Sign of the times

How’s this for a ‘no smoking’ sign?

It was in one of the galleries I visited at the Royal Academy of Arts on Tuesday.

Then again, looking at some of the weird and wonderful artefacts on display, I’m not certain it wasn’t one of the exhibits.

BBC misrepresents UK vaping industry position on single use vapes

On Monday I suggested that mixed messages are undermining the vaping (advocacy) industry.

The most recent example I gave was a comment last week by Doug Mutter, director of leading vape retailer VPZ, who was said to support a ban on disposable vapes as long as it didn’t create a black market.

Personally, I thought it was a stupid thing to say, a classic hostage to fortune, as evidenced by a BBC News report whose headline read ‘Vape store boss supports ban on disposables'.

As director of VPZ Doug Mutter can say what he likes, of course, although I don’t think supporting the prohibition of single use vapes is very helpful, even if it comes with an important qualification.

But Mutter is also a director and occasional spokesman for the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) which does NOT support a ban on disposable vapes.

Indeed, the official UKVIA position is that it is opposed to a ban on ANY category of vape device.

Despite that, the BBC today reported that:

The UK Vaping Industry Association has said it is not opposed to a ban on single-use vapes as long as it does not inadvertently create a black market.

Excuse me? The UKVIA has said nothing of the sort. Those were Doug Mutter’s words, but you can see how the mistake crept into the report.

The situation therefore is this. If the director of VPZ wants to make statements that contradict UKVIA policy, perhaps he should step down from his UKVIA role, if only to avoid similar confusion in future.

Update: Following an intervention by John Dunne, director of the UKVIA, the BBC has corrected its report. It now reads:

The boss of Edinburgh based vaping firm VPZ has said he is not opposed to a ban on single-use vapes as long as it does not inadvertently create a black market.

Doug Mutter, who is also a director of the UK Vaping Industry Association, welcomed the [Scottish government] report [into single use vape littering] and said the Scottish government needed to be more bold by introducing licensing and controls for selling vaping products.

It still leaves a question mark over UKVIA policy on disposable vapes, but at least it’s not factually incorrect any more.

See: Millions of single-use vapes littered on Scotland streets (BBC News)

Connections

Royal Academy of Arts

It's been a busy week.

Last Friday I attended a reception at the House of Commons to celebrate the (long overdue!) wedding of a former colleague, now an MP.

We were asked not to post anything on social media so I didn't, but it was nice to catch up with several people I hadn't seen for decades.

Regrettably there were one or two I didn't say hello to because it's been so long I didn't recognise them and it was only later that I found out they were there.

Anyway, I was back in London this week for two more receptions, the first at the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly.

The event, which included a private viewing of the RA's Summer Exhibition, was hosted by the tobacco company JTI and was called 'Connections'.

I didn't know a huge number of people but I enjoyed wandering round the galleries, stopping to chat with those I did know.

I also got to wear a virtual reality headset that had something to do with illicit trade but after removing my glasses to accommodate the headset it was all a bit of a blur, if I'm honest.

After some trial and error, I did however succeed in opening, with my virtual 'hand', a car boot that contained what appeared to be packs of counterfeit cigarettes. Success!

Hats off, btw, to the guest who, twelve hours after attending the RA event, was scheduled to appear before the Health and Social Care Committee in the House of Commons.

By all accounts he handled the interrogation very well so credit where credit's due!

And so to last night and a packed event – on the terrace of the House of Lords – to mark the 300th birthday of the Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith.

Hosted by Lord Borwick, it was organised, naturally, by the Adam Smith Institute and was quite a nostalgia trip for someone like me.

Madsen Pirie and Eamonn Butler, who founded the ASI in 1977 having previously studied at St Andrews (where I went to school), were partly responsible for getting me my first job after I graduated from Aberdeen in 1980.

It's a story I have told several times before, but I was first introduced to Madsen and Eamonn by a mutual friend (Peter Young) in a pub in Victoria Street, London.

Michael Forsyth was a friend and fellow alumni of Madsen and Eamonn’s at St Andrews and he later joined us for a drink because the pub was close to Westminster City Hall and Michael was, at that time, a Westminster City councillor.

