That was the year that was

Several people have very kindly written to thank Forest for our efforts this year.

I was careful at our 35th anniversary party in November not to give the impression we were 'celebrating' because, let's face it, smokers have little to cheer these days. Nevertheless I'm touched that people appreciate the work we do.

Thankfully it's not all doom and gloom. See the Forest Review of the Year we sent subscribers yesterday. In addition, and in no particular order, here are some of the things I'll remember from 2014. The list includes some personal stuff:

1. GTNF, White Sulphur Springs
This year's Global Tobacco Networking Forum took place at the historic Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia (above). A feature of the hotel is a bunker that was built to house Congress in the event of a nuclear attack. After the conference (where I gave a presentation urging the tobacco companies not to forget smokers in their rush to embrace e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco) I spent three wonderful days in Washington. (Note to self: must visit America more often.)

2. Stand Up For Freedom!
Even with the support of Conservatives for Liberty I was nervous about organising a stand up comedy event at the Hyatt Hotel in Birmingham during the Tory conference. In addition to a "first class" PA system we had to hire staging and lighting. Other riders requested by our headline act included a private room "with space to hang clothing", a full length mirror and light refreshments. Thankfully the event went really well, stand up comedian Alistair Barrie was a trooper, and the biggest problem was having to turn people away because the room was so full.

3. Forest's 35th anniversary party
Two hundred guests including half a dozen MPs and a substantial amount of 'free' food and drink contributed to a great evening. There were some excellent speeches and I was particularly pleased that Joe Jackson travelled from Berlin to join us. Our live band, Hidden Charms, have since recorded an album (in LA no less), to be released next year. Listen to their debut single Sunnyside here and watch this video of the event.

4. Downing Street delivery
On August 5, following a short but intensive campaign, we delivered 53,000 letters to the PM at 10 Downing Street. Signed by members of the public they expressed people's strong opposition to plain packaging of tobacco. As we walked up to the famous front door, supporters outside the main gate held placards with the clear message, 'Say no to plain packaging'. Two days later, in response to the government's "final" consultation on the policy, we submitted a duplicate set plus 97,000 petition responses to the Department of Health in south London. Last but not least a further 8,000 emails were sent to the DH electronically. On a limited budget I don't think there's a lot more we could have done.

5. Diane Abbott: "People like him"!
In 2014 Forest clocked up over 1500 media 'hits' (or mentions), online or in print. I also appeared regularly on TV and radio including BBC News, ITV News, Sky News, Five Live and the Today programme (Radio 4). The most intensive day involved 24 radio and TV interviews, many of them back to back. Many interviews are instantly forgettable but those I remember include Sunday Politics (BBC1) and Daily Politics (BBC2) where I was interviewed live in the studio by Andrew Neil. My Daily Politics appearance was notable for former Labour health minister Diane Abbott pointing her finger at me and referring dismissively to "people like him".

6. Ukip Conference
I'm not a great fan of party conferences (far too many lobbyists!!) so when I was invited to book a Hands Off Our Packs stand at the Ukip conference in Doncaster I was sceptical. However when Nigel Farage (finally!) paid the stand a visit and declared his opposition to plain packaging, giving us the soundbite we'd hoped for, it suddenly seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately it didn't make the news because 90 minutes later the Ukip leader unveiled a second Tory defector (Mark Reckless) and after that there was only one story in town. Then again, Friday night in Doncaster was a hoot – but that's another story.

7. The Spectator Cigar Smoker of the Year
You wait all your life to meet one A-list celebrity then two come along at the same time. Sadly I didn't press the flesh with Kelsey Grammer or Arnold Schwarzenegger but I did shake the hand of someone who did. Will that do?

8. "World's most expensive cross-Channel ferry"
Much to my wife's annoyance we had very little in the way of a holiday this year. Therefore, to celebrate Clare's 50th birthday in November I booked a mini-cruise with friends on Cunard's Queen Victoria. By modern standards the ship is relatively small, which I prefer, and if you book the right cabins (which I did) there's an air of exclusivity that appeals to a snob like me. The Queen Vic also looks like a proper ship, not a Las Vegas resort. Sailing from Southampton we didn't travel far but the experience was a step up from previous cruises we've been on. It was a great way to spend a few days although, as always, I came off several pounds heavier than when I went on.

