Automatic for the people

The big news last week was that Minis will no longer be built with manual transmissions. In future, they will all be automatic.

Funnily enough, my wife drives a Mini Cooper - which she loves - and it’s an automatic, which she didn’t want.

Her previous Mini, a manual, was written off in a freak incident last winter, and because she needs a car for work she had to get a replacement very quickly.

The Mini dealership in Peterborough was very helpful but the salesman had bad news.

My wife could have a (new) manual Mini, but it would have to be ordered specially and it would take several months to be delivered.

On the other hand, she could have a new automatic within two weeks.

My wife had never driven an automatic before and didn’t really want one but she swallowed the bullet and, guess what? She loves it as just as much as her previous Mini.

I had a similar experience when I switched from manual to automatic 15 years ago.

I was keen to buy a Mercedes C-class and was told that almost all Mercedes were automatic. Manuals were available but they weren’t popular and I might struggle to sell it for a good price.

So I bought an automatic and never regretted it, although the automatic gear lever was a bit clunky.

That was in 2008 and I have never been tempted to go back to a manual car, although I enjoy driving one when I get the opportunity.

My subsequent cars have both been BMWs and the automatic gear lever is more like a joystick. It’s incredibly easy and smooth to use.

For decades ‘keen drivers’ were dismissive of automatics on the grounds that a key decision - when to change gear - had been taken away from drivers.

You were also denied the instant acceleration you could get from manually changing down from fifth to third, for example, if you wanted to overtake another car as quickly as possible.

Some older automatics, it was said, also suffered from a perceptible time lag from the moment you hit the accelerator pedal to when the transmission changed to another gear.

Technology has moved on in recent decades and I can understand why there is significant demand for automatics today.

The irony is that they are said to be less fuel efficient than manual cars and, purchased new, they are also more expensive than the equivalent manual model.

Anyway, a couples of anecdotes circa 1980/81.

A colleague I shared an office with went on holiday and said I could use his car while he was away.

It was a 1275cc red Mini, not the larger model we know today.

What he didn’t tell me was that it was an automatic, which must have been quite unusual at the time, and I had never driven an automatic before.

I worked out that D meant ‘drive’ but I think there may have been three settings - D1, D2, and D3 - and for some reason I was stuck in D1.

All I know is, the car never got out of first gear as I drove home with the engine revving furiously as I pushed the accelerator to the floor.

I parked it outside my flat and didn’t drive it again until he returned from holiday and I had to take it back to the office a week or two later.

The other story concerns my first car, an old Ford Capri GT, that I bought privately in 1981.

It cost me £400 (£1,350 today) and driving home, having picked it up from the seller, two things happened.

First, the glass on the driver’s side fell into the door cavity when I tried to wind the window down.

Second, the gear lever came off in my hand as I drove round Marble Arch. I could even see the tarmac through the hole where the gear lever had been.

Six months later I sold the car for £300. Manual or automatic, I was delighted to get rid of it and pocket the cash!

One year on, three days I won't forget

Today is the first anniversary of the death of the Queen. Hard to believe it’s only a year. It feels longer.

Nevertheless, for many of us, the announcement will always be a ‘Where were you?’ moment.

I was in a hotel room in Glasgow. As I explained here, I had arrived a few hours earlier, having been booked to appear live on Scotland Tonight, STV’s weekly current affairs programme.

As I was driving north there were reports that the Queen was unwell. We’d heard similar stories before but this time they were followed by news that Charles and other members of the Royal family were travelling to be with her at Balmoral, which sounded ominous.

At 4.00pm I spoke to someone at STV who told me the BBC’s presenters were already wearing black ties.

She said they would contact me if there was any more news because, if the Queen died, all scheduled programmes would be cancelled.

We now know the Queen died at ten minutes past three, but her death wasn’t announced until 6.30 when Huw Edwards appeared on screen to make the announcement on the BBC.

A few minutes later I got a call confirming that STV had cancelled Scotland Tonight as all broadcasters scrambled to ‘automated’ mode (ie programming that had been planned and rehearsed years in advance for this very moment).

I’ve written about my subsequent drive to Balmoral, via Aberdeen, two days later, so I won’t repeat that story here, but in hindsight what I remember most is how calm and peaceful everything was.

Deeside looked spectacular in the autumn sunshine and in a strange way it was an idyllic few days. Everything seemed to stop, or at least pause, for reflection while we absorbed the enormity of an historic moment, and that alone was a lovely legacy.