Two days later, after a short interview, he offered me a job at KH Publicity, the PR company where he was already a director in his mid twenties.

(My initial salary, since you didn't ask, was £3,500 per annum, rising to £5,000 after six months.)

I worked for Michael for a little over two years, including 18 months at Michael Forsyth Associates which he set up after leaving KH Publicity and taking two of his colleagues (including me) with him.

Last night Michael (now Lord Forsyth of Drumlean and a former Secretary of State for Scotland) was one of three guest speakers, the others being Lord Borwick and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

There was time for only a few words with him before he had to rush off in response to a division bell, but I reminded him that the last time we met was at the wedding of a mutual Scottish acquaintance.

I was convinced it was only ten years ago but I've just looked it up and it was, in fact, in 2007.

Either way, Michael had no recollection of the wedding at all, although I remember it well and I know he was there because we shared a table in the marquee where the reception was held in what I think was a farm steading in rural Stirlingshire!

Last but not least, I had lunch this week with an American friend, writer and economist Todd Buchholz, who I first met in Washington DC in 1983 and whose musical Glory Ride (which he wrote with his daughter Victoria) is currently at the Charing Cross Theatre until the end of July.

The story of Glory Ride deserves its own post (and I shall write about it later), but I can tell you that we had lunch at Boulevard Brasserie, a French restaurant in Covent Garden.

I didn't book the restaurant, or even suggest it. Todd did, and here's the thing.

Shortly after Boulevard Brasserie opened in 1991, I interviewed the owner and proprietor for a magazine I was editing.

A short while after that I organised a party there for 100+ people.

Again, I remember it well because was a hot summer evening and guests were spilling out on to the pavement because it was cooler outside than in.

Connections? I’ve got a few!

See also: A day to remember, the unveiling of a statue of Adam Smith in Edinburgh in July 2008.

Ann Leslie RIP

Sorry to hear that Ann Leslie, one of the great foreign correspondents, has died, aged 82.

I loved her book Killing My Own Snakes (“The extraordinary life of a Fleet Street legend”) which stands alongside the best Fleet Street memoirs and makes me nostalgic for an era I missed by a generation.

It also prompted this blog post, written in 2009 - ‘What did you do in the (Cold) War?’.

Tributes to Leslie include this from author and broadcaster Steve Richards:

I’m sad to hear Ann Leslie has died. We used to do a programme called Head to Head when the BBC allowed discussion to breathe. This fearless war reporter once told me she was terrified about her next assignment the following day: a health farm where she couldn’t smoke or drink.

And from Guardian columnist and writer Gaby Hinsliff (via Twitter):

Ann Leslie was a force of nature, a trailblazing female foreign corr & the only person I have ever seen respond to being asked not to smoke at breakfast in a party conference hotel with the words ‘darling, if I’ve smoked in a tank …’

See also Obituary: Ann Leslie (BBC).

How mixed messages are undermining the vaping advocacy industry

I sometimes think the biggest threat to vaping are vaping advocates.

I've previously highlighted several examples of foot in mouth syndrome, so before I record the latest let's recap.

In March 2021, Edinburgh-based VPZ, the UK's largest vape retailer, launched a campaign to 'Ban smoking for good' in Scotland.

Commercially you can see where VPZ was coming from. Ban a more popular rival product and, hey presto, millions of potential new customers will be forced to switch. Ingenious!

Or perhaps not. As I wrote at the time:

Calling for a ban on a rival commercial product enjoyed by millions of consumers is not a good look.

I’m not sure it does much for the reputation of the wider vaping industry either. I certainly don’t see it impressing the Scottish Government, not even one as anti-smoking as Nicola Sturgeon’s.

In fact, the 'campaign' (launched on No Smoking Day, natch) was quickly abandoned following the failure of a petition to 'Ban smoking for good' that was signed by just 103 people.

Eleven months later, whilst giving evidence to the Irish Parliament's Joint Committee on Health, a representative of the Irish Vape Vendors Association (IVVA) conceded that "Nothing is better than fresh air" while another said not vaping is always better if you are a non-smoker.