9. The amazing Highland Line
Following a provincial Scottish football team is a thankless task at the best of times. In March however I caught the Friday night sleeper from Euston to Inverness to see a Scottish Cup quarter final tie between my team, Dundee United, and Inverness CT. Ironically the game was live on TV (on the Sunday) but I'm so glad I went. United won 5-0 but the best bit was waking up at 6.00am on Saturday and experiencing the breathtaking scenery from the 'comfort' of my bed on board the train. Highly recommended.

And finally …

10. My father's funeral
I'm not being flippant. My father died in June, aged 84. He had his first heart by-pass at the age of 58 and 15 years ago had a full heart transplant. In recent years he'd been on dialysis after his kidneys failed and he spent three days a week in hospital attached to a machine. His will to live was extraordinary but it was a relief, in some ways, when his body finally said "enough". He died at home, as he wanted, with his family at his side. Everything about the funeral was perfect. A better send off would be hard to imagine.

And with that, I wish you (in advance) a very Happy New Year!

Public health: rotten to the core

Public Health England, which is funding a £500,000 Dry January ad campaign by Alcohol Concern, is also targetting smokers.

The government body, whose head of tobacco control is Martin Dockrell, formerly of ASH, is today launching a new anti-smoking campaign.

It's called 'Stop the rot' and the press release reads:

Stop the rot: New campaign highlights how cigarettes 'rot' the body from the inside
Research reveals that poisons in tobacco smoke break down the body's key systems, damaging bones, muscles, brain, teeth and eyesSmokers turning to roll-ups, wrongly convinced they are less harmful New anti-smoking campaign shows a roll-up full of rotting tissue to highlight the dangers.

Today, Public Health England launches a powerful new campaign to highlight how smoking damages the body and causes a slow and steady decline in a process akin to rotting. The campaign launches as a new expert review commissioned by Public Health England highlights the multiple impacts that toxic ingredients in cigarettes can have on your body.

There follows a long list of how smoking allegedly damages bones and muscles, causes injuries to heal more slowly and reduces the impact of treatment. According to PHE it also affects the brain and teeth, damages sight and increases the risk of age-related cataracts.

Hand rolled tobacco (which is favoured by an increasing number of smokers as a direct result of the government's tobacco taxation policy) is singled out for special attention:

The campaign also tackles common misconceptions around hand-rolled tobacco, or roll-ups. Use of roll-ups has increased significantly. In 1990, 18% of male smokers and 2% of female smokers said they smoked mainly hand-rolled cigarettes but by 2013 this had risen to 40% for men and 23% for women. New figures show that half of smokers (49%) who only smoke roll-ups wrongly believe they are less harmful than manufactured cigarettes. In fact, hand-rolled cigarettes are at least as hazardous as any other type of cigarette.

Needless to say there's a comment from our old friend Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England and Wales:

"Whilst many smokers know the damage cigarettes do to their hearts and lungs, they are much less likely to be aware of how harmful smoking is to the body - essentially 'rotting' it from the inside out, and roll-ups are no exception.

According to PHE:

Digital and print billboards will feature a roll-up cigarette full of decaying tissue, whilst an online viral will see a father casually rolling up a cigarette formed of rotting human flesh - all bringing to life the fact that: 'every cigarette rots you from the inside out'. This will be joined by the 'Mutations' and 'Toxic Cycle' adverts used in previous campaigns. These campaigns have helped smoking rates in England fall to an all time low this year of 18.4% and Public Health England will be continuing to help any smoker wishing to make a quit attempt in 2015 with a range of free and proven support tools.

Believe it or not that's an edited version of a press release that seems to pride itself on hyperbole.

I tried to keep Forest's response as short as possible:

Forest slams PHE's "poisonous" anti-smoking campaign
The smokers' group Forest has described Public Health England's new anti-smoking campaign as "rotten", "poisonous" and an "abuse of public money".

