I think I'm going to be sick

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Smoking and Health yesterday celebrated the 40th anniversary of ASH with a function at the House of Commons.

Here are some of the 'highlights':

Guests welcomed by Lib Dem MP Stephen Williams, chairman of the APPG on Smoking and Health.

Williams, Labour MP Kevin Barron (former chairman of the Health Select Committee), and public health minister Anne Milton presented with awards by Cancer Research.

Milton said it was a pleasure to celebrate ASH’s "birthday party". She then presented Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, with the World No Tobacco Day Award from the World Health Organisation.

Accepting the award, Debs thanked those who funded ASH.

Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians, which founded ASH in 1971, wished a "very happy birthday to our baby, now our grown up child" and called for a campaign to "get rid of cigarettes eventually".

Prof John Moxam, chairman of ASH, compared it to his own birthday, and spoke of an "ASH family across the world".

Sir Richard, he said, was was "the father of ASH" and the support of the Royal College of Physicians has been "absolutely wonderful".

He also paid tribute to Kevin Barron who he described as a "warrior for the cause", adding, "ASH just thinks you’re magic".

Ugh!!

Ms Milton, he said, was "tremendous", and had "won over the hearts of everyone involved".

I think I'm going to be sick ....

Great British Pub Awards – the judging begins

Yesterday was the first round of judging for the Great British Pub Awards 2011.

I couldn't be there because I had a previous engagement – the Association of Independent Tobacco Specialists' annual lunch at Lords Cricket Ground (guest speaker Tom O'Connor following in the formidable footsteps of Bobby Davros, George Galloway and Boris Johnson).

Anyway, the aim of the first judging round is to select a list of potential winners, national and regional, based on the written entry forms.

The next stage of the judging process involves visits to our preferred candidates, 12-15 pubs scattered around the country. The five finalists will be announced in August and the winner will be revealed at the Great British Pub Awards dinner in London in September.

I've seen some of the written entries and I've been struck by the effort that has been made to accommodate smokers so they don't feel "ostracised" (as one landlord out it) from the rest of the pub.

Branded ceramic ashtrays, mosaic tables, wicker chairs and smoking memorabilia are just some of the attractions, but the most important (apart from blankets and heaters!) is accessibility.

I was struck too by a very British sense of humour. One pub has a series of hand-painted signs that read: 'Please feel free to use ashtrays once the floor is full', 'Please don't put cigarette ends on the floor as they might burn the hands and feet of customers leaving'.

Another features a notice that reads:

This smoking cabin was built by three brave cowboys in the year of our Lord 2010. Despite it being the coldest December ever these brave souls worked on regardless. They had no design and no plans. They just made it up as they went along and with total disregard for health and safety. They were too cold to feel any pain and lots of blood dripped on to the white snow. So please honour their sacrifice and use the ashtrays. I am sure that you will remember them every time that you light up and also when cold water from the terrible roof runs down your neck.

I'm not sure if this is a recommendation for Best Smoking Area but it made me laugh.

Wizards of Oz - Big Tobacco fights back

Imperial warns of ‘nanny state’:

Imperial Tobacco has today launched a high-profile national advertising campaign in Australia to warn of the dangers of plain packaging. The Australian government is pushing ahead with legislation to force tobacco products to be sold in generic packaging by July 2012.

Imperial’s ad campaign was unveiled at a press conference in Canberra hosted by Wayne Merrett, General Manager Australasia. The TV, radio and newspaper ads warn of ‘Nanny State’ legislation that erodes adult choice and sets a dangerous precedent for other products, such as alcohol and fast food.

A website for consumers NoNannyState has also been launched.

Full press release on the Forest website: Imperial warns of "nanny state".

The move follows an initiative by Philip Morris, also in Australia. In April PMI launched a website, I Deserve To Be Heard, which was described in The Age:

Tobacco giant Philip Morris has launched a website calling on smokers to unite and flex their political muscle over tough federal government regulations.

