Our man in Ireland embarks on another mini media adventure

Forest Eireann's John Mallon is on the road – again.

Nine months after his last tour of Ireland (the first was in 2011), our man in Ireland is embarking on yet another mini media marathon.

Starting tomorrow in Cork, where he lives, John is scheduled to visit Waterford, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Tullamore, Tralee, Limerick, Sligo, Galway, Ballyhaunis, Longford, Roscommon, Droheda and, finally, Dublin.

The aim of the tour is to promote Forest Eireann's new campaign, Plain Packs Plain Stupid.

In the next few weeks the Irish Parliament's Joint Health and Children Committee will meet four times to consider the Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill 2013.

Last week was the deadline for submissions and we will find out shortly who will be asked to give oral evidence to the Committee.

You can follow John's latest adventure on the Forest Eireann blog and I'll post occasional updates here.

See also: 'Voice and friend of the smoker' to fight plain packaging of tobacco (Forest Eireann)

Forest: legislation for standardised tobacco packaging is not fit for purpose (Retail Times)

Do you think ecigs should be banned in all public places?

Further to my previous post, today's Daily Record has a short report with this headline:

'Smokers slam ban on cigs'.

It's based on some comments I gave them yesterday.

The Record piece is not online but yesterday's report in the Sunday Mail – the Record's sister paper – now features an online poll:

Do you think electronic cigarettes should be banned in all public places?

Click here to vote.

I have just voted and the current score is:

Yes – 5%
No – 95%

PS. Can you imagine a headline that read 'Vapers slam ban on cigarettes'?

Why newspapers print comments by Forest on e-cigarettes

Someone has tweeted:

Why do @Forest_Smoking get statements printed in newspaper articles on ecigs? Genuine question!

We replied:

Because we believe in choice, are appalled by misinformed attacks on a legitimate consumer product, and are prepared to say so!

And:

Another reason: lots of smokers who don't want to quit use e-cigarettes when they can't smoke and we defend their right to do so.

We could also have added:

Who else is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week?!

PS. I have just spoken to another journalist in Scotland about e-cigarettes.

I suspect my comments will be reduced to the usual single sentence soundbite but I'll post a link here tomorrow.

I understand there will also be an online poll on the subject so watch this space.

The Derby Telegraph replies

Further to my previous post ...

The Derby Telegraph has suggested I "write a letter expressing your view on the subject" or a 450-word "soapbox".

Fine.

But if they'd published my original comment - which they sought from me, not the other way around - it wouldn't be necessary.

Newspapers, eh?

Hospital: staff will be trained to approach smokers

The Derby Telegraph reports:

Royal Derby Hospital gets tough on enforcing smoking ban.

I'm a bit cheesed off because the reporter rang me yesterday for a quote.

We spoke for several minutes. I queried whether getting staff to "patrol the grounds" or training them "to approach smokers" was the best use of scarce NHS resources.

I also said the usual things - hospitals can be stressful places, blah blah blah, and being harassed to quit smoking was unlikely to help.

None of my comments are included in the story, which is incredibly one-sided.

I don't blame the journalist. What normally happens is that the reporter includes the quote in the copy he or she files but the sub editors delete it for reasons of space (not applicable online) or because it doesn't suit the newspaper's agenda.

As it happens, the Derby Telegraph is strongly in favour of a ban on smoking on hospital grounds, as this editorial comment makes clear:

Total smoking ban is correct for Royal Derby Hospital

As it happens I'm familiar with Derby Royal Hospital because my father, who is on dialysis, has been going there - three days a week - for several years.

It's a vast, relatively new hospital with long soulless corridors that take an age to walk.

It also has a restaurant, a convenience store and a Costa Coffee franchise.

Yes, I've seen patients and visitors hanging around the entrance having a cigarette.

Am I bovvered? No. They're in the open air and the area around the entrance is so spacious you would be hard-pressed to get close enough to someone to inhale even a whiff of their tobacco smoke.

Frankly, this is a storm in a teacup whipped up by a local newspaper with nothing better to write about.

The Free Society to get the full Monty

Just back from Edinburgh.

On Wednesday I joined 150 guests at a well-attended reception in the Scottish Parliament.

It took place in the Garden Lobby which links all the buildings in the parliamentary complex. According to the Scottish Parliament website it gets its name from its location next to the Parliament Garden.

According to my colleague, former MSP Brian Monteith, who was with me, the area it occupies was originally designed to be open to the elements.

However, when the vagaries of the Scottish weather were pointed out to the Spanish architect, he quickly added a roof – adding a few more quid to the cost of this grand folly.

It was an excellent evening and I learned one or two things I can't repeat at the moment but their time will come, I promise.

While we were in Edinburgh Brian and I took the opportunity to discuss the future of The Free Society.

I've always had big plans for Forest's sister campaign but we've never had a chance to develop them properly.

Funding is an issue. So too is time.

Brian was appointed editor in August and has done a great job. Pop over and have a look.

Each week the site features new articles, including Brian's own weekly column. They cover a range of issues, including tobacco, food and drink.

