Public health minister – "There is no safe level of nicotine consumption"

Quick follow up to last week's Westminster Hall ‘debate’ on achieving a ‘smokefree’ (sic) future.

My prediction that very few MPs would be present was correct (no surprise there), but I over-estimated the number. Including the chairman, Virendra Sharma, just eight MPs bothered to turn up.

In addition to Bob Blackman (Conservative), chairman of the APPG on Smoking and Health, and Labour's Mary Kelly Foy (who is vice-chair of the same APPG), the others were Jim Shannon (DUP), Liz Twist (Labour), Preet Kaur Gill (Labour’s new shadow public health minister), and public health minister Andrea Leadsom, every one of whom support the Government's ‘smokefree’ ambition.

The only dissenting voice was another DUP MP, Ian Paisley, but his principal concern was the unintended consequences of crime in Northern Ireland and the problems that might arise if a generational ban was introduced there when, over the border in the Republic, tobacco could still be purchased legally at 18.

The defining memory of the 'debate' however was not the pitiful attendance nor the predictable contributions from the likes of Blackman and Mary Kelly Foy, but Andrea Leadsom's performance.

Perhaps I'm used to ministers being a little more guarded in their response, or at least keeping their personal views closer to their chest, but Leadsom didn't hold back. A former smoker, she clearly considers this a personal crusade:

Quitting smoking is the best thing a smoker can do for their health: someone who quits before turning 30 could add ten years to their life. That is very reassuring to me; I started smoking at the age of 14 and gave up as my 21st birthday present to myself, by which time I was smoking 40 a day. I was a student — how did I afford it? I have no idea!

I am so glad I stopped. For anyone who doubts how addictive it is, I turned 60 last year and even to this day, talking about smoking all the time, I sometimes think, “Ooh a cigarette.” That is how addictive it is — 40 years on and I still think, “Ooh!” It is that addictive, and that is absolutely appalling.

But the most jaw-dropping moment was when she declared:

Unlike other consumer products, there is no safe level of nicotine consumption; it is a product that kills up to two thirds of its long-term users and causes 70% of lung cancer deaths.

'No safe level of nicotine consumption'? That’s quite a statement, although I can see what's she done. She's conflated smoking with the consumption of nicotine, but if it was an accident it was also a Freudian slip.

Truth is, as far as government and the public health industry are concerned, the war on tobacco is a war on nicotine, and comments such as 'There is no safe level of nicotine consumption' make the direction of travel absolutely clear.

The UK Vaping Industry Association reacted furiously, as you might expect ('Health minister worryingly out of touch on vaping issues').

It amuses me, though, when vaping advocates, including the vaping industry, accuse politicians and public health activists of being 'out of touch' on vaping whilst accepting everything they have to say about smoking including, no doubt, the claim that that 'the directly attributable cost of smoking to society was around £17 billion a year'.

So forgive me if I don't share the UKVIA's angst.

Nevertheless, it is a little worrying when a government minister makes such a sweeping statement. It's like saying 'There is no safe level of alcohol consumption', or 'There is no safe level of caffeine consumption'.

Has she never heard the expression, 'the dose is the poison'?

Anyway, it's hard to see the Government rowing back with the likes of Andrea Leadsom in office. She may only be a junior minister but that's scant consolation given the PM’s key role in proposing a generational smoking ban.

The remarkable thing is that Leadsom could have been PM had she not shot herself in the foot with an ill-judged remark about motherhood making her a better candidate than Theresa May for the Tory leadership in 2017.

Thankfully we dodged that bullet but got the Maybot instead. Hard times.

Down memory lane

I'm spending the weekend having a bit of a clear out.

Or that's the idea. What invariably happens is that I spend most of the time reading old letters and magazines, and reminiscing.

For example, I've just found a press cutting from the St Andrews Citizen, dated May 22, 1976. That would have been shortly after my final exams at school, and it features a photo of the Madras College 1st XI cricket team.

Eight of the eleven were in the year below me so they still had one year left, but every face, bar one, is familiar to me and it's one of the reasons I would hate to attend a school reunion. Fancy seeing those same faces, older if not wiser, almost 50 years on, and them seeing mine. I couldn’t do it.

One thing that strikes me about the picture is what a scruffy lot we looked. Only one person – the captain sitting in the middle – looks properly equipped to play cricket, and if I remember he was indeed the only decent cricketer in the team.

Cricket in Scotland (especially at school) was a strange affair. We only played cricket during the summer term which was quite short because the summer holiday in Scotland starts two or three weeks ahead of England.