According to PHE, "research reveals that poisons in tobacco smoke break down the body's key systems, damaging bones, muscles, brain, teeth and eyes".

Simon Clark, director of Forest, said: "There can't be a sane adult in the United Kingdom who isn't well aware of the health risks of smoking.

"What's really poisonous is the way public health campaigners are constantly trying to scare and harass people with exaggerated claims and dubious statistics.

"Campaigns like this are an abuse of public money. Education has been replaced by shrill scaremongering that is often counter-productive because it's human nature to switch off when you're being nagged or shouted at on an almost daily basis.

"This is real life not a Hammer Horror film. If Public Health England wants to be effective they should engage directly with consumers, not try to scare them with rotten campaigns such as this."

I'll keep an eye on media coverage but as I write I have a feeling that warning fatigue may have set in.

One thing's for sure. What we've seen since Christmas is a concerted, coordinated campaign on several fronts - food, drink and now tobacco.

And the target? You and me (aka the consumer).

Increasingly bodies such as PHE will stop at nothing until smoking and even drinking are denormalised.

Public health, rotten to the core.

Update: The BBC has the story here (Smoking rot highlighted in campaign). The original report had no balancing comment, despite the fact that we sent them our press release yesterday morning. I have just spoken to the news desk and it should be updated shortly.

The Mail also has a report here (with a quote from Forest):

Graphic anti-smoking advert featuring father lighting a roll-up made of rotting flesh is unveiled as report aims to highlight lesser known consequences of the habit

Finally (and somewhat surprisingly), the Independent highlights our reaction in its headline here:

Anti-smoking adverts accused of 'scaremongering'

Update: The BBC has now updated its report to include a brief comment from me. Pity we had to phone their news desk and point out how one-sided the original report was.

Poll: Majority support smoking rooms in pubs and clubs

Yesterday I linked to the 'IEA Lifestyle Poll' whose headline figures were reported by the Daily Mail and Daily Express and are recorded on the ComRes website as follows:

A new poll for the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) conducted by ComRes finds significant opposition to sin taxes and majority agreement that the government should not interfere in individuals’ lifestyle choices.

Seven in ten (70%) British adults say it should be the individual’s responsibility to make their own lifestyle choices and the government should not interfere. Looking at those expressing a preference, this figure rises to over 80%.

Half of Britons (51%) believe indirect taxes are too high, this rises to seven in ten (69%) among only those who declared a preference. Eight in ten (78%) giving an opinion believe they hit the poorest the hardest.

A majority of Britons believe the government should not offer financial incentives to people who are trying to lose weight (61%), stop smoking (60%) or stop drinking excessively (62%).

Ukip voters are the most hostile to government intervention on lifestyle choices across the board.

I've now had a chance to read the survey results in full and I'm amazed no-one has highlighted what, to me, is the most interesting result.

Asked to agree or disagree with the statement, 'Owners of pubs and private members clubs should be allowed to have a private room for people to smoke in if they want to', the 4135 respondents reacted as follows:

51% agree
35% disagree
13% don't know

Interestingly there is very little difference between men and women:

53% of men, 50% of women agreed
35% of men, 36% of women disagreed
12% of men, 15% of women don't know

There's a modest difference between age groups but those who agree that 'pubs and private members clubs should be allowed to have a private room for people to smoke in if they want to' outnumber those who disagree in every age group bar none:

18-24: 40% agree, 31% disagree, 29% don't know
25-34: 54% agree, 31% disagree, 15% don't know
35-44: 52% agree, 32% disagree, 16% don't know
45-54: 55% agree, 36% disagree, 9% don't know
55-64: 57% agree, 35% disagree, 8% don't know
65+: 48% agree, 44% disagree, 9% don't know

I've no idea why this hasn't been publicised because the information is in the public domain. (You'll find it on the ComRes website here, Table 4.)

Spread the word!

Oops, the Advertising Standards Authority does it again

Who runs this country, the government or the Advertising Standards Authority?