The online campaign comes as the tobacco industry ramps up opposition to a government plan for cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging from next year.

Philip Morris’s new website ... claims smokers are under constant attack from a ”nanny state” determined to raise taxes and ban smoking in public spaces, such as beaches and city malls.

See also: Australia – the world’s number one nanny state (Chris Snowdon, The Free Society)

Is smoking good for you?

Another busy week so blogging may be light.

It's the third of our Voices of Freedom series of debates tomorrow and this time we're discussing 'Risk and the Pursuit of Happiness: is smoking, drinking, gambling good for you?'.

Chaired by Angela Harbutt of Liberal Vision, the discussion will feature Dr Patrick Basham (Democracy Institute), Mark Littlewood (IEA), cigar consultant Simon Chase and gambling addict Jake Brindell.

Venue: IEA, 2 Lord North Street, Westminster
Drinks from 6.15pm, discussion from 7.00pm.

'Is smoking good for you?' is a question I thought readers of Taking Liberties might like to answer, especially if you can't attend the actual event.

We know about the potential health risks but David Hockney, for example, has often argued that smoking is good for his mental health. What about you? And is smoking good for you in other ways?

And what about drinking? Or indeed gambling.

I will forward your comments to the chairman, Angela Harbutt, who may be able to include them in the discussion.

What do ASH and Left Foot Forward have in common?

I have just read an article by Martin Dockrell of Action on Smoking and Health.

It's entitled Is Big Tobacco blowing smoke in Cameron’s eyes? and it appears on the "number one left-wing blog" Left Foot Forward.

I haven't got time to give it a proper fisking but I thought you'd like to know what ASH and Left Foot Forward have in common.

As you know, I don't like debates that feature only one side of an argument so we make it our business to embrace, if possible, all sides.

Sadly it's not always possible because the left, with few exceptions, refuse (or decline) to debate with us.

Last year I invited Will Straw, son of Jack Straw and the founder of Left Foot Forward, to take part in our 2010 Voices of Freedom series. To be fair he did reply but he wanted to be paid (he was the only person to raise the issue) and we didn't have a budget to pay speakers.

Will has since moved on to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), an influential left-wing think tank, so a couple of weeks ago I invited his successor to speak in the 2011 series.

I sent the invitation to two email addresses but no reply. Not a dicky bird.

What has this got to do with ASH? Well, a few weeks ago I invited to Deborah Arnott to speak alongside Peter Hitchens in our debate 'Civil liberties up in smoke: what are smokers' rights in a free society?'. I emailed Debs (who I have no personal animosity towards at all) and, like the editor of Left Foot Forward, she didn't even bother to reply.

This week, taking a different tack, I telephoned ASH with a view to inviting her colleague Martin Dockrell to speak in our next debate 'Risk and the pursuit of happiness: is smoking, drinking, gambling good for you?'

The person who answered the phone sounded like Deborah but wasn't. (They must be cloning little Deborahs.)

"This is Simon Clark from Forest," I said. "Can I speak to Martin Dockrell?"

Pause. Ten seconds later:

"He's in a meeting."

I left my number. "Can he call me back?"

Four days later I'm still waiting for that call. (Perhaps he was too busy writing for Left Foot Forward.)

PS. ASH and Left Foot Forward aren't the only lefties to decline our regular invitations to speak. The list is endless. But at least the likes of Polly Toynbee took the trouble to reply and decline gracefully.

As far as Debs and Dockrell are concerned, it's not just the refusal to debate I find depressing. It's the lack of class.

Latest news from The Free Society

Hope to see some of you at tomorrow night's Voices of Freedom debate:

'Nudge and the Nanny State: how far should the state intervene in people’s lifestyle?'

Chaired by Dolan Cummings (Manifesto Club), the event features Josie Appleton (director, Manifesto Club), Dr Alena Buyx (assistant director, Nuffield Council on Bioethics), Dr Steve Davies (education director, Institute of Economic Affairs), John Springford (Social Market Foundation) and economist Paul Ormerod who is currently writing a book, Beyond Nudge: Networks and Public Policy in the 21st Century.