You'll also find a Review of the Week and a regular Bullies' Bulletin.

If you'd like to add your name to our list of contributors – they include Simon Hills of The Times and Eamonn Butler, co-founder of the Adam Smith Institute – drop us a note.

We intend to redesign and re-launch the website very soon. We're also hoping to revive the very successful series of debates, Voices of Freedom, that took place in 2010 and 2011.

We also have plans for one if not two Free Society books whose publication will be marked with the usual popping of corks and (a new tradition) a bucketful of sugary drinks.

I'll keep you posted.

PS. Brian now writes a regular column for Conservative Home. Click here.

See also: Brian Monteith appointed editor of The Free Society

From Jennifer Saunders to Stop Before Your Op

There was a discussion about Jennifer Saunders and smoking earlier in the week.

The Telegraph Health section had a picture of her with a cigarette. The headline read 'Did this picture of Jennifer Saunders smoking shock you?' and the feature consisted of two articles, one by Linda McDougall (yes), the other by Cindy Blake (no).

The point is that all three women have suffered from cancer, so it's a bit more complicated than the headline suggests, and I would recommend that you read McDougall's piece before condemning her.

Nevertheless, I was in fire-breathing tabloid mode when I discussed the subject on LBC. (I should add that I was driving to Edinburgh and had to pull off the motorway and do the interview from a Travelodge car park.)

After telling presenter Iain Dale that, no, I wasn't shocked by the picture, I added that I felt "dirty" even discussing it.

"It's none of my business, or yours, or anyone else's," I said. "This is a gross invasion of privacy."

Iain sounded a bit surprised because he responded by saying, "OK, let's move on ..."

The second story he wanted me to comment on was a report that Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospital staff face sack if caught smoking in uniform.

(Have I mentioned I was born at St Thomas'? My uncle worked there which is why my mother had to travel 20 miles in the back of an ambulance before she could give birth.)

Anyway, according to the London Evening Standard, "Workers who flout the rules could face disciplinary action, and repeat offenders may be sacked."

I railed against that too. The problem with being interviewed by Iain, however, is that he and I tend to agree on most things so we end up sounding like a couple of grumpy old men in a pub.

Yesterday I was invited to discuss the Saunders' 'story' on BBC Humberside and Lincolnshire, this time with Linda McDougall.

We were joined by Dr Sean O'Connell who was there to defend a local initiative reported by the Yorkshire Post, 'Defiant smokers asked to sign waivers before routine surgery'.

This is the funny part.

Having been "shocked" by the picture of Saunders smoking, McDougall thought the Stop Before Your Op programme was "disgraceful".

I, on the other hand, didn't.

Frankly, I've read about far worse initiatives, like hospitals or surgeons refusing (or threatening to refuse) to operate until patients have given up smoking completely.

In this instance people have a choice: go on a quit smoking course prior to the operation (which may be delayed as a result) or say, "No, thanks, I'll keep smoking and I'll have the operation as soon as possible, if you please."

The programme doesn't deny anyone an operation. All they're being asked to do is sign a waiver in case there are any complications. I don't see a problem with that.

PS. The Sun asked me to comment on the Stop Before Your Op programme too. I gave them the same line – which surprised them, I think – and to the best of my knowledge they haven't run the story.

That's what happens when you're nice and conciliatory. It's not news!

PPS. McDougall had an interesting slant on the Jennifer Saunders picture that hadn't occurred to me.

If I understood her correctly she was implying that Saunders was effectively posing for the camera - that this was no paparazzi style photo of a celebrity caught off guard and that Saunders was sending people a message of some sort.

Personally I thought we were in danger of over-analysing the whole thing, but judge for yourself.

Smoking and climbing

I'm fascinated by the search queries that lead casual browsers to this blog.

OK, not fascinated. That would be freaky. Curious.

In the past week they have included 'Nigella and John Diamond', 'The Hour BBC smoking', 'Victoria Derbyshire smoking', and 'Hosepipe in exhaust'.

A query that repeatedly turns up is a variation on 'smoking and climbing'. (Sometimes it's expressed in other ways. For example, 'smoking impact at high altitudes'.)

Now, you might think that mountaineers are fit and healthy chaps who would struggle to climb some of the world's highest peaks handicapped by a 20-a-day habit.

And yet ... a non-smoking friend (pictured above on the summit of the Matterhorn last year) told me:

"We were bivvying at 4000m on the way down just outside the Salvay hut and facing a hard night when my guide, an occasional smoker, spotted a Dutch climber rolling a cigarette.

"He went over and said he could murder a cigarette. The Dutchman said he knew how he felt, proceeded to smoke his cigarette, and went inside the hut leaving the guide with his tongue hanging out."

By coincidence another friend - an habitual smoker and boozer for many, many years - also climbed the Matterhorn last year.

He returned with a similar story of climbers cadging (or trying to cadge) cigarettes off one another.

Or hiding their cigarettes from their (shock horror) non-smoking guide.

Smoking at high altitude? It's de rigeur.