Paul Bartlett: is this man a halfwit?

The Sunday Times has posted a video by Rod Liddle on its website.

It's behind the paywall (a single issue costs £1) but worth it for another glimpse of Paul Bartlett, the Stony Stratford councillor who wants to ban smoking throughout the town.

Sample:

Liddle: "Do you realise there's not a single person in Stony Stratford who's in favour of your plan? We've trawled the streets. We've walked up and down. We haven't found a single person who doesn't think that it's a fatuous idea.

Bartlett: "Well, that's not the feedback that I'm getting. Obviously there are people who are very passionate about it and want to continue contaminating the environment and killing themselves through cancer ...

Liddle: "That's none of your business, is it, whether they kill themselves, really?"

Bartlett: "It is because I'm a councillor and I care about my local people."

Clearly Rod thinks Bartlett is a half wit. Cut to him asking a resident of Stony Stratford: "Do you think he is sectionable under the mental health act?" followed by this exchange:

Bartlett: "If you're walking in the street in Stony Stratford or anywhere else you have to walk through someone's smoke. You have to walk through their spit which they leave on the pavement through their cigarette butt, you need to get your clothes burnt and if you have a young child there's every chance that that child could get burnt and that's very, very important."

Liddle: "How many people in the last five years have been burnt in Stony Stratford as a consequence of walking past someone with a cigarette?"

Bartlett: "Well, I don't know the figure but I certainly know that ..."

Liddle: "None, probably, isn't it?"

Sadly, very few people will see this video, nor will they have heard Bartlett spout similar rubbish on Radio 2, TalkSport or the local evening news.

I just hope he repeats it at the council meeting on Tuesday and that his fellow councillors have the sense to challenge this transparent nonsense.

Meanwhile, in the print edition of today's Sunday Times, Liddle has this to say:

There’s an important vote coming up on Tuesday in the charming little town of Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire. The council is debating whether to ban smoking from all public places. This is the idea of a short, fat, strange-looking chap called Paul Bartlett, a Conservative councillor.

I walked around Stony Stratford and couldn’t find one person who supported Bartlett’s proposal — not one. When you talk to Bartlett he starts ranting about the streets being besmirched by the “filthy saliva” adhering to discarded cigarette butts. He is, I think, several gaspers short of the full packet. But, don’t forget, people said the same thing about Liam Donaldson when, as chief medical officer, he proposed a complete smoking ban in pubs. And at least Bartlett was elected.

Update: An outbreak of people power in Stony Stratford (Dick Puddlecote)

Further reading:
A grand day out (Frank Davis)
A day out in Stony Stratford (The Moose)

See previous post for links to more posts from those who attended yesterday's protest.

PS. All week I have been cautioning people to avoid personal insults. Sorry, listening to Bartlett it's hard to resist!

The day the people spoke

Just back from Stony Stratford.

Fantastic turnout for Dick Puddlecote's Stony Standoff, or whatever it was called.

It rained heavily all morning (thank goodness for my Smokers Welcome umbrella!), yet Dick counted 80 protesters and more arrived after that.

To put this in perspective, at the boat party on Wednesday I told Dick to be happy if 20 people turned up and ecstatic if there were 50. The final attendance was almost double that.

Some familiar faces (Chris Snowdon, Dave Atherton, Pat Nurse, Gawain Towler), but the vast majority – including Frank Davis and Tom Paine – were new to me.

Some had travelled a considerable distance to be there, but I was pleased to see plenty of local people too. ("Paul Bartlett's ambulance is killing me!" shouted one. Eh?)

Apart from Nigel Farage, who arrived late from a UKIP event and had the floor to himself, the other speakers were Conservative MEP Roger Helmer, Patrick Hayes of the Institute of Ideas (and a columnist for The Free Society), Bill Etheridge of The Freedom Association, and David Odell, chairman of Stony Stratford Business Association.

I'll link to other posts and reports as they are published, but I would like to think this was the day when people finally said "Enough is enough".

Update on Saturday, July 16, 2011 at 17:39 by Simon Clark

Just watched a report on BBC Look East. The lead story, no less.

First attendee to blog is Tom Paine:
Success at Stony Stratford! (The Last Ditch)

See also:
Mission accomplished (Dick Puddlecote)
The Stony Standoff: Sanity 1, Bartlett 0 (Velvet Glove Iron Fist)
Enough is enough (Tea and Cigarettes)

BBC News now has the story:
Protest against Stony Stratford smoking ban proposal

So too (via the Press Association):
Belfast Telegraph, Brighton Argus, Halifax Courier ...

Rod Liddle on health fascists

H/T Dick Puddlecote – and News International, publishers of the Sunday Times. (Credit where credit's due.)

Join Dick Puddlecote in Stony Stratford

Whatever you are doing tomorrow, postpone – unless you are going to Stony Stratford.

I can't speak highly enough of this initiative by blogger Dick Puddlecote who has organised, off his own bat, a protest against the proposal to ban smoking in all outside areas in this small Buckinghamshire town.

Idle chatter – on blogs, websites etc – is not enough. If you live within two hours of Stony Stratford I urge you to support Dick's effort.

This could light the fuse for a genuine grassroots revolt against excessive tobacco control. Over to you.

Protestors will gather from 11.00am at the Vaults Bar, High Street, Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, MK11 1AQ. Speeches around midday.

Full details on Dick's blog.

Looking for David Hockney

Third video from the Save Our Pubs and Clubs reception.