Venue: IEA, 2 Lord North Street, Westminster
Drinks from 6.15pm, discussion from 7.00pm.

Imperial Tobacco wins Forest plain English award

There are many things I like about my job. Writing submissions for 'public' consultations isn't one of them.

I've lost count of how many times we have responded to local, national or international 'consultations':

Consultation on Smoking in Public Places (Greater London Authority Smoking in Public Places Investigative Committee), Consultation on the Future of Tobacco Control (Department of Health), Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Bill (SP Bill 22), Green Paper Consultation (Towards a Europe free from tobacco smoke: policy options at EU level) and many, many more.

Most recently we submitted a response to the Consultation on the Draft Tobacco Control Action Plan for Wales, despite the fact that Forest wasn't on the 'List of Consultees'. Nor was any other consumer organisation. Clearly, the consumer is not expected to have an opinion when it comes to tobacco control. You'll do as you're told, that seems to be the message.

Undeterred, we submitted our response anyway because it's important that we take every opportunity to get our message across. If we didn't we may as well pack up and go home. (And as someone else once said, this is a marathon not a sprint.)

Anyway, I was interested to read another submission to the same consultation.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (great title) is Imperial Tobacco's response to the Draft Tobacco Control Plan for Wales and I've singled it out because, unusually for such documents, it's written in plain English and it makes a point of standing up for the sorely neglected consumer.

Here's a taste:

The Government's tobacco control policies have never been subjected to proper evaluation. There is therefore no basis on which to claim that the decline in smoking rates is a direct result of [previous] policies ...

The Plan contains multiple references to unelected anti-smoker groups, indicating an alarming level of undue influence on policy formulation and implementation. For example, ASH Wales are featured no less than 39 times in the 45-page Plan. Such levels of influence from vested interest groups invariably lead to unrealistic, unachievable and ineffective policies ...

Rather than talking up what it sees as the benefits of the smoking ban, we would ask the Government to be more forthcoming in its Plan about the significant unintended consequences, in particular the devastating impact that it has on local community pubs. It is now beyond all reasonable doubt that the smoking ban has had the biggest single impact on accelerating pub closures in the UK since 2007. This provides a stark warning to those considering increasing smoking restrictions in and around pubs ...

Government has no mandate to regulate the private lives of adults who have chosen to use a legitimate product. Furthermore, the evidential base for the introduction of invasive legislation is often absent or highly flawed. For example, one report that was extensively recycled in the media claimed that second-hand smoke was "23 times more toxic in a vehicle than in a home". Such claims are without any substance and have been roundly refuted by the evidence.

The use of the term 'smoke-free' is a deliberate attempt to play down the real intention of the introduction of more restrictions and bans. More bans amount to more restrictions on personal freedoms ... Denormalisation is not a strategy that is pursued in other public areas as it has been shown to be ineffective and counter-productive, alienating those whom policy-makers are trying to influence.

You can download The Good, the Bad and the Ugly here. Definitely worth a read.

Smoking and pregnancy on Five Live tonight

Got a call this afternoon from the Stephen Nolan Show on Five Live.

They want to talk about women smoking during pregnancy. It follows a story in today's papers about former EastEnders actress Hannah Waterman who is "seven months pregnant but can't stop smoking".

I said I was happy to do tonight's programme but I suggested the names of a couple of people who I felt could speak with greater authority on the subject, not least because they are women who smoke and have children.

One of them is Pat Nurse.

Coincidentally Pat deleted her blog Tea and Cigarettes this weekend. I understand her reasons for doing so - although I reject strongly her recent and protracted criticism of our Voices of Freedom event with Peter Hitchens - but I know she will be a passionate and articulate speaker, which is why I recommended her.

I understand she will be on after 11.00pm. Worth staying up for.