Sadly the tranquility didn’t last, but that’s another story.

Below: Old Aberdeen on the morning of Saturday September 10, 2022. Beautifully quiet and serene. Next stop, Balmoral.

Consumer vaping groups, this is your moment! Where are you?!

A few days ago it was reported that the Scottish Government may ban disposable vapes.

Naturally, there will be a public consultation first, but we all know how that works, and how it usually ends, regardless of the level of opposition.

The chance to be the first nation within the UK to ban disposable vapes will be irresistible to a Scottish Executive (sorry, Government) that has completely lost its way and needs to make a ‘statement’.

Anyway, I’ve had several requests for interviews on this issue and although Forest is strongly against a ban I’ve turned them down and suggested the broadcasters concerned contact the UK Vaping Industry (UKVIA), whose director-general John Dunne is better informed than me to talk about it.

(I listened to him yesterday on BBC Radio Scotland, where he was interviewed alongside our old friend Prof Linda Bauld, and I think I made the right decision.)

That said, it pains me to turn down interviews, and I can’t think of many instances when I have.

Smoking and pregnancy is a subject I’m reluctant to talk about because I think it’s primarily an issue for women, consumers at least. I grant that male doctors may have a valid opinion.

On the question of disposable vapes, I would happily go on air if a well qualified spokesman like John Dunne was unavailable, but what’s really missing from this debate is the voice of the vaper.

Over the last decade we’ve seen various international pro-vaping consumer organisations pop up, including the World Vapers Alliance (WVA) and the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO).

Specifically, in the UK, there’s the New Nicotine Alliance but, media wise, where are all these groups and their spokesmen?

The silence this week is baffling, especially when a ban on disposable vapes in Scotland could quickly escalate across the UK.

As I tweeted yesterday:

I don't like doing it, but I've declined several requests for interviews on this story and have forwarded them to the @Vaping_Industry. Consumer vaping groups, this is your moment! Where are you?!

Interestingly, it was ‘liked’ by the UKVIA.

Perhaps these groups will make a submission to the consultation in Scotland.

But you’ve got to try and win the public debate too, and that means being proactive and engaging with the media whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Yes, it’s me, with hair!

A friend sent me this photo last week.

He was ‘poking around amongst old photos’ when he found it. (Yes, it’s me, with hair!)

I don’t remember seeing it before so it took me a while to pinpoint exactly when it might have been taken.

On closer inspection I’m wearing an Aberdeen Students’ Charities Campaign t-shirt so that narrows it down because I was a member of the campaign team for three of my four years at university (1976-1980).

I joined the campaign not for any altruistic reason but because, in my first year, I was living in digs and it was a way to meet people.

Anyway, I’m guessing the photo was taken in 1979, when I was 19 or 20.

At that time, the Aberdeen Students’ Charities Campaign was one of the most successful student charity campaigns in Scotland, second only to Edinburgh, I think.

I may be making this up but I seem to remember that in 1977 we raised around £45,000, which would be £250,000 in today’s money.

I can't remember how we raised most of the money, but the most successful event was probably the annual parade featuring brightly coloured floats built on the backs of trailers supplied by local transport companies.

The floats, representing all manner of student societies, would be driven through the city centre and a team of students with collecting cans would stalk the streets taking money from passers-by.

Some of the floats and costumes worn by the students were quite impressive, but one year we (the Charities Campaign) ran out of time to dress our own float and I remember standing on the back of a plain, poorly decorated trailer with a can of beer and feeling rather foolish.

But at least the parade raised money. A less successful event, in financial terms, was an excursion, by train, from Aberdeen to Kyle of Lochalsh.

If you are unfamiliar with Scotland, Kyle of Lochalsh overlooks the Isle of Skye on the west coast.

The Charities Campaign would charter a British Rail train and sell tickets to students, with the aim of making a profit that would help raise funds.

The Skye train was already an annual event when I arrived in Aberdeen in September 1976. Two years later it had been erased from the calendar. Let me explain why.

In January 1977 my first Skye train experience was nothing short of disastrous. But as a member of the Charities Campaign, at least I had a front row seat as the day unfolded.

The journey from Aberdeen to Kyle of Lochalsh takes almost six hours by rail. That’s plenty of drinking time for several hundred thirsty students, so by the time we arrived at our destination a significant number were (how can I put it?) drunk.

Two incidents on that outward journey have stayed with me.