It was reported this morning that the ASA has banned three e-cigarette ads. Too late (the story had already broken before we were aware of it), Forest issued this response:

Campaigners have slammed a decision by the Advertising Standards Authority to ban two e-cigarette television advertisements that feature a woman exhaling vapour.

Simon Clark, director of the smokers' group Forest, said, "The rules on e-cigarette advertising were relaxed to encourage their use by existing smokers.

"The great appeal of e-cigs to many smokers is the fact that they replicate the act of smoking.

"To encourage smokers to switch advertisers must be allowed to show people exhaling vapour. Failure to do so will greatly reduce their effectiveness.

"Without evidence to support its case, the ASA has no right to ban an advertisement on the spurious grounds that, indirectly, this may encourage people to smoke tobacco.

"Not for the first time an unelected, out of touch quango has sided with public health zealots whose primary interest is controlling people's behaviour and restricting our freedom to choose between a range of legal consumer products."

As readers of this blog know, the ASA has form when it comes to tobacco, smoking and now, it seems, vaping.

Odd though that the ASA took 18 months to adjudicate on our complaint against a Department of Health ad but took no more than a few weeks to fast track a ban on three e-cigarette ads.

OK, the issues weren't quite so complicated, but it's amazing how quickly the ASA can reach a decision when they want to.

PS. I wonder how ASH will respond? My guess is they'll say nothing.

Memo from Glasgow

Back from Ireland, I drove to Glasgow on Sunday.

At 2.30 yesterday afternoon I was in Princes Square shopping centre, a short walk from George Square.

At the same time my wife and mother-in-law were in another shopping centre, Buchanan Galleries.

Fifteen minutes later, as I walked up Buchanan Street to join them, I noticed three police officers running past.

Overhead a helicopter hovered.

Back in the car - and totally ignorant that a "major incident" had just taken place nearby – I turned on the radio.

On Five Live eye-witnesses were describing the scene after a bin lorry crashed into pedestrians and cars in George Square.

Six people killed, seven seriously injured.

A terrible freak accident no-one could have predicted or, it seems, done anything to prevent.

Further comment is, I think, superfluous.

Ireland: law passed, now police have to "figure out" how to apply car smoke ban

First plain packaging, now smoking in cars with children.

Are we in a race with Ireland to be the biggest nanny state in Europe?

The Dáil today passed a law making it illegal to smoke in a car carrying a child but it won't take effect until the police "have developed procedures to figure out how it can be applied".

You might have thought that would have been addressed in advance. What happens if they can't "figure out how it can be applied"?

I wonder if police forces in Britain are currently pondering the same thing.

You couldn't make it up.

See Dáil passes bill banning smoking in cars with children present (Irish Examiner)

Cuba: change will benefit the people who matter most

Delighted that America is to begin changing its relationship with Cuba.

It may upset a certain type of tourist but long-term it can only benefit those who matter most, the people of Cuba.

Last year, following an account of a long-awaited visit to Havana, I wrote:

But what of Cuba itself? I had no preconceptions prior to the trip but what I read in advance suggested that the worst excesses of a totalitarian regime - the imprisonment and torture of political opponents, for example – still take place.

I can't shed any light on that. All I can say is that Cuba is changing. Those in our party who first visited the country ten years ago say it has changed a lot already. A decade ago, for example, the authorities made sure there was little or no contact with 'ordinary' Cubans. Today they are far more relaxed.

Significantly I wasn't conscious of any military presence in Havana. Only on our final day, when we drove to the airport, did I see any soldiers in uniform. I didn't see many policemen in uniform either, although that doesn't mean they weren't around. We were warned, for example, not to buy cigars from anyone in the street because they might be plain clothes officers.

Contrast Cuba today with the Soviet Union of 30 years ago and despite its Communist regime it's a very different experience. I visited Moscow in 1981 and it's something I shall never forget. (If you want to know what living under an authoritarian East European regime was like watch the 2007 film The Lives of Others which is set in East Germany a few years before the fall of the Berlin Wall.)

Cuba felt nothing like that, although it may have been different had I been visiting people actively opposed to the government. One huge difference is the Cubans' very public love of music. I can't remember visiting a bar that didn't have a band playing, although how much of that is for the benefit of tourists I'm not sure.

