles, even in traffic, without using the brake pedal because the car had something called regenerative breaking.

What seems to happen is that, whenever you lift your foot off the accelerator pedal, the car doesn’t just slow down, you can actually feel the braking mechanism kick in.

Apparently, this helps recharge the battery, though goodness knows how. Perhaps it’s like the dynamos we had on our bicycles that created the friction that generated the electricity that made our lights work.

It takes a few miles to get used to but it was very smooth in the way it operated. The brake pedal, meanwhile, was for more urgent use, or if you wanted to come to a complete halt.

My major beef was the fact that most functions - from setting the air-conditioning to changing the position of the wing mirrors - were conducted via an enormous iPad-like screen that replaces virtually all the knobs and buttons I’m used to.

In practise it’s quite difficult, if not dangerous, to change settings while the vehicle is moving because you have to take your eyes off the road for several seconds, sometimes much longer, to navigate the fairly complicated menu.

Practice makes perfect, perhaps, but I wasn’t going to chance it.

Anyway, we decided to drive to Ronda, an historic old town in Andalusia with a famous bridge (completed in 1793) that sits high above a deep gorge.

Even though the car was very easy to drive, the journey took an hour or so each way and was quite tiring because the 120km round trip took us up into the mountains via a long and winding road that featured countless twists and turns.

Fortunately the road was quite wide and the bends were never too dramatic. Keeping my eyes firmly on the road, however, meant I missed a fair bit of the spectacular mountain scenery.

Walking across Puente Nuevo (‘new bridge’) was worth the journey, though, and we are tempted to go back - in the winter, perhaps - and stay in one of the hotels overlooking the El Tajo gorge.

The only other time we left the resort was on Friday night when we had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the main square, Plaza de las Flores, in Estepona, a 15-minute drive from Ikos.

We visited Estepona last year when I noted the regeneration project that has revitalised the old town over the past 20 years.

Ikos, however, is the only reason I would choose to holiday on the Costa del Sol. In future, perhaps, we’ll venture even further inland - to Granada, for example, which I’ve always wanted to visit.

The only issue is how to get there.

By road Granada is 240km from Ikos. According to one report, ‘The Tesla Model 3 Standard Range can cover up to 254 miles (408km) on one charge based on the new, more realistic WLTP test’.

But what if the air con is at full blast for most of that journey? Will we arrive at our destination without experiencing the dreaded range anxiety?

And what about getting back? How many Tesla charging stations are there in Ronda or, indeed, Andalusia?

First world problems, I know, but nevertheless …

Above: View from Puente Nuevo in Ronda; below: Plaza de las Flores de Estepone

Iain Dale lights up the General Election

I don’t know about you but I’m struggling to summon up much interest in the General Election.

Last night, however, LBC broadcaster Iain Dale announced that he was quitting his programme to seek selection as the Conservative candidate for Tunbridge Wells in Kent.

I don’t know Iain very well, but our paths have crossed once or twice, most notably in 2002 when he was managing director of Politicos Bookshop in Westminster which he founded in 1996.

The shop’s fifth anniversary in 2001 was celebrated with a dinner at The Savoy that was attended by Mrs Thatcher, who gave a bravura speech despite being advised not to by her doctors.

I was on a table with Claire Fox (now Baroness Fox), a former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, and even she was impressed.

Anyway, I can’t remember how Iain and I first got talking but, having edited a number of magazines, I proposed a new publication that would combine political interviews with authors and MPs plus features and reviews of the new political titles on sale in Politicos.

After a little persuasion he came round to the idea and we called it The Politico, with the first issue featuring an interview with the late Mo Mowlam, who also appeared on the cover.

Unfortunately, although the quarterly magazine was well received, it didn’t make a penny and no-one was prepared to invest in it. Meanwhile, with the cost of commercial rent in central London soaring, Iain closed the bookshop and took Politicos online, so that was that.

Nevertheless we both look back on it fondly with Iain later writing:

Earlier in the summer I was tidying some files at home and a copy of a magazine fell out of a file. It was called The Politico and I published three issues of it while I was running Politico's. I started re-reading it and began to remember what a brilliant reaction it provoked at the time. It only had three issues because I then closed the shop and the people who produced it moved on to other things.

That was in 2007, the year that Iain was the main presenter on another short-lived project, the internet TV station 18 Doughty Street.

I appeared several times on the programme he presented but the one I shall always remember is when I inadvertently made him corpse by referring to the then transport minister Stephen Ladyman as Stephen Ladyboy.

(Note: I was quoting from a post by the blogger Dizzy Thinks but failed to spot the deliberate mistake.)

Sadly, the clip disappeared with the 18 Doughty Street website but I wrote about it here:

For the next minute or so we both struggled to suppress our laughter. When Iain stopped, I would set him off again, and vice versa. In terms of our reaction, the only thing I can compare it to is the famous ‘leg over’ moment on Test Match Special.

Apart from the occasional interview on LBC, the only other time our paths have crossed since then was in 2016 when I invited Iain to speak at a Forest party at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.

Venue was a local nightclub and the event attracted almost 500 guests, way beyond the 200 we anticipated. Fortunately they were able to open a second bar on another floor to accommodate everyone, but it was very noisy and our speakers struggled to be heard.

I believe, however, that it was one of Iain’s first paid speaking ‘gigs’ so I like to think it was a useful exercise for him, even though he told his followers on Twitter that he was ‘effing petrified’.

But back to the present.

I would be very surprised if Iain did not have an arrangement with LBC whereby, should he fail to get selected (or elected), he quickly returns to his evening programme.

Nevertheless, if he does get selected/elected, it’s a genuinely interesting move for someone of his age (61) and one to be applauded.

Frankly, we need more MPs who have enjoyed long and successful careers outside politics and can bring that experience to the table.

I also like the fact that Iain has chosen to stand when, in all probability, the Conservatives will be in opposition for five, possibly ten, years with no prospect of a role in government.

Compare that to the many Tory MPs who have chosen to cut and run.

The seat he hopes to fight is also in the area in which he lives, so no-one can accuse him of being parachuted in to a constituency he has little or no knowledge of.

The retiring MP, Greg Clark, had a majority of 14,645 in 2019. Can that be maintained on July 4? Probably not, but if the Tories can’t hold Tunbridge Wells I worry for them nationally.

Either way, I wish Iain the very best of luck.

See also Politics and publishing and Life and times of The Politico.

Update: Iain Dale ‘never liked’ town where he hopes to become a Tory MP (Telegraph)

Oops.

Latest: Iain Dale abandons bid to run for Tory MP in Tunbridge Wells after saying he ‘never liked’ town (Telegraph)

What a shame - perhaps he could run for another seat …?

Talking pictures

Here is the full gallery of photos from our Freedom Up In Smoke lunch at Boisdale of Belgravia on Tuesday.

Thanks to our speakers, and every one of our guests who included MPs, parliamentary researchers, journalists, writers, and think tank staffers.

The generational smoking ban will undoubtedly be back on the table after the election, whoever is in power, so the fight goes on!

See also: Generational tobacco ban – update

Photos: Stuart Mitchell - click on the image below