Smoking ban: please sign this petition

It took a while but we got there in the end.

With help from the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons (and a certain amount of nagging from me), the Government's e-petition website now features the following petition, proposed by Antony Worrall Thompson:

REVIEW THE SMOKING BAN
We petition the Government to review the impact of the smoking ban on pubs and clubs and consider an amendment that would give licensees the option of separate well-ventilated smoking rooms.

No disrespect to other petitioners on this subject, but I always felt that having a 'name' behind it would generate more interest. The fact that AWT runs his own pub, The Greyhound in Rotherfield Peppard near Henley, is an added bonus.

If we hit 100,000 signatures – enough to possibly generate a debate in the House of Commons – I hereby promise that Forest will organise a party at The Greyhound to mark the achievement! For the moment our goal is rather more modest: I want to get AWT's petition into the top 20 and keep it there for next twelve months. In the short term that means a minimum of 5,000 signatures.

Many people are currently on holiday so I anticipate it will be a couple of weeks before everyone is back at work and reading e-newsletters and blogposts. Nevertheless I'd like to encourage you to sign the petition now so we can develop a little momentum.

To sign AWT's petition please click here or on the image above.

Update on Monday, August 22, 2011 at 13:42 by Simon Clark

In the next day or two we will make available web banners and buttons that can be uploaded on to blogs and websites with a link to AWT's petition.

Update on Monday, August 22, 2011 at 13:56 by Simon Clark

Next month we will print a card the size of a business card. It will feature AWT's petition plus the relevant URL. Any offers of help distributing them in pubs and clubs would be much appreciated.

Update on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 11:57 by Simon Clark

Here's another petition worth supporting:

Stop Government Funding Of ASH
To petition the Government to cease providing funding to the health body ASH. ASH should have to raise its own funds through voluntary contributions.

I couldn't have put it better myself. Click here.

Update on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 12:24 by Simon Clark

Thanks to Dick Puddlecote for this link: Spread liberally around the web.

Cricket calls

No blogging today, unless rain stops play or I get bored.

That's right, I'm at The Oval to watch England v India from the comfort of a corporate box.

Morning coffee, drinks, lunch, afternoon tea ... It's a tough job etc.

E-petition update

Extraordinary.

Having rejected Antony Worrall Thompson's petition entitled Save Our Pubs and Clubs: Amend the Smoking Ban because "There is already an e-petition about this issue", the DH has just accepted a THIRD petition on the subject. Click here.

What I didn't tell you is that on Monday I emailed the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons to find out what had happened to Antony's petition because at that stage it had yet to be accepted or rejected.

Within two hours Antony's PA received an email that read:

Dear Antony Worrall Thompson,

Your e-petition "Save Our Pubs and Clubs: Amend the Smoking Ban" hasn't been accepted.

There is already an e-petition about this issue.

I immediately rang the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons, which is in charge of the e-petitions website, to find out more.

To be fair, the people I spoke to were courteous and helpful. (They all sound remarkably young, or perhaps I'm just very old.)

I was effectively told that following receipt of my email Antony's petition had been recommended for publication but the DH had ignored that advice.

Now, three days later, the DH has seen fit to publish a third petition about the smoking ban with a fourth allocated, somewhat bizarrely, to Defra. Yet still they won't accept Antony's.

Anyway, I have just spoken to someone else at the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons, following which I sent them another email urging the DH to reconsider Antony's petition.

They have promised to take it up with the DH but I'm beginning to lose the will to live.

PS. I have been exchanging emails with Joe Jackson on this subject and I hope he won't mind my repeating what he had to say:

"I think AWT's [petition] was rejected because it was the most eloquent and most likely to succeed."

I couldn't possibly comment.

Btw, the proposer of the latest petition is the enigmatic Chris F J Cyrnik who occasionally comments on this blog, but not always using his real name.

STOP PRESS: Good news, I think. Can't say anything yet (don't want to tempt providence) but watch this space.

Tobacco control – the road ahead

There was a substantial feature about anti-smoking legislation in the Scotsman yesterday.

