Caroline Lucas, friend or foe?

Between now and the General Election on May 7 I'm highlighting a series of 'target seats', those where the candidate standing for re-election has supported anti-tobacco policies, and those where a leading candidate is an opponent of excessive lifestyle regulations and policies that infantilise us all. With a few exceptions I'm focussing on marginal or semi-marginal seats.

#18 - Brighton Pavilion
For all their hippy dippy chic the Greens are no friend of the smoker. Quite the reverse. If Britain was to be governed for any length of time by a coalition of "progressive" parties comprising any combination of Labour, the SNP, the Greens and Plaid Cymru smokers would have a simple choice – quit or leave the country. In 2010 the Greens sole MP Caroline Lucas voted against a relaxation of the smoking ban. In 2014 she voted to ban smoking in private vehicles with children present. She's also been an outspoken supporter of plain packaging which she argued will "save lives". Meanwhile the 2015 Green manifesto has called for sharp increases in tax on alcohol and tobacco to help fund the NHS. Brighton Pavilion is a three-way battle so it should be close.

2010 majority: 1,252 (2.4%)
Estimated number of smokers in Brighton Pavilion: 14,810*
Principal opponents: Labour & Conservative
Friend or foe: Foe
Target rating: Vulnerable

*Based on 20% of the registered electorate in 2010

Note: marginal seats have been defined as those with majorities of 10% or less that require a swing of 5% for the incumbent party to lose.

Hospitals, have a heart

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the impact of new anti-smoking guidelines in Scotland.

Introduced on April 1, they're designed to stop people smoking anywhere on hospitals grounds.

In particular, I noted the predicament of an elderly woman who is suffering from dementia and has effectively been prohibited from smoking because she can't leave the hospital grounds without supervision.

Newspapers were reporting that many patients were ignoring the 'no smoking' guidelines but that doesn't help this particular patient because she can't even leave the building on her own.

See Commonsense and decency sacrificed on the altar of public health.

So far I've taken calls from newspapers in Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Highlands who all report that scores of patients are ignoring the regulations, and this week the Dundee Courier conducted its own investigation and discovered the same thing (Hospitals’ cigarettes ban goes up in smoke).

However, instead of admitting the policy is a failure and heartless to the patients concerned, some of whom are on drips or largely immobile, campaigners are already calling for the regulations to be tightened. On no account must anyone be allowed to choose to smoke in the open air in the vicinity of a hospital.

Although the Courier's initial report was a bit one-sided, to put it mildly, a reporter later rang me and wrote a follow-up piece:

Group says enforcing smoke-free zones at hospitals would be a ‘complete waste of money’ (Courier).

I suspect this issue will run and run so if you know of any cases where people are suffering as a result of these regulations please get in touch.

Dick Puddlecote has also written about it here.

Chris Skidmore, friend or foe?

Between now and the General Election on May 7 I'm highlighting a series of 'target seats', those where the candidate standing for re-election has supported anti-tobacco policies, and those where a leading candidate is an opponent of excessive lifestyle regulations and policies that infantilise us all. With a few exceptions I'm focussing on marginal or semi-marginal seats.

#17 - Kingswood (Gloucestershire)
Chris Skidmore, 33, is one of our younger and brighter MPs. A grammar school boy who went on to get a first class degree at Oxford, he's acted as advisor to David Willetts and Michael Gove; he was chairman of the Bow Group (2007-08) and is a research fellow at Policy Exchange. He's served on the House of Commons Health Select Committee but, more important, he's a member of Free Enterprise Group of MPs. This may explain why, in 2010, he supported an amendment to the smoking ban, and in 2015 opposed plain packaging of tobacco.

2010 majority: 2,445 (5.1%)
Estimated number of smokers in : 13,270*
Principal opponent: Labour
Friend or foe: Friend
Target rating: Vulnerable to tactical voting

*Based on 20% of the registered electorate in 2010

Note: marginal seats have been defined as those with majorities of 10% or less that require a swing of 5% for the incumbent party to lose.

Simon Kirby, friend or foe?

Between now and the General Election on May 7 I'm highlighting a series of 'target seats', those where the candidate standing for re-election has supported anti-tobacco policies, and those where a leading candidate is an opponent of excessive lifestyle regulations and policies that infantilise us all. With a few exceptions I'm focussing on marginal or semi-marginal seats.

#16 - Brighton Kemptown
Elected in 2010, gaining the seat from Labour, Simon Kirby is one of the good guys. A former councillor and local businessman (he founded and later sold a Brighton-based pubco comprising 28 pubs and bars), the Daily Mail's Quentin Letts had this to say about him: "What I like about the fellow is that he does not bristle with pushy ambition or pointless indignation. He does not spout ghastly political slogans." In 2010 Kirby supported David Nuttall's Ten-Minute Rule Bill to amend the smoking ban and in 2011 he presented the JTI/Save Our Pubs & Clubs 'Best Smoking Area' award at the Great British Pub of the Year event, commenting: "I like the kind of pub that anyone can go to. Some pubs are more like restaurants. Others specialise in sport or music. I like a pub that makes an effort to appeal to everyone, and that includes adults who choose to smoke.” In August 2014 he was promoted to the role of PPS to the Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt and still voted against plain packaging of tobacco. A true star!

2010 majority: 1,328 (3.1%)
Estimated number of smokers in Brighton Kemptown: 13,201*
Principal opponent: Labour
Friend or foe: Friend
Target rating: Vulnerable – every vote counts

*Based on 20% of the registered electorate in 2010

Note: marginal seats have been defined as those with majorities of 10% or less that require a swing of 5% for the incumbent party to lose.

Jane Ellison, friend or foe?