Havana itself reeks of colonial history, mostly Spanish. Old Havana has been given UNESCO status so many of the old buildings are being preserved. There is very little money however so buildings that retain much of their original elegance on the outside are often derelict inside.

There is long stretch overlooking the sea that with proper redevelopment could create a waterfront that would match anything that Cannes or Monte Carlo has to offer. Instead, every other building appeared to be empty or in serious disrepair.

We were warned that the state-owned Nacional Hotel, where we were staying, might seem a bit shabby but it seemed fine to me. Before the Revolution the Nacional was a favourite of American film stars. Sinatra was one of many who stayed there. In those days Havana was also a mecca for the Mafia who by all accounts ran the casinos and made a fortune from gambling. Cuba could enjoy similar prosperity again, without the help of the Mafia, but the country needs investment and the obvious source - the United States - is still off limits.

I'm sure that one day the blockade will be lifted and when that happens expect a huge influx of American tourists followed by a McDonalds and Holiday Inn on every corner. Yes, Cuba will change dramatically but is that such a bad thing? Understandably a lot of visitors like things the way they are but is it wrong to hope for better living standards for the majority of Cubans, many of whom have been enslaved by poverty or political oppression for far too long.

Full post: Notes from a Caribbean island

This year, twelve months after my visit, I commented:

I look forward to returning to Cuba when the Americans have moved in and there is a McDonalds on every corner.

That could be sooner than I anticipated!

Meanwhile, if you prefer 'old' Cuba with its dilapidated buildings, 1950s American Cadillacs and cheap mojitos, I'd get over there fast.

PS. Here's an interesting take on developments that doesn't share my optimistic view of things. I'm no expert, obviously, so these comments are worth bearing in mind:

Marco Rubio slams Cuba agreement, says Obama is ‘willfully ignorant’

I still think that long-term change will be good for the people of Cuba but America will eventually have to go the whole hog and embrace Cuba (and vice versa) which I think, in time, they will.

Whale meet again

Looking forward to the Forest Christmas dinner in Cork tonight.

But first I've got to get there.

I'm currently in Dublin where I enjoyed a few pints last night with some agreeably smoker-friendly faces.

As I've mentioned before, a great many Dublin pubs go out of their way to make smokers as comfortable as possible.

The Ginger Man in Fenian Street, directly opposite my hotel, is effectively my local when I'm here:

The pub, all dark wood and polished picture-frames housing faded images, convulses with conversation and laughter around us. The harsh light from the toilet corridor meets the dimness of the rest of the pub exactly where we are, talking loudly and moving from side to side to facilitate the various movements of others.

The two more pleasant snug seating areas have long since been occupied, and a large table to our right is occupied by two men in their mid-twenties deep in discussion, one with a necktie around his forehead. To the front of the pub, a small, heated smoking area bustles with activity, patrons spilling out onto the footpath beyond.

Full review here.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny lives a few doors away and often drops in, late at night. Or so I'm told.

Anyway, further to my previous post, my evening went ahead as planned after I was stood down by Five Live and the BBC News Channel gave up looking for a studio where they could interview me about smoking in cars with children.

I was also edited out of the BBC Six O'Clock News report although, having seen it online, I can understand why.

Anyway, having been quoted by the Telegraph, Mail, Sun and other newspapers, I was pleasantly surprised to be interviewed this morning by the great James Whale who now presents the breakfast show on BBC Radio Essex.

James is feisty and fiercely anti-smoking but I like speaking to him because he lets you have your say, which is all you can ask.

Funnily enough he once told me on air that I am charming but I talk a load of rubbish. My response? Pot. Kettle. Black.

On another occasion he told me, "I do wish you'd find a better outlet for your talents."

Today I detected a softer tone. Either he's mellowed or the breakfast slot is less conducive to the more abrasive style for which he is known.

Either way I'm delighted he's still on air. I was disappointed when he left LBC. We can't afford to lose broadcasters of his experience and quality - a subject I will come back to when I have a moment.

See also: Whale of a time (Taking Liberties, December 2009)