First, a young lady sitting next to me in one of those old-style carriages with separate compartments and a corridor down one side, threw up. Over me.

Second, a bearded gentleman (he was probably no more than 20, although he owned a Saab), lost the tip of his finger when it got caught in a (manual) sliding door. Thankfully, the alcohol worked as an anaesthetic so he didn’t know too much about it, but he had to leave the train and go to hospital.

If I remember, we arrived at Kyle of Lochalsh around 2.00pm, having left Aberdeen at 8.00am. The plan (recollections may vary) was to stay there for two hours, then return to Aberdeen, arriving back around 10.00pm. I wish!

The current population of the village is 590 but it may have been less in the Seventies. Either way, picture the scene as several hundred students, many of them inebriated, arrived en masse in a quiet rural location where there was nothing to do other than continue drinking.

In those days the Skye Bridge hadn’t been built (it was opened in 1995 by my old boss Michael Forsyth, then Secretary of State for Scotland), so the only way to get to Skye was by ferry.

There were two ferries, and the main one just happened to be at Kyle of Lochalsh. Cue a desperate attempt by a drunken student to throw himself at a departing ferry, only to miss his footing and fall into the freezing water.

We dried him out, covered him with blankets, and hoped for the best.

The start of the return journey was delayed and by the time we were up and running our passengers had devised a new game - Pull the Communication Chord.

To cut a long story short, the driver eventually pulled the train into a siding outside Inverness, I think it was, and refused to continue. (The train was also said to be low on fuel because of the constant stopping and starting, but that was never confirmed.)

Anyway, that’s where we stayed overnight (with no heating because the engine and therefore the power had been turned off), until we finally continued our journey, in disgrace, the following morning.

I say ‘disgrace’ and I’m not exaggerating. The local paper, the Aberdeen Press & Journal, featured a report about student ‘louts’ causing carnage and terrorising the local community. Or something like that.

Remarkably, we weren’t banned by British Rail so the following year we set off on another adventure, but this time the outcome was completely different.

To begin with, it was snowing, and this seemed to have a calming effect on our passengers. Also, having arrived in Kyle of Lochalsh without incident, and with a six-hour return journey ahead of us, the driver was keen to get going before the snow got too heavy and we were snowed in.

What follows is a tale of heroism as a team of plucky students not only dug our stalled locomotive out of several snow drifts, but supplied hot soup and tea for elderly passengers on another train that had also got stuck travelling in the other direction.

Later still our locomotive was commandeered to help yet another train that was stuck further north, but somehow we got home.

This time the local press not only praised our behaviour but featured a picture of me and my friend Dougie shovelling snow off the front of the train.

In truth, all the work was done by others. Dougie and I did no shovelling at all. It was just for the camera, but don’t let that get in the way of an iconic picture.

Sadly, that was the last Skye train. Despite our heroics, someone (possibly Dougie, who became chairman of the Charities Campaign the following year) worked out that the event wasn’t making money and almost certainly lost money.

While I'm on the subject, two other Aberdeen Students' Charities stories come to mind.

First, the year that Dougie was chairman (1978/79) I took over his previous job editing the Aberdeen Student Charities’ joke book.

Dougie explained the drill. Each year the editor would sift through thousands of jokes and cartoons from other joke books, and select the ‘best’.

Effectively, the same jokes were in a perpetual cycle, some probably dating back several decades.

Most were excruciatingly bad and to modern sensitivities … well, I won’t even go there. It did however sell quite well so there was obviously a market for it.

I don’t believe there was a single new joke in the book, so the cover had to stand out. I commissioned artwork from Bill Smith, an art teacher friend in Ellon, just up the road from Aberdeen, who designed an eye-catching cover that featured a Superman style cartoon hero on a bright yellow background.

Bill later designed the covers for the national version of Campus, a student magazine that was founded in Aberdeen in 1977 and went national (to almost 50 universities) for a couple of years in the Eighties.

(Bill is a very interesting guy, btw. See ‘Scots teacher, 78, turns polar explorer in retirement’.)

That year I was also one of three people, I think, who were responsible for choosing the recipients of the money we had raised. (They were mostly local charities.)

I took this incredibly seriously and would read the applications for donations very carefully before putting them on one of two piles - one to receive a donation, the other for rejected applications.

Believe me, it was incredibly difficult to decide because there were hundreds to go through and the overwhelming majority made a very good case.