The term was also interrupted by exams so several matches were held over until the exams were finished and then squeezed into the short period before the end of term.

The unpredictable and often cold weather, even in May or June, was another issue, and matches were sometimes played on grounds that, during the winter, were used for rugby so some outfields were very uneven which made fielding a bit of a lottery.

Furthermore, if you were in sixth form, as I was in 1976, and had finished your exams, you didn't bother going to school unless there was a very good reason to, so in your head you had already left. Returning for a cricket match felt a bit odd.

Anyway, the photo below brings back lots of memories – the worst of which was when we were bowled out for 14 and I was third joint top scorer with one run.

In the circumstances I was quite pleased with myself, but I think we lost by ten wickets that day, our opponents knocking off the runs in two or three overs.

Madras College 1st XI cricket team, 1976. Yours truly is seated, far left

Another thing I didn't expect to find was an old newsletter dated Christmas 1994. It was called ICS Express and it was one of a handful I produced for ICS Worldwide Couriers.

Chairman and chief executive was a Canadian businessman called Michael Jacobson. The company was launched in 1984 and this was Jacobson's message to his workforce ten years later:

Although I much prefer looking to the future than wallowing in the past, I can't let 1994 slip away without some reference to our 10th anniversary.

Ten years ago the company headquarters was a flat in Hampstead. Eight cardboard boxes, marked with Central London postcodes, were propped up against a wall and a typical day would begin at 4.00am when I took two sacks of documents down to Smithfield meat market.

Four people on push bikes were recruited to deliver ICS packages before their working days began and we would go to a nearby cafe to sort the post.

After breakfast I spent the day making sales calls until the pick-ups began at 4.00pm. Then it was back to the flat for a couple of hours' sorting, and at four the next morning the cycle would begin all over again.

A few months after writing that Jacobson sold the business to the management for £78m and the newsletter, which was his baby, was quietly dropped.

In hindsight, though, and given that £78m valuation, I should perhaps have charged rather more than I did to produce it!

What happened to the company thereafter I've no idea. Google 'ICS' and you'll find several businesses, including a Canadian courier company founded in 1978, with the same initials so it's a bit confusing.

As for Michael Jacobson, I can find only two references to him online – a short entry in what I assume is the Sunday Times Rich List where he ranks 1100= (in 2008), and a piece in the Daily Mail in 2012 where he pops up as the 'new man' in the life of former model Lisa Butcher.

By coincidence, they are pictured ‘arm-in-arm at the private view of David Hockney’s much-vaunted show A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy’.

Fun fact: Butcher and Mica Paris replaced Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine for two series of BBC1's 'What Not To Wear' when the latter jumped ship to ITV in 2006.

Gladiators, ready!

The return of Gladiators to our TV screens reminds me that 33 years ago I interviewed one of the original hosts.

Not Ulrika Jonsson, but Wimbledon footballer John Fashanu.

First broadcast in October 1992, Gladiators was a TV phenomenon, initially at least, until the novelty wore off and falling ratings led to its cancellation in 1999.

Fashanu, an FA Cup winner in 1988, was still playing and had no TV experience before he was chosen to present the programme alongside Jonsson, a former breakfast TV weather girl.

From 1990 to 1992 I edited a monthly magazine for chartered accountants and one of the first things I did was introduce a feature called ‘Money Talks’ that featured well-known people talking about, er, money.

Subjects included Norris McWhirter (Guinness Book of Records), Gyles Brandreth, inventor Sir Clive Sinclair, chef Anton Mossiman, Labour MP Dennis Skinner, and ‘Low Life’ journalist Jeffrey Bernard.

(I’m not sure if I’ve ever written about my two meetings with Bernard, almost a decade apart but virtually identical in that we met at the Coach and Horses pub in Soho at 11.00am and I watched as he got progressively tetchier under the influence of alcohol, much of it provided free by admirers who wanted a minute or two of his time.)

Fashanu seemed an interesting case study for ‘Money Talks’ because, while he was famously physical and intimidating as a player, he was also a budding businessman.

If I remember, he was managing a number of properties for wealthy clients. We met in one property, a flat very close to Marble Arch, and he drove me to another, a mansion in The Bishops Avenue just north of Hampstead Heath.

(I’m not sure when the definite article was added. Perhaps it was always there but I’ve always known it as plain Bishops Avenue.)

The Bishops Avenue is said to be home to some of the wealthiest people in the world, but I don’t remember much about the house because I don’t think we were there very long. (Fashanu was on a tight schedule and most of the interview took place in the car.)