Between now and the General Election on May 7 I am highlighting a number of 'target seats', those where the candidate standing for re-election has supported anti-tobacco policies, and those where a leading candidate is an opponent of excessive lifestyle regulations and policies that infantilise us all. With a handful of exceptions I'm focussing on marginal or semi-marginal seats.

#15 - Battersea
Earlier this week I drafted but didn't publish an entry on public health minister Jane Ellison. 'Ellison,' I wrote, 'will be remembered as the junior minister who presided over the introduction of plain packaging. As a humble backbencher she also voted against an amendment to the smoking ban. It's possible she could lose Battersea to Labour but the Lib Dem vote would have to collapse and move en masse to Labour. Alternatively, voters who disapprove of excessive regulations like plain packs and the smoking ban may wish to consider their options very carefully.' Well, I may have misjudged the outcome of this seat and been overly cautious because the Spectator today published this little morsel: Plain pack nanny stater having some trouble in Battersea. It's too early to celebrate but I can feel the champagne corks popping already!

2010 majority: 5,977 (12.2%)
Estimated number of smokers in Battersea: 14,456*
Principal opponent: Labour
Friend or foe: Foe
Target rating: Better than anticipated!

*Based on 20% of the registered electorate in 2010

Note: marginal seats have been defined as those with majorities of 10% or less that require a swing of 5% for the incumbent party to lose.

Matthew Offord, friend or foe?

Between now and the General Election on May 7 I'm highlighting a number of 'target seats', those where the candidate standing for re-election has supported anti-tobacco policies, and those where a leading candidate is an opponent of excessive lifestyle regulations and policies that infantilise us all. With a handful of exceptions I'm focussing on marginal or semi-marginal seats.

#14 – Hendon
Elected in 2010 Matthew Offord voted against David Nuttall's Ten Minute Rule Bill to amend the smoking ban. He voted in favour of plain packaging. Curiously, in 2011 he voted against a private member's bill to ban smoking in cars carrying children but four years later, in February 2015, he voted for the policy. In the same month he asked the Secretary of State for Justice "if he will direct the National Offender Management Service to ban cigarette smoking on the prison estate". As it happens Offord is defending one of the smallest majorities in the country. Need I say more?

2010 majority: 106 (0.2%)
Estimated number of smokers in Hendon: 15,773*
Principal opponent: Labour
Friend or foe: Foe
Target rating: Very high

*Based on 20% of the registered electorate in 2010

Note: Marginal seats have been defined as those with majorities of 10% or less that require a swing of 5% for the incumbent party to lose.

Mark Spencer, friend or foe?

Between now and the General Election on May 7 I'm highlighting a series of 'target seats', those where the candidate standing for re-election has supported anti-tobacco policies, and those where a leading candidate is an opponent of excessive lifestyle regulations and policies that infantilise us all. With a few exceptions I'm focussing on marginal or semi-marginal seats.

#13 - Sherwood
In 2012 Mark Spencer was one of 50 MPs who wrote to the then Health Secretary Andrew Lansley expressing serious concerns about plain packaging. In March 2015 he voted against the proposal but like several other Conservatives who opposed the policy he's defending a very slim majority. I'm beginning to sound like a stuck record but this is another seat where a vote for Ukip could wound the incumbent and send to parliament a less sympathetic MP.

2010 majority: 314 (0.4%)
Estimated number of smokers in Sherwood: 14,210*
Principal opponent: Labour
Friend or foe: Friend
Target rating: Extremely vulnerable

*Based on 20% of the registered electorate in 2010

Note: marginal seats have been defined as those with majorities of 10% or less that require a swing of 5% for the incumbent party to lose.

Lament for New Orleans

A couple of months ago the BBC broadcast a three-part documentary, Reginald D Hunter's Songs of the South.

It went under the radar a bit because it was on BBC2 on Saturday night but I enjoyed it enormously.

The Telegraph gave the series five stars and described the US born but British based comedian as a "wonderfully engaging guide", as indeed he was.

Songs of the South recorded his return to the American South where he was born and raised before moving to Britain in 1997.

Over three programmes he travelled by road guiding viewers "through 150 years of American music".

The first programme took in Tennessee and Kentucky. In the second he visited Alabama and his home state of Georgia, and in the third he drove from Tennessee to Louisiana.

The series concluded with Hunter in New Orleans. Filmed last year it was broadcast a month after the city council voted in favour of a comprehensive smoking ban (I wrote about it here).

There was no mention of smoking bans in the programme but I was struck by a comment Hunter made as he drove into the city in his open top Cadillac:

Another thing about New Orleans. It is one of the remaining cities left - maybe the only one - that still has its own character and has room for characters. It hasn't been homogenised to death. I think it's the most un-America American city in America and America is better for it.

Later, speaking to celebrated musician Dr John, Hunter asked, "What makes New Orleans and New Orleans music what it is?" to which Dr John replied, "[There's] no one way to do anything. Spiritually that opens a lot of doors."

I've never been to New Orleans but it seems to me that by banning smoking (and vaping) in all bars and casinos the council has betrayed that ideal.

Today New Orleans is one step closer to being homogenised and there is one less reason to visit this "most un-America American city".

PS. This post is for New Orleans based musician Juliette Tworsey, a former smoker (now vaper) who was one of the few people to stand up and oppose the ban in her adopted city.

As we know the battle was lost and from tomorrow the ban will be enforced in every bar and casino. Overnight a place described by Joe Jackson as a "free and fun city" will be less free and almost certainly less fun.

I think that's what they call "progress".

See: New Orleans bar owners prepare for the April 22 smoking ban and what it will mean for business

Listen: Reginal D Hunter's Songs of the South (BBC Playlist)