Eventually, however, I got into the swing of it and became quite ruthless, so apologies to those I rejected. (This would have been in 1978/79, the same time the photo above was taken, which probably explains why I was looking so serious.)

Anyway, it’s almost 12 months to the day since I last visited Aberdeen, following a gap of 15 or 20 years.

I didn’t intend to go but I was in Scotland when the Queen died (on Thursday September 8, 2022) and everything I was going to do - a live TV interview in Glasgow, followed by a football match in Dundee - got cancelled, so I had some time on my hands.

It was a lovely sunny day, so ...

Full story: The road to Balmoral (via Aberdeen)

As for the Aberdeen Students’ Charities Campaign, it appears to have been renamed the Aberdeen University Students’ Association Raising And Giving Campaign (or RAG for short), and the parade of floats is now called the Torcher Parade.

No sign of a joke book, though. I wonder why.

Peer group still fighting to ban smoking in licensed pavement areas

I'm currently watching the House of Lords on Parliament TV where peers are due to discuss amendments to the Government's Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill.

(At the moment they're discussing the Online Safety Bill.)

I've been following the passage of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill for several months because a couple of amendments are of interest to Forest, and possibly you as well.

More on them in a minute.

The Bill is now at the report stage in the Lords, following which it will go back to the House of Commons where amendments introduced by peers may be accepted or rejected.

Judging by the number of amendments tabled (316), there must be a suspicion that the Bill is being used to introduce regulations that were never intended by the Government.

Take, for example, the two amendments I'm interested in (256 and 258) which may be considered this afternoon or, if not today, on Monday (September 13).

At stake is the issue of whether smoking should be permitted in outdoor licensed areas, specifically the new seated pavement areas that have sprung up since Covid.

Also at stake is the ability of small businesses, including cafes, pubs and bars, to choose policies that work best for them and their customers without unnecessary government intervention.

Amendment 256 (tabled by Lord Holmes) 'would allow a local authority to require that furniture is removed from the highway when it is not in use, as well as imposing a condition to require the licensee to prevent smoke-drift affecting those in the vicinity'.

Amendment 258 (tabled by Lord Young) goes even further. Quite simply, its purpose 'is to ensure that all pavement licences are smoke free'.

It's worth stressing that neither amendment is required because local authorities already have the power to ban smoking in licensed pavement areas, but the tobacco control lobby wants to by-pass local councils and impose a national ban, taking the matter out of the hands of local people, and businesses.

The tactics are similar to those employed by anti-smoking peers (with the help of ASH) when the Government introduced the Business and Planning Bill in July 2021.

Although the aim of the Business and Planning Bill was to reduce red tape for businesses reopening after the first Covid lockdown, a small group of anti-smoking peers saw an opportunity to effectively hijack the Bill by introducing an amendment that would have prohibited smoking in the new outdoor licensed areas that were appearing on pavements up and down the country.

Keen to avoid a complete ban – and thereby deny businesses (and customers) choice – the Government introduced its own amendment that ensured that pubs, restaurants and cafes have been able to offer both smoking and non-smoking outdoor options at the discretion of the proprietor/landlord.

That remains the policy today and although local authorities have the power to ban smoking in the new outdoor licensed areas, very few have done so, suggesting there is very little demand for prohibition.

The current policy seems to be working well and there is absolutely no reason to change it because there is still no evidence that smoking outside, in the open air, is a health risk to anyone other than the smoker.

Despite this, a small but determined group of anti-smoking peers see the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill as an opportunity to re-introduce a policy that was rejected by the Government when it was proposed as an amendment to the Business and Planning Bill.

Based on the voting on other amendments, my suspicion is that amendments 256 and 258 may pass in the Lords. Ultimately, though, MPs will make the final decision, so let's hope the Government doesn't back down and MPs support local democracy by voting against the amendments.

Benjamin Butterworth and the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum

In exactly two weeks delegates and speakers from around the world will gather in Seoul, South Korea, for the annual Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum.

Launched in 2008 as the Global Tobacco Networking Forum, GTNF is arguably the most important tobacco industry funded conference in the world, bringing together a range of stakeholders including industry, investors, and even some public health officials.

The change of name, in 2015, reflected the industry’s increasing focus on reduced risk nicotine products, notably e-cigarettes, and in 2017 the event was even used to promote the PMI-funded Foundation for a Smoke Free World.

