"Snipers could soon snuff out smoking"

Let's put it down to bad timing.

This week's issue of the Luton Herald & Post (published on Thursday) describes in detail how people smoking on the streets of Luton should be shot by a "squad of licensed snipers" to save the Health Service the cost of looking after them in later years.

Oddly enough I can't find the article, by columnist Alan Dee, online (perhaps it's been removed following the news from Norway), but I've seen the digital edition.

Let's not be too po-faced about this but it's safe to say we haven't heard the last of it. Watch this space.

Out of Africa – update

Latest on my son's trip to Malawi:

Week two: all suitcases have finally arrived and the team are reported to be "fit and healthy and just back from the Dwambazi climb".

Dwambazi climb? I really should have paid more attention at that parents' evening back in January.

Update: I am told the group is doing "conservation work". I dare say I'll find out more when they get back.

Update on Saturday, July 23, 2011 at 9:22 by Simon Clark

Three weeks in Malawi is a far cry from the school trips I went on as a child. At a similar age, shortly after our O-Grades (the Scottish equivalent of O-Levels), we spent a week at the Lochgoilhead Outdoor Activity Centre.

In six years at secondary school that was it, unless you count a trip to see The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black, Black Oil at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.

Notes from the north west

I'm in Manchester today, discussing plans for a new event at the Conservative party conference in October.

The aim, if it comes off, is to create a must-see annual attraction that combines crowd-pleasing entertainment with a serious political message.

It's a difficult trick to pull off but I have an idea that I think could work. Watch this space.

In the meantime I can reveal details of the event we are organising - in association with the Clubs and Institute Union - at the Labour conference in Liverpool in September.

See poster above.

Stony Stratford - spread the word

As others have already reported, Cllr Paul Bartlett has suffered a serious setback in his attempt to ban smoking outdoors.

About My Area has the story here – Stony Stratford Smoking Ban: Town Council Rejects Bartlett's Proposals.

See also: Stony Stratford meeting overwhelmingly rejects Bartlett proposals (Dick Puddlecote).

To date, however, the only mainstream reference I can find to this uplifting news is in today's Daily Telegraph: The tiny town that refused to give in to a fresh-air fascist ('Stony Stratford is a jewel for standing up for the right to smoke outdoors', Bryony Gordon).

This news must be disseminated far and wide otherwise the only 'story' people will remember is Stony Stratford set to ban smoking in all public places (Daily Telegraph, June 29).

That's how bandwagons start.

So spread the word. Write to your MP and to your local newspaper. Tell them what happened in Stony Stratford. (When writing to your MP send him or her copies of relevant reports.)

Shout it from the rooftops and don't let this moment go to waste.

PS. Forest Eireann's John Mallon writes: The message from Stony Stratford. See also: The new religion (Smoking Out The Truth).

Should entire towns ban smoking?

On BBC Radio Derby this morning.

Ten-minute discussion starts around 15 minutes in.

Stony Stratford latest – motion to ban public smoking postponed

The MK News reports that 'The motion to ban smoking in Stony Stratford will not take place at tomorrow's town council meeting (Tuesday) and will now be discussed at the next meeting in September.'

My interpretation of this is that Bartlett's motion was heading for a massive defeat following the hugely successful protest on Saturday, so he has taken his ball home in a fit of pique, no doubt hoping that, come September, his opponents will have lost interest and the fuss and bad publicity he has generated for the town will have died down.

Fat chance, pal.

Update on Monday, July 18, 2011 at 14:01 by Simon Clark

On reflection, I doubt that Bartlett is now operating alone.

If I was advising him (and I would be very surprised if he hasn't received at least one call from ASH), I would have suggested exactly the same tactic.

Regroup and come back and fight another day. Postpone the motion until the autumn by which time other councillors (in other towns) may be encouraged to put forward similar motions.

Attack on more than one front. After all, they will ask themselves, how many anti-ban protests can there be?

I think they're about to find out.

PS. This isn't total conjecture. I am booked to do several interviews on BBC local radio stations tomorrow to discuss the implications of an outdoor smoking ban in Stony Stratford and whether it would encourage other councils to follow suit.

That's why this motion is so important to the tobacco control movement in the UK. They can't afford it to go belly up with a massive majority against because that would set the cause back years.

Postponing the motion also gives them time to find a better advocate – in another town, perhaps – than Herr Bartlett who is clearly a public relations disaster.

Update on Monday, July 18, 2011 at 18:07 by Simon Clark

The BBC Look East report is now online:

Smokers light up on protest over possible ban (BBC1 East)

H/T Dick Puddlecote

Out of Africa

My son, 16, is currently on a three-week school trip to Malawi.

The group - 22 children and half a dozen adults - arrived safely last weekend, via Ethiopia. I know this because within 24 hours we received a bush telegraph style message from the parents of another child on the same trip. We then had to phone the parents of the next child on the list and so on to tell them the good news.

The bad news is that the same cannot be said of their luggage. Reports are a bit hazy but seven days later at least 17 suitcases have still to be reunited with their owners. Eleven have been traced to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, and six are unaccounted for.

Apparently, Ethiopian Airlines has decreed that freight is more important than clean underwear for a group of teenagers from Cambridgeshire.

Understandable, perhaps, but I do hope they are reunited with their possessions - including my son's malaria tablets - very soon!

Paul Bartlett: is this man a halfwit?

The Sunday Times has posted a video by Rod Liddle on its website.

Sadly, very few people will see it, nor will they have heard Paul Bartlett spout similar rubbish on Radio 2, TalkSport or the local evening news.

I just hope his fellow councillors have the sense to challenge this transparent nonsense.

Update: An outbreak of people power in Stony Stratford (Dick Puddlecote)

Further reading:
A grand day out (Frank Davis)
A day out in Stony Stratford (The Moose)

See previous post for links to more posts from those who attended yesterday's protest.

PS. All week I have been cautioning people to avoid personal insults. Sorry, listening to Bartlett it's hard to resist!