In Bruges

Just back from Bruges.

What a great place for a short break. Warmly recommended.

Number 52 with a bullet

Currently on a Eurostar train bound for Bruges.

I depart these shores with the 'news' that AWT's petition has attracted 1600 signatures to date and is now in the top 60.

Our target - the top 20 - is still some distance away but to put this in perspective there are already more than 5700 petitions on the Government website.

Furthermore, if you check out the Department of Health petitions, you will see that AWT's 'Review the Smoking Ban' is currently #6 (out of 266).

As you can see, this petition malarkey is quite addictive!

Update on Saturday, August 27, 2011 at 11:26 by Simon Clark

Smoking ban's a drag for Antony Worrall Thompson (Daily Star)

Urban pubs hammered by smoking ban

Echoing our recent report about the fate of urban pubs, today's Western Mail reports that:

With independent breweries popping up across Wales and more and more drinkers trying real ale for the first time, things are finally turning up for Wales’ rural pubs. But, for their urban counterparts, it could be a different story. Clare Hutchinson asks – is it last orders for our neighbourhood pubs?

Reporting from an auction at Celtic Manor in Newport, Hutchinson writes:

When Sidney Phillips and Co announced last month it was putting a total of 22 pubs across Wales up for sale – 12 of which sold before yesterday’s auction – Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) member Arfur Daley decided to do some research.

He said: “One thing I noticed about these pubs is that a lot of them are urban and they lack outdoor smoking areas.

“Some of them had been quite successful in the past but once the smoking ban came in that was the big problem. That was their downfall.”

TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson this week launched an e-petition calling on the Government to review the smoking ban.

The chef, who runs the Greyhound pub at Rotherfield Peppard near Henley-on-Thames and is a patron of smokers’ group Forest, said: “In Britain 10 million adult smokers contribute £10bn a year in tobacco taxation alone.

“It’s only right that they should be accommodated in some public places.

“If the Government doesn’t want adults to smoke at home in front of the children or litter the streets, they should be allowed to smoke in some licensed premises.”

Controversial it may be, but many people at yesterday’s auction agreed.

Rodney Cave, an independent licensed property valuer, said it was time for the Government to call a review of the smoking ban, adding pressure also needed to be put on banks to lend to those looking to invest in pubs and hotels.

“I attribute this disastrous decline in the licensed trade to the smoking ban, certainly,” he said.

“While you can make a case for saying smoking is harmful, it would be perfectly suitable to provide a separate room for smokers.

“Now the people who would have been down their local are at home with cans of lager from the supermarket.”

See: Smoking ban blamed as just one of nine pubs under the hammer sells

Update on Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 13:02 by Simon Clark

From the trade newspaper the Morning Advertiser:
TV chef launches e-petition to amend smoking ban

Update on Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 13:17 by Simon Clark

Thanks to the Manifesto Club for supporting Antony's petition:

Petition to review the smoking ban
TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson has a petition on the Downing Street website calling for a review of the smoking ban - and an amendment that would give pubs the option of having 'separate well-ventilated smoking rooms'. The petition, in alliance with the Save Our Pubs and Clubs campaign, is extremely sensible. The best solution would be to have smoking and non-smoking areas, so people can choose according to their habits (and friends). The current blanket ban is entirely inappropriate when 20% of the population smoke: it replaces diversity and negotiation with rigid diktat. Sign the petition!

See: The Manifesto Club supports

Update on Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 14:06 by Simon Clark

More blogs supporting Antony's petition:

Subrosa
The Pub Curmudgeon
The View from Cullingworth

Update on Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 22:19 by Simon Clark

Smoking ban petition: “What’s to disagree with?” (Liberal Vision)

H/T Dick Puddlecote

Also: Celebrity chef demands return of pub smoking (The Grocer)

AWT petition update

Thanks to the following for uploading the web button (right) with a link to Antony Worrall Thompson's petition:

Dick Puddlecote
Freedom2Choose
Nothing 2 Declare
Orphans of Liberty
Tea and Cigarettes
Underdogs Bite Upward

The following blogs have also linked to the petition:

Frank Davis
Fuel Injected Moose

See also:

E-petition launched to review the smoking ban (ConservativeHome)
New Petition to Amend the Smoking Ban launched (Progressive Vision)
The smoking ban must be reconsidered (Freedom Association)

And:

Worrall Thompson calls on government to amend smoking ban (Retail Times) and Antony Worrall Thompson launches petition for smoking ban review (CatererSearch.com)

At the time of writing there are 504 signatures on the petition.

Update on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 23:37 by Simon Clark

I've been at a wedding most of the day.

Just got back to find that the London Evening Standard featured a short item about AWT's petition ('Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson has downed knives to take part in the e-democracy revolution ...').