Today the conference is organised by the GTNF Trust, a division of the US-based Tobacco Merchants Association (TMA), which also publishes Tobacco Reporter, ‘the oldest tobacco industry trade publication in the United States’, and Vapor Voice magazines.

Sadly, I won’t be at GTNF this year but I know someone who will. More on that in a minute but, first, let’s rewind.

Seven weeks ago, at the Forest Summer Lunch & Awards, I was delighted to present a Voices of Freedom Award to Reem Ibrahim (above).

Having enjoyed a meteoric rise to prominence as a political commentator, Reem is now a familiar face on GB News, TalkTV, and even the BBC (Politics Live).

The week after she received her award at Boisdale of Belgravia, she was on The Saturday Five on GB News.

The Saturday Five features GB News presenters Darren Grimes and Emily Carver, two regular guests, and an invited guest who 'discuss and debate the spikiest stories and craziest controversies of the week'.

In the course of the programme presenters and guests each kick start a topical debate by delivering a short monologue direct to camera.

On July 29, citing the IEA's Nanny State Index, Reem (the invited guest) declared, “Imagine living in a world in which the government dictates what you drink, what you eat, what you smoke, even the amount of sugar that you're allowed in your Coke Zero.”

“Fundamentally,” she argued, “it's about health and lifestyle choices. I know that when I smoke a cigarette it's bad for me. The government don't need to tell me that. They don't need to hike up prices so that it's really difficult for me to be able to afford those cigarettes. I know that it's bad.”

And how did her fellow guest, journalist and commentator Benjamin Butterworth, respond?

“It's important to note that you are in the pocket of the pro-smoking lobby,” he told her. “They've given you an award, they give you slap-up free dinners and wine. It's important,” he repeated, “to note that.”

To her credit, Reem laughed and said, “That is a ludicrous argument.”

But that, dear reader, is only half the story because I can now reveal (cue drum roll) that Benjamin Butterworth was recently confirmed as a speaker at the 2023 Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum in Seoul.

To put this in perspective, the value of the Forest lunch at Boisdale was about £150 per guest (including pre-lunch drinks). The three night delegate package at GTNF 2023 costs $4,500 per person (approximately £3,500).

Return flights from London to Seoul vary enormously but I've seen them priced from £610 to almost £4,000 (and that’s just in economy).

If you add the fare to the delegate package, the overall cost of attending GTNF 2023 will be at least £4,000, and probably more.

As a speaker Butterworth will receive a complimentary speaker/delegate package (including accommodation, food and drink), plus travel costs.

The GTNF package, which I've enjoyed gratis many times myself, normally includes a welcome reception (with wine!) and an awards dinner (more wine!), paid for by sponsors, some of them tobacco companies.

It seems a bit rich, then, for Butterworth to point the finger at a fellow political commentator for accepting hospitality from the “pro-smoking (sic) lobby” when, a few weeks later, he will be enjoying similar hospitality at another, much larger, tobacco industry funded event.

Pot, kettle, black?

To be clear, I’m not criticising Butterworth’s decision to attend GTNF because, in my view, there’s nothing wrong with accepting an invitation to speak at a tobacco industry funded event, or the hospitality that goes with it.

In fact, I applaud anyone who is open-minded enough to join the discussion. So bravo, Benjamin, you’ve gone up in my estimation!

Nevertheless, that comment on GB News was out of order, not least because Forest presented Reem Ibrahim with an award after we became aware of her pro-choice, anti-nanny state views. Any suggestion that her opinions may have been influenced, either by the award or the lunch that accompanied it, is absurd.

I should add that in March Reem also joined a panel of speakers at a Forest event at the Institute of Economic Affairs. The other panellists were the IEA’s Chris Snowdon, Kara Kennedy (The Spectator), and Henry Hill (ConservativeHome).

After the event we took all four speakers to dinner because not only was it the hospitable thing to do, it’s not uncommon for event organisers to thank speakers in that way.

If Benjamin Butterworth truly thinks Reem is "in the pocket of the pro-smoking (sic) lobby" then Chris, Kara and Henry (who have similar views on smoking) must be too because that’s how this works, right?

The question that’s really nagging me, though, is this. Why has a journalist with very little history of writing about smoking or tobacco control been invited to speak at a major tobacco industry funded conference?

I asked the organisers and I was told that Butterworth is on a ‘Meet the Press’ panel that has been chosen to represent a range of opinions, including (I inferred) some that may be critical of the tobacco companies.