It features Suzy Dean who is a columnist for The Free Society. Her latest article – Porn: what women want? – is published today.

Amend the ban? The people speak

Following last night's Smoke On The Water (see earlier post) ...

... here is the second of three videos from the Save Our Pubs and Clubs reception at the House of Commons on June 29.

Features interviews with Forest Eireann's John Mallon (above), former Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik, Paul Staines (blogger Guido Fawkes), Patrick Hayes (Institute of Ideas), jailed landlord Nick Hogan, publicans, members of the Working Men's Clubs and Institute Union, and David Hockney.

It's ten minutes long (there's an edited version on YouTube) but there are some good quotes and we didn't want to leave anyone out.

Feel free to post this or other videos from the Save Our Pubs and Clubs channel on other blogs and websites.

Is this the most odious man in Britain?

No, not Rupert Murdoch.

Gordon Brown.

I wanted an inquiry into the beastly media, but those horrid civil servants wouldn't let me (Daily Telegraph), Labour's former leader follows his successor's lead (Independent), Mr Speaker snarled like a Hyena as the red mist descended (Daily Mail)

Update on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 10:41 by Simon Clark

When I was a student, in 1978, I helped launch a rival to the official student union newspaper.

I can't remember the exact details but I think the print union SOGAT was on strike at the time (like most of Britain that year) and the student union newspaper – which used union typesetters – was one of many publications that failed to appear.

Needless to say, the left-leaning staff weren't prepared to take on the mighty SOGAT and weeks went by without anything happening. No newspaper, nothing. (In truth, this was no hardship to the reader. It was the most boring publication you can imagine.)

Anyway, we saw an opportunity. We found a firm of printers 800 miles away that was prepared to handle copy that was not typeset by union members (we did it ourselves using Letraset transfers and a manual golfball typewriter), and launched our own newspaper.

SOGAT tried to stop us. Tipped off by the student union, they wrote to our printers demanding that they boycott our little publication.

Think about that. A huge, all-powerful union (as it then was) tried to stop a handful of students from producing a tiny newspaper with a potential readership of, oh, 3,000 in the north east of Scotland.

Thankfully they failed, and Campus went on to enjoy a lifespan of seven years, at one point being distributed to 20 universities from Aberdeen to Exeter.

I mention this because if there's one thing we should never forget it's this: in the Eighties Rupert Murdoch helped destroy the power of the print unions.

For that, he has my undying thanks and admiration.

Day after the party the night before

Still in London following last night's Smoke On The Water boat party.

The event took place under leaden skies but the expected showers failed to materialise and guests were able to experience The Elizabethan's unique sliding roof. This gives passengers a great view of some of London's best known buildings and bridges, and it's particularly atmospheric after dark when the coloured lighting on landmarks such as County Hall and the London Eye can be seen so clearly.

I first booked this Mississippi-style paddle steamer for a party in, I think, 1995. Smoke On The Water was the sixth time I have hired it and it has never let me down. Its only failing is a rather small bar that can cause a bit of a bottleneck for drinks, but that normally resolves itself following the initial surge. (Anticipating this problem, guests were offered a free glass of wine to kick start the evening, but we very quickly exhausted the 80 bottles we had set aside. Thirsty work, smoking.)

We had an excellent six-piece band, Urban Blue, who played a mixture of jazz, funk and soul, and between sets I was delighted to introduce our two guest speakers, blogger Dick Puddlecote and David Nuttall MP. Experience has taught me that speeches and stand up receptions are not a good mix (people are far more interested in drinking and continuing their conversation) and last night was no exception.

Nevertheless Dick and David both spoke with great conviction and the message was very clear and very simple. The fight for smokers' rights will continue for as long as it takes and far from going away (as some people predicted it would after the smoking ban in 2007) the 'movement' is actually growing, to the extent that 'ordinary' smokers like Dick have been emboldened to organise their own protest events.

Likewise, David Nuttall has no intention of abandoning the cause, unlike some of his fellow MPs. There is a small group of independently-minded MPs to whom we are very grateful for their support and with the help of David and others like him we intend to build on that.

It's worth noting that MPs' researchers (if not MPs) were out in force last night. I spoke to one (significantly, he's also a local councillor) and he is very keen to help. Watch this space.

In total, almost 250 people attended last night's event, very close to capacity. Interestingly, while there was some overlap, it was a very different crowd to the 200+ people who attended our Save Our Pubs and Clubs reception at the House of Commons two weeks ago. Much younger, someone noted. If we could combine the two groups it's not unrealistic to think we could attract at least 500 – maybe more – for an even bigger event. Smoke In The Park, perhaps?

To date Forest's record attendance is 400 for our Revolt in Style dinner at the Savoy Hotel in 2007. In 2006 a Politics and Prohibition themed event at the Conservative conference in Bournemouth attracted a similar number to the Royal Bath Hotel. In fact, that event was so popular hotel staff had to stop people coming in, citing "elf 'n safety"!

Can you imagine ASH attracting similar support? No, neither can I. The conundrum is, how to convert the popularity of social events like Revolt In Style and Smoke On The Water into hard political currency.

PS. Loving the superfast broadband in my hotel. (Each room comes equipped with its own iMac. Bliss.)

I'm not one of those who considers broadband (fast or slow) to be a human right (ridiculous idea), but it does improve the quality of my life enormously.

Sadly I have to check out in a couple of hours otherwise I would happily stay here all day.