The petition also attracted the attention of the Mail Online. In an article entitled Why e-petitions are proving to be more than just a gimmick) Harry Phibbs wrote, 'New petitions keep appearing all the time. This week saw one launched by the celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson to allow smoking rooms in pubs.' Sadly the Mail didn't link to it.

At the time of writing the petition has 841 supporters. Tomorrow we will send an e-newsletter to supporters of the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign. That should push the figure beyond 1,000 but there's a long way to go before we reach our target of a place in the top 20 petitions.

Meanwhile two more blogs have linked to the petition:

English Pensioner
The Angry Exile

Smoking ban: please sign this petition

It took a while but we got there in the end.

With help from the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons (and a certain amount of nagging from me), the Government's e-petition website now features the following petition, proposed by Antony Worrall Thompson:

REVIEW THE SMOKING BAN
We petition the Government to review the impact of the smoking ban on pubs and clubs and consider an amendment that would give licensees the option of separate well-ventilated smoking rooms.

No disrespect to other petitioners on this subject, but I always felt that having a 'name' behind it would generate more interest. The fact that AWT runs his own pub, The Greyhound in Rotherfield Peppard near Henley, is an added bonus.

If we hit 100,000 signatures – enough to possibly generate a debate in the House of Commons – I hereby promise that Forest will organise a party at The Greyhound to mark the achievement! For the moment our goal is rather more modest: I want to get AWT's petition into the top 20 and keep it there for next twelve months. In the short term that means a minimum of 5,000 signatures.

Many people are currently on holiday so I anticipate it will be a couple of weeks before everyone is back at work and reading e-newsletters and blogposts. Nevertheless I'd like to encourage you to sign the petition now so we can develop a little momentum.

To sign AWT's petition please click here or on the image above.

Update on Monday, August 22, 2011 at 13:42 by Simon Clark

In the next day or two we will make available web banners and buttons that can be uploaded on to blogs and websites with a link to AWT's petition.

Update on Monday, August 22, 2011 at 13:56 by Simon Clark

Next month we will print a card the size of a business card. It will feature AWT's petition plus the relevant URL. Any offers of help distributing them in pubs and clubs would be much appreciated.

Update on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 11:57 by Simon Clark

Here's another petition worth supporting:

Stop Government Funding Of ASH
To petition the Government to cease providing funding to the health body ASH. ASH should have to raise its own funds through voluntary contributions.

I couldn't have put it better myself. Click here.

Update on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 12:24 by Simon Clark

Thanks to Dick Puddlecote for this link: Spread liberally around the web.

Cricket calls

No blogging today, unless rain stops play or I get bored.

That's right, I'm at The Oval to watch England v India from the comfort of a corporate box.

Morning coffee, drinks, lunch, afternoon tea ... It's a tough job etc.

E-petition update

Extraordinary.

Having rejected Antony Worrall Thompson's petition entitled Save Our Pubs and Clubs: Amend the Smoking Ban because "There is already an e-petition about this issue", the DH has just accepted a THIRD petition on the subject. Click here.

What I didn't tell you is that on Monday I emailed the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons to find out what had happened to Antony's petition because at that stage it had yet to be accepted or rejected.

Within two hours Antony's PA received an email that read:

Dear Antony Worrall Thompson,

Your e-petition "Save Our Pubs and Clubs: Amend the Smoking Ban" hasn't been accepted.

There is already an e-petition about this issue.

I immediately rang the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons, which is in charge of the e-petitions website, to find out more.

To be fair, the people I spoke to were courteous and helpful. (They all sound remarkably young, or perhaps I'm just very old.)

I was effectively told that following receipt of my email Antony's petition had been recommended for publication but the DH had ignored that advice.

Now, three days later, the DH has seen fit to publish a third petition about the smoking ban with a fourth allocated, somewhat bizarrely, to Defra. Yet still they won't accept Antony's.

Anyway, I have just spoken to someone else at the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons, following which I sent them another email urging the DH to reconsider Antony's petition.

They have promised to take it up with the DH but I'm beginning to lose the will to live.

PS. I have been exchanging emails with Joe Jackson on this subject and I hope he won't mind my repeating what he had to say:

"I think AWT's [petition] was rejected because it was the most eloquent and most likely to succeed."

I couldn't possibly comment.

Btw, the proposer of the latest petition is the enigmatic Chris F J Cyrnik who occasionally comments on this blog, but not always using his real name.

Update on Thursday, August 18, 2011 at 17:25 by Simon Clark

STOP PRESS: Good news, I think. Can't say anything yet (don't want to tempt providence) but watch this space.

Tobacco control – the road ahead

There was a substantial feature about anti-smoking legislation in the Scotsman yesterday.

Includes several quotes from Sheila Duffy (ASH Scotland) and me. Click here.

My colleague Tom Miers will be on Call Kaye, the BBC Radio Scotland phone-in, discussing these issues tmorrow morning.