Includes several quotes from Sheila Duffy (ASH Scotland) and me. Click here.

My colleague Tom Miers will be on Call Kaye, the BBC Radio Scotland phone-in, discussing these issues tmorrow morning.

The Leader of the House of Commons and the smoking ban e-petition

The story so far.

On Thursday August 4 the Government launched its new e-petition website. As most readers know, I'm not a fan of petitions in general. Nevertheless I spoke to Forest patron Antony Worrall Thompson and he agreed to submit a petition entitled 'Save Our Pubs and Clubs – Amend The Smoking Ban'.

It was submitted that afternoon and received the following response: 'Thank you for submitting your e-petition. An email will be sent to you now to confirm your email address ... We can't check your e-petition until you've clicked on the link in this email'.

An email was duly received and the link clicked. Antony's PA tells me: "The petition definitely registered - there was confirmation."

A week passed and we heard nothing more. Not even a rejection.

On Friday I sent an email to the Cabinet Office (which I understood was responsible for the e-petition website) enquiring about the fate of Antony's petition. Within an hour I received the following response:

Dear Sir

The E-Petitions website is administered by the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons. I have therefore forwarded your email there.

Kind regards,

This morning, eleven days after AWT's petition was submitted and in the absence of any further response, I rang the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons. I had a brief conversation with a member of staff who told me that someone would get back to me.

That was at ten o'clock.

Meanwhile I checked to remind myself who is the Leader of the House of Commons. It is of course our old friend the Rt Hon Sir George Young MP. Remember him?

Sir George backs anti-smoking campaign
Sir George speaks out on smoking
Sir George backs No Smoking Day
Sir George addresses fringe meeting at party conference

PS. For the record, I am NOT a conspiracy theorist!!

Update on Monday, August 15, 2011 at 13:53 by Simon Clark

It's been a busy and sometimes confusing morning but I can report that AWT's petition has been rejected.

There is however a new petition that covers very similar territory:

Amend the smoking ban

This petition is for the government to review the Health Act 2006 so that tobacco smoking can be allowed in ventilated rooms in some pubs, clubs and cafes.

I'll give you the full story later. In the meantime click here.

The road to prohibition

The anti-tobacco lobby is developing plans to prohibit smoking altogether, writes Chris Snowdon:

A recent paper in BMC Public Health has suggested ways of going about it. The study – entitled ‘Daring to Dream’ – puts forward three different methods by which prohibition could be introduced ...

1. Incrementally reduce the number of cigarettes produced each year until it reaches zero in ten to 15 years.

2. Make a law to force the tobacco industry to reduce smoking prevalence (punishable by fines).

3. Change the law to make it easier for individuals to sue the tobacco industry, thus bankrupting it.

He adds:

Notice that all these strategies embrace the prohibitionists’ fallacy of assuming that industry is the root of the problem. It is a constant trait of those endowed with the certainty of the zealot to believe that people desire products because industry produces them, and not – as is the reality – that industry supplies products because people desire them.

Full article: Planning for Prohibition (The Free Society)

Petition passes 100,000 signatures

My back is turned for 48 hours and what happens?

An e-petition entitled 'London rioters should loose (sic) all benefits' passes the threshold of 100,000 signatures and has been forwarded to the Backbench Business Committee for consideration for debate.

Needless to say the e-petition website has gone into meltdown ... One or two government ministers may be sweating too.

And now for some good news

Further to previous posts ...

Local Government Minister Bob Neill has sought to clarify newspaper reports that councils may ban smoking in parks and cars:

“Reports suggesting that the Localism Bill will allow the introduction of smoking bans in public places are wide off the mark. There is nothing in this Bill that provides additional powers to prohibit smoking in open spaces or in private cars.

“We are giving councils a general power of competence - this will allow them to do the things that any individual generally could. It will particularly help councils find new ways to work to save money and protect frontline services. But that does not permit the introduction of new regulation on the broader public.”

I also have it on good authority (from a different government source) that the papers that reported the story "didn't bother to contact us" to check the facts.