What I do remember is how well spoken and easy to speak to he was. Put it this way, I didn't have to prise information out of him, although he was professional and discreet about his clients.

As a football fan and Chelsea supporter I was probably more interested in talking about football and there were one or two stories that, sadly, I couldn't use in the published article.

Anyway, I was impressed. Although he drove a large, luxury car, and took me to a property in one of the world’s richest streets, he seemed down-to-earth and level-headed, confident but not arrogant.

Sadly, like many interviews I did at that time, I don’t have a record of it because I don’t have a complete set of back copies which is annoying because my memory is terrible and getting worse!

So you’ll just have to believe me when I say, I really did interview the original presenter of one of the biggest TV shows of the Nineties (and an FA Cup winner to boot).

Tap of the pubs

A pub in Tamworth has been named the best pub in Britain for the second year running.

According to the BBC:

The Tamworth Tap scooped the National Pub of the Year 2023 award by the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) - the organisation's top honour.

Located in a 16th-Century building in Tamworth, the pub is only the second to win the prize twice consecutively.

I’m not a fan of Camra - largely because they actively welcomed the smoking ban and did nothing to oppose it - but the Tamworth Tap … that rang a different bell.

In October 2022 the pub also won the Best Pub Garden award in the Great British Pub Awards organised by the Morning Advertiser.

I remember searching for it online and the outdoor area did indeed look nice. I was a bit concerned though by the ‘no smoking’ signs, so I emailed the landlord, congratulated him on the award, and added:

Forgive me asking, but can you confirm your smoking policy? I’ve seen signs that say ‘No smoking in the courtyard’ but I wondered if smoking is allowed anywhere in the courtyard (a smoking area, perhaps) or at the tables out front.

The reason I ask is that a decade or so ago we were co-sponsors of the Best Outdoor Smoking Area award at the Great British Pub Awards. That award no longer exists but we still like to monitor trends in the pub industry and it’s interesting that in 2022 the ‘Best Pub Garden’ might be non-smoking.

To be clear, we have always argued that as owners of a private business publicans should be allowed to devise their own policies on smoking so this not intended as criticism. I’m merely curious.

He replied very quickly and explained that:

The garden is divided into two areas with smoking and non smoking. We also allow smoking at the front of the building. We aim to cater for all customers.

Fair enough.

It was at that point however that I realised I had made an unfortunate faux pas. Instead of addressing the landlord as ‘Mr Greenaway’ (his first name is George), I had addressed him as ‘Mr Galloway’. Doh!

All I could do was apologise and blame it on autocorrect.

See also: Tamworth Tap has been named the best pub in the country (Camra)

A very British coup

A friend has sent me a copy of a letter he received from me in January 1984, exactly 40 years ago.

At the time I was running the British branch of a Frankfurt-based human rights’ group called the International Society for Human Rights.

The ISHR was founded to bring together families divided by the Berlin Wall but it gradually developed a broader interest in human rights, albeit with one eye always directed towards the Soviet Union.

Some described it as a centre-right version of Amnesty International, although it never achieved similar prominence.

I got involved through some anti-communist Russian emigres I was working with at the time, and I was given a very specific remit.

The people in Frankfurt were concerned that the UK branch had fallen into the hands of some left-leaning campaigners whose interests were not aligned with the ISHR.

I was therefore approached and invited to organise a coup, which I did by joining the group and inviting a dozen or so people to do the same and attend the UK group’s poorly attended AGM.

If I remember, the two people running the group were the only people there, and I can still recall the confusion on their faces when we walked in, voted them out, and I was elected in their place.

It was brutally quick, a textbook coup, but because they had no inkling of what was about to happen it was relatively painless. They left the meeting and we never heard from them again.

As intended, mine was a short-term, part-time appointment. As I wrote here:

The job was subsequently taken on with a great deal more energy and enthusiasm by Robert [Chambers] who eventually moved to Germany where he became secretary-general of the ISHR in Frankfurt.

Sadly, Robert died in 2010, hence this tribute which included a comment from Julian Lewis MP (now Sir Julian) who sent this response:

“This is such shocking news that it is hard to take it in. Robert was one of a small number of truly dedicated activists at a time when seriously evil Marxist doctrines held millions in captivity and easily infected the young and the gullible.

"He was an admirable, selfless and committed member of our small team of counter-campaigners. I shall be proud to be present to say goodbye to him and think that society is in his debt."

Any ISHR paperwork or files I had from that period (1983-84) have long gone so I’m delighted to be reminded of the letter below.