Fair enough, it’s important to have a variety of views, and good to hold the tobacco industry to account, if that is Butterworth’s role. A better fit, though, might have been someone like Oliver Barnes, the FT's leisure industries correspondent who ‘covers hospitality, gambling, tourism, tobacco and cannabis companies’. Was he invited?

The issue, however, is not that Benjamin Butterworth is going to GTNF. As I’ve made clear, I have no problem with that, and I’m sure he will be an entertaining speaker.

My beef is that he tried to undermine a fellow commentator’s genuinely held opinions about the nanny state with a jibe about receiving “slap up free dinners and wine” from the “pro-smoking lobby”. Is it too much to ask that he might have credited Reem Ibrahim with the same integrity he no doubt expects to be accorded himself?

Unfortunately barbs about funding and hospitality are not uncommon in debates about lifestyle issues. Those who criticise the nanny state and support ‘unfashionable’ causes like smokers’ rights are often targets for this sort of attack, but I held the same views about smoking long before I worked for Forest, and I will hold them long after I’ve enjoyed my final tobacco industry funded lunch or dinner.

Nevertheless, I genuinely hope Benjamin Butterworth enjoys the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum in Seoul. As I have noted before, some of my favourite moments working for Forest have been at GTNF, so I don’t begrudge him the experience at all.

At the very least, perhaps he will return with a less jaundiced view of people who oppose nanny state measures and accept tobacco industry funded hospitality - people, in fact, like my former colleague and Hands Off Our Packs spokesman Angela Harbutt who I understand is also on the ‘Meet the Press’ panel!

I hope too that he accepts the special award we are minded to give him at next year’s Forest Summer Lunch. But if he can’t or won’t receive it in person, I know someone who will be very happy to accept it on his behalf …

PS. In September last year, following the appointment of Thérèse Coffey as Secretary of State for Health, Benjamin Butterworth tweeted:

Serious question: is it really appropriate to have an overweight smoker as health secretary?

The tweet was subsequently deleted, as I noted here, but not before Lord Moylan responded by tweeting:

Thank God there are some freedom lovers and smokers in the Cabinet. We have enough Puritans outside it.

Serious question: is Benjamin Butterworth a Puritan or a freedom lover? Watch this space.

Update: The GTNF agenda has now been published online (September 8) and the full panel for 'Meet the Press' (which is also the final session before conference ends) is:

Benjamin Butterworth, senior reporter for iNews and media commentator
Angela Harbutt, consultant
Sanjay Kumar, journalist at The Korea Herald
David Maddox, political editor at Express Online
Steffy Thevar, senior correspondent at The Times of India

A thousand miles and no flat tyres

Just back from Wales, via Scotland.

The Scottish part of the trip was to see my wife’s family. After two nights in Glasgow we then drove to Chester, where my mother now lives.

When my father was alive my parents stayed many times at a family-run country house hotel called Porth Tocyn in Bwlchtocyn near Abersoch in Wales.

They would drive up from Derbyshire, where they lived for over 30 years, and they often spoke fondly of the hotel, and the area.

My mother is 92 now (my father died nine years ago) so I thought it would be nice to take her back to Porth Tocyn, which is just two hours’ drive from Chester, so I booked us in for two nights.

In fact, we went the scenic route through Snowdonia national park so it actually took us the best part of four hours.

Eventually, after driving across miles and miles of moorland with barely another car in sight, we descended to the Llŷn Peninsula via Bala and Ffestiniog.

We then followed the road along the coast, passing through Criccieth and Pwllheli, before arriving in Abersoch.

Bwlchtocyn is a few miles beyond Abersoch and we found the hotel at the top of a hill overlooking Cardigan Bay at the end of a narrow single track road.

It was raining quite hard when we arrived and the weather forecast for Friday and Saturday wasn’t great but, not for the first time in recent weeks, the forecasters got it hopelessly wrong.

As it turned out, the weather could not have been better.

Owned and run by the Fletcher-Brewer family for three generations since 1948, the 17-bedroom Porth Tocyn hotel is ‘reassuringly old-fashioned’, according to the Telegraph:

Exploring the six interconnecting lounges is like exploring someone’s home. Chuck a log on the fire and chat to other guests, cosy-up in a nook with a book or magazine, or pull up a stool in the bar.

An outside terrace with tables and chairs overlooks the sea, and the beach is a 20-minute walk, albeit down quite a steep path. There’s also a heated swimming pool and tennis court.