The same person agreed that some e-cigarette packaging is "overly colourful" and a third said, "I would have no problem increasing the age [of sale] to 21."

As I subsequently wrote ('Own goal?'):

WTF?! It's one thing to give an inch but a mile?!

Raising the age of sale of e-cigarettes (and tobacco) to 21 sends entirely the wrong message. As I have argued in relation to tobacco, it infantilises young adults who should be allowed (and encouraged) to make informed choices for themselves.

Specifically it sends the wrong message about e-cigarettes which, if nothing else, is a harm reduction product, not something to be feared or unduly restricted.

I also noted that after admitting that he was "addicted to nicotine", the principal IVVA spokesman added, "I would prefer not to be addicted to nicotine", which is hardly a great endorsement for the nicotine-based consumer product he was supposed to be defending!!

At the time I wasn't alone in thinking that some of those comments beggared belief and were potentially counter-productive if not damaging to vaping, but foot in mouth appears to be endemic within the vaping industry.

In the last week our old friend Doug Mutter of VPZ in Edinburgh was reported to be backing a ban on disposable vapes. Seriously.

To be fair he qualified this by saying the company's support for a ban was dependent on "proper punishments and policing" so it didn't create a black market (which of course it will!), but that nuance was lost on the BBC whose report was headlined 'Vape store boss supports ban on disposables'.

Doh!

The thing is, why risk a headline like that? Had it been me (and I have done this several times in interviews) I would have firmly rejected any suggestion of a ban and added, "Banning disposable vapes will create a huge black market and drive consumers into the hands of illicit traders."

But instead of that Mutter and VPZ appear – deliberately or not – to be on the side of the prohibitionists, which is extraordinary considering he is both a director and occasional spokesman for the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) whose principal spokesman, director John Dunne, is adamant that a ban on disposables is a BAD idea!

A quick shout out too to Louise Ross who was quoted by the Guardian on Friday in a feature headlined 'No need to rush': How to give up vaping:

Unlike cigarettes, where official advice is to completely stop smoking, going cold turkey is not recommended when giving up vaping.

Louise Ross, a clinical consultant at the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training, says the most important thing is to be ready to give up. “If you stop too quickly, the risk is that you go back to smoking.” She advises reducing the strength of the vapes gradually, vaping less often and in fewer places, and making sure your vape isn’t always in your hand. “It’s about setting controls,” she says.

Nothing wrong with that advice. But it's worth noting that Louise is still interim chair of the New Nicotine Alliance, a vaping advocacy group that, if I'm not mistaken, was originally launched to represent 'new nicotine' consumers, including those who, having quit smoking, discovered they enjoyed vaping so much they had no intention of quitting.

Today the current chair of the NNA is a former smoking cessation professional who offers advice on how to quit vaping as well.

To be clear, I am not questioning Ross's integrity because she is obviously well-meaning, but I do find it odd that some of the vaping advocates most often quoted by the media are increasingly minded to talk about quitting, or not starting (to vape).

At risk of repeating myself, is this really the best endorsement of a product we are continually told (by the same people) carries a fraction of the risk of smoking?

But that's not all:

And for teenagers who have never smoked, Ross advises them to consider the environmental benefits of stopping vaping, as well as the health benefits. Vape batteries contain lithium, aluminium, steel, copper and plastics.

Question: Why stop at teenagers who have never smoked? Surely the same message applies to anyone who vapes, or is thinking of switching to vaping (ie current smokers)? Think of the environment, people!!

If you're confused by these mixed messages, join the club. The most extraordinary thing, though, is the fact that they are coming not from opponents of vaping but from within the vaping advocacy industry itself.

As the saying goes, with friends like these who needs ....

Update: UK vaping industry called to account following rise in use among children (UK Parliament, Wednesday June 28)

From the archive: BMA supports ban on sale of cigarettes to those born after 2000

New Zealand may be the first country to pass a law banning the sale of cigarettes to people born after 2008, but the concept is far from new.