The David Atkinson referred to was the Conservative MP for Bournemouth East from 1977 to 2005. He died in January 2012.

The Norman Shaw North building, the location of our Executive Committee meeting, was formerly New Scotland Yard before it was occupied by MPs.

I note too that the meeting was preceded, ‘as usual’, by a drink in St Stephen’s Tavern opposite the Palace of Westminster.

Some things (except perhaps the choice of pub) never change.

See also: A very British protest

Parliamentary debate on ‘smokefree’ Britain vs. dental appointment

MPs will this afternoon hold a ‘debate’ on achieving a ‘smokefree’ (sic) future.

It won’t be a debate at all, of course, because opposing voices will be noticeable by their absence, and when I say ‘MPs’ I would be surprised if more than a handful turn up.

Furthermore, I reckon I can predict who most of them will be.

Apart from Conservative MP Bob Blackman, chairman of the APPG on Smoking and Health (run by ASH), who has tabled this ‘debate’, the usual suspects will no doubt include Labour’s Alex Cunningham and Mary Kelly Foy, plus Maggie Throup and Steve Brine (Conservative).

To be fair, I’ve lost count of the number of similar ‘debates’, in the chamber or Westminster Hall, so hats off to Blackman et al for persistence, but if you’re hoping to hear anything new, forget it.

The Government will have to respond however so there could be an announcement about the Tobacco and Vapes Bill and the Government’s plan to ban the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults.

The Bill is currently being drafted and is expected to be published next month. Hopefully it will be properly scrutinised and, yes, debated, and amended accordingly.

Meanwhile Lib Dem peer Lord Rennard has tabled a parliamentary question ‘to ask His Majesty’s Government what progress they have made towards the ambition of creating a “smokefree” generation by 2030’.

This (oral) question is scheduled for January 25 so I imagine that both the debate and Rennard’s PQ have been coordinated to put pressure on the Government to act quickly, not that the prime minister and officials at the Department of Health need much encouragement.

Anyway, if there’s anything worth reporting from today’s ‘debate’ I’ll post it here.

I do however have a dental appointment and, given the choice, I think I’d prefer to listen to the dentist’s drill than Bob Blackman droning on about tobacco control.

Update: I was right about Mary Kelly Foy being there, but wrong about Alex Cunningham, Maggie Throup and Steve Brine who were absent.

In fact, I over-estimated the number of MPs I thought might be there. Including the chairman, Virendra Sharma, there were just eight MPs in attendance.

In addition to Bob Blackman and Mary Kelly Foy, they were Jim Shannon (DUP), Liz Twist (Labour), Preet Kaur Gill (Labour’s shadow public health minister), and public health minister Andrea Leadsom, all of whom supported the ‘smokefree’ ambition.

The only dissenting voice was another DUP MP, Ian Paisley, but his principal concern was the unintended consequences of crime in Northern Ireland and the problems that might arise if a generational ban was introduced there when, over the border in the Republic, tobacco could still be purchased legally at 18.

Arise, Sir Tim, slayer of smoking and vaping in Britain's pubs

I'm a bit late to this but, just for the record, I wanted to respond to those who recently celebrated the knighthood awarded to Tim Martin, founder and chairman of Wetherspoon, in the New Year honours list.

I have nothing against Wetherspoon pubs, and I admire Sir Tim (as we should now call him) as a businessman, but I would remind those singing his praises, especially those who opposed the smoking ban, that he is arguably partly responsible for the comprehensive ban that was introduced in every pub and bar across Britain.

Truth is, until Martin stuck his oar in, the pub industry was largely united in opposing a blanket ban on smoking in pubs and bars.

The degree of opposition may have varied from body to body, but Martin’s intervention in April 2004, when he broke ranks and called for a ban on smoking in pubs and bars across Britain, was a genuine game changer because it altered the dynamic, and the conversation.

Although he later claimed his comments had been "misinterpreted", no clarification was needed in January 2005 when it was reported that Wetherspoon was to introduce an immediate ban on smoking in 60 of its 650 pubs, with a view to extending the policy to every Wetherspoon pub by May 2006.

According to the Guardian:

The company already includes non-smoking areas in its 650 pubs, but intends to make them all no-go zones for smokers two years before government legislation on smoking in public places comes into effect.

"An increasing percentage of the population are giving up smoking, and a significant number of people are staying away from pubs and restaurants because they are too smoky," Tim Martin, the Wetherspoon chairman, said.