Apart from one young family, the guests were mostly elderly (ie retired) and some were clearly repeat visitors, like my parents, being on first name terms with staff.

Until I was put right, I thought we were in west Wales. Not so. The Llŷn Peninsula is in north west Wales but here’s the weird thing.

Over three days we didn’t hear a single Welsh accent - not one - either in the hotel (staff or guests) or the nearby town of Abersoch. (We debated whether one couple were speaking Welsh but it could have been something else.)

Most voices sounded English and I got the impression that many visitors were from north west England, hence the ‘Cheshire-by-Sea’ tag that is said to infuriate some local people.

On the return journey yesterday we took the more direct and therefore quicker route back to Chester, following the North Wales’ coast.

We did however make a small detour to check out the seaside resort of Llandudno, which is about an hour from Chester, and what a surprise.

I’m not a big fan of most seaside resorts, many of which have seen better days, but Llandudno looked quite nice.

We didn’t stop because the bright sunshine had brought out the crowds and it was very busy, but we might go back and take a closer look.

Back in Chester, meanwhile, there was a weekend meeting at Chester Races, which meant a further detour to drop my mother off at her flat which is in a development next to the racecourse overlooking the River Dee.

On race days several nearby streets are closed to traffic and many of the residents’ parking bays are commandeered for horse boxes.

Ignoring a man in a yellow hi-vis jacket who shouted, “You can’t park here!” we nevertheless managed to drop my mother off before driving home to Cambridgeshire.

Total mileage since Monday: 1,000 (approx). And no flat tyres.

Below: Porth Tocyn Hotel, Bwlchtocyn

From the archive: Smokers’ Corner

I'm driving to Glasgow today so I'll leave you with this.

In my previous post about the late James Leavey I mentioned a short film he featured in.

‘Smokers’ Corner’ was produced and directed by Sharon Peng, a student at Bournemouth University, in 2001.

It’s such a long time ago I can’t remember every detail but, as I recall, Sharon contacted Forest and said she was making a film about smokers and could we help.

The ‘help’ she was looking for was mostly contacts - people she could interview - so we put her in touch with several smokers and invited her to attend a party we were organising at Antony Worrall Thompson’s restaurant in Notting Hill (the appropriately named Notting Grill).

To be honest, given her extremely small budget and the fact that it was a student production, my expectations were fairly low.

Nevertheless, she came with her camera to Notting Grill (to interview AWT) and when a VHS tape arrived a few months later with a 24-minute film called ‘Smokers’ Corner’, I was keen to see what she had produced – and it was really good.

Sharon had interviewed smokers young and old, including James Leavey, AWT, and Forest researcher Judith Hatton who was by then well into her eighties, and still happily smoking.

The smoker-friendly film featured several other Forest supporters plus what I assumed were fellow students at Bournemouth.

The most prominent interviewee, however, was totally unexpected and nothing at all to do with Forest.

Somehow, Sharon had managed to persuade The Libertines’ Pete Doherty to take part, and his contributions were (and still are) absolutely priceless - charming, amusing, pretentious, and often all three at once!

(It should be noted that the film was shot before The Libertines enjoyed any great success. That happened in 2002. As for Doherty's relationship with Kate Moss, which featured on the front pages and propelled him to another level, media wise, that didn't begin until 2005 and lasted until 2007.)

I think I still have the tape in a box somewhere. I haven’t seen it for over 20 years, though, and as I no longer have a VHS player I couldn’t watch it even if I wanted to.

I’ve often thought about it, though, occasionally doubting that it really was Pete Doherty in the film. Did I imagine it?

Well, at the weekend I found the film online, on James Leavey’s YouTube channel. (I was searching for some information about James, for my previous post, and ended up going down a series of rabbit holes. This was one of them.)

It’s low resolution, sadly, so the picture isn’t great, but it’s only 24 minutes so I urge you to overlook the technical deficiencies and enjoy it as it is.

At the end Forest and I even get a credit, which I'm rather chuffed about.

The film is bittersweet because several participants are no longer alive, and in the intervening years Pete Doherty has had his demons but, watching this, you can't help but like him.

So if you have a spare moment do watch it.

As for Sharon Peng, I've no idea what she's doing today, but I hope she's enjoying whatever path her studies, and her film, took her. She clearly had a talent for film production and direction.

I do wonder, though, whether today’s students would be allowed to make a similar film, or would the concept be rejected as too 'pro-smoking'?

To view it click here or in the image below.