In fact, I was reminded this morning that it's exactly nine years since the British Medical Association voted in favour of outlawing cigarette sales to anyone born after 2000.

That vote, and Forest's response, was reported by, among others, the following:

Ban new smokers, call from BMA conference (BBC News)
‘Ban cigarette sales to anyone born after 2000’ (Scotsman)
Doctors vote for ban on UK cigarette sales to those born after 2000 (Guardian)

Our full response read:

“Prohibition doesn’t work. It will create a huge black market in cigarettes and drive generations of adult smokers into the hands of illicit traders.

“Criminalising adults for buying tobacco is illiberal and impractical.

“Tobacco is still a legal product and you can’t permit some adults to buy cigarettes but deny that right to others.

“In 2035, for example, it could be legal for a 36-year-old to buy cigarettes but a 35-year-old might be committing an offence.

“Once again the BMA is indulging in gesture politics for the sake of a cheap headline.”

A few days later, the BMA's Vivienne Nathanson and I were interviewed on Sunday Politics by Andrew Neil. To say I was nervous is an understatement but it went OK. See:

Smoking ban for anyone born after 2000: BMA and Forest (BBC News)

The reason I mention this is to show there are currently very few new ideas in tobacco control. Whether it's a generational ban on the sale of cigarettes, a tobacco levy, or even health warnings on individual cigarettes, the same ideas go round and round like a stuck record.

Eventually one or two may be adopted but it can take an awful long time which is why it's important to challenge them at every stage and in every market.

(Infamously, as I have mentioned many times, the threat of a workplace smoking ban in Ireland was initially dismissed as unimportant by some people because the country was considered too small to have much influence on other nations, including the UK. How wrong, and complacent, they were.)

Anyway, it's interesting to note that despite voting for a ban on the sale of cigarettes to millennials, the BMA failed to persuade government, or any major political party, that the policy was worth adopting.

Thanks however to New Zealand and Javed Khan's 2022 review, which recommended a similar policy, the idea hasn't gone away and is being touted almost a decade later.

As it happens that week in June 2014 was quite busy because apart from reacting to the BMA vote, we also had to respond to the announcement by the Cameron government of yet another consultation on plain packaging, this time concerning the regulations.

And on Tuesday June 24 we hosted what I think was our fourth Smoke On The Water event:

Over 230 people attended the annual Forest boat party on the Thames which took place in typical British weather – a mixture of sun, showers and overcast sky.

The aim of the evening, apart from having fun, was to promote Forest's No, Prime Minister campaign. We had a small team that spent the evening inviting guests to sign a letter to David Cameron. And many did.

Eventually, and within just four weeks, we were able to submit over 50,000 letters to Number 10, which was in addition to the 260,000+ signatories who signed an earlier Forest petition opposing plain packaging.

Despite that the Government still went ahead with it. C'est la vie.

Below: Channel 5 News report on the BMA vote with a soundbite from me

‘Avid anti-smoker’ awarded CBE

The Queen’s Birthday Honours may have morphed into the King’s Birthday Honours but still no recognition for two of our most committed anti-smoking activists.

Yup, it’s that time of year when I dutifully point out that Deborah Arnott, CEO of ASH since 2003, and Sheila Duffy, chief executive of ASH Scotland since 2004, have yet to receive a gong, despite decades devoted to the anti-smoking cause.

As I have said before, the lack of recognition is particularly strange when their counterparts in similar but less influential organisations have been recognised.

I’m referring, specifically, to the former directors of Smoke-Free South West and Smoke-Free North West, organisations that don’t even exist any more.

But I could also point to Ailsa Rutter OBE, director of Fresh (formerly Smoke-Free North East).

Anyway, it’s ten years now since I first highlighted the lack of recognition for these titans of tobacco control, and it got to the point where I even speculated that the only explanation is that Arnott and Duffy may have turned down honours, although I’m not aware that either of them is a closet republican.

I certainly find it hard to imagine that someone, somewhere, hasn’t tried to nominate them.

There is however good news for one ‘avid anti-smoker’.

Bob Blackman, Conservative MP