At the time the Labour Government favoured a partial ban with exemptions for pubs that didn't serve food, but Martin criticised that too:

... pointing out that pubs could get around it by giving up food sales. "We believe the Wetherspoon approach of a complete ban after a period of notice is the right one," he added.

You only have to read the Guardian report (Wetherspoon pubs to ban smoking) to see how little support Martin had from the main trade bodies, the British Beer and Pub Association and the British Institute of Innkeepers.

Nevertheless, by planting his flag firmly in the prohibitionist camp, Martin encouraged those demanding a comprehensive ban, while his interventions generated a huge amount of coverage that helped fuel the drive toward prohibition.

What was less widely reported was the subsequent decision, in March 2006, to abandon the ban on smoking in a limited number of Wetherspoon pubs 'after the company faced plunging alcohol and slot machine revenues and a backlash from increasingly disgruntled regular customers'.

See: 'JD Wetherspoon ends no-smoking trial' (Guardian).

By then, of course, MPs had already voted in favour of the blanket ban Martin had advocated, so the company's volte-face was way too late to influence government policy the other way.

Instead, it appeared to be a damage limitation exercise designed to protect the company until the new law was enforced in July 2007 when the no smoking regulation would apply to all pubs, whether they liked it or not.

In other words, there would be a level playing field, although the level playing field only extended to pubs with an outdoor space. Many small urban pubs where there was no outside space for smokers were well and truly f*cked.

As we now know, thousands of pubs closed following the smoking ban, and although there were several factors in addition to the ban, it was clearly one of the most significant.

Either way, in fuelling the campaign for a smoking ban in all pubs, Martin not only took a hatchet to consumer choice, he ultimately helped deny thousands of publicans the opportunity to choose their own policies based on customer demand.

In my view, the smoking ban left the country a poorer, less tolerant place because look at what's happened since the ban was introduced.

Not only have thousands of pubs gone out of business, some people are now so intolerant of the merest whiff of tobacco smoke, they want smoking banned outside pubs as well.

Also, let's not forget that in 2013 it was reported that Wetherspoon had banned the use of e-cigarettes inside all of its pubs as well.

I don't know if that is still the case (I can't remember the last time I went into a Wetherspoon pub) but, again, it makes me laugh that one of Sir Tim's biggest cheerleaders (yes, I'm talking about you, Chris Snowdon) is an ardent vaping advocate.

For whatever reason, in his lionisation of Sir Tim, Chris has chosen to overlook the unfortunate truth that the chairman of Wetherspoon is a prohibitionist.

To be clear, Martin is entitled to choose whatever policy he likes on smoking and vaping in his own pubs. Where he crossed the line was in calling for a ban on smoking in every other pub and bar as well.

That doesn't sit easy with me, and it never will.

The irony is that, despite being in favour of Brexit, Sir Tim was happy for the Government to impose a smoking ban on every pub and bar in Britain, much like the EU regularly imposes prescriptive policies on every member state regardless of whether they like it or not.

Presumably he wanted Britain to take back control of decision-making, but when it came to smoking in pubs he was happy for the UK government to impose its will on publicans and customers, just like the EU frequently imposed its policies on Britain.

So forgive me if I don’t celebrate Sir Tim Martin’s knighthood with quite the same enthusiasm as Chris, but it seems I have a slightly longer and less selective memory.

Music to my ears

In The Times today there is a review of a BBC lunchtime recital by acclaimed violinist Chloe Hanslip at the Wigmore Hall in London.

According to The Times, it is almost 22 years since Hanslip made her Wigmore debut at the age of 14.

The reason I mention it is that, 30 years ago, I organised a concert at the Royal Academy of Music and one of the featured musicians was a six-year-old violinist by the name of … Chloe Hanslip.

I’m no expert, but I could tell she was pretty good, even then.

The concert was one of a series of events I produced at venues including the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, and the BBC Concert Hall between 1993 and 1998.

The concert featuring Chloe Hanslip took place on Sunday June 26, 1994. We chose the date because it was also National Music Day and we wanted to be part of it.

Launched in 1992, National Music Day was an annual event that ran for several years before fizzling out having failed to achieve ‘cultural significance’ (ie it was said to be too middle-aged and middle class).

In 1994 however it was celebrated with a day of broadcasts on Radio 2. The combination of Chloe’s age and ability inevitably attracted interest, and on the day the BBC’s Ken Bruce came and interviewed her live on Radio 2 during rehearsals.

For a multitude of reasons, child prodigies often fail to live up to their early promise, but Chloe Hanslip has carved out a substantial career - and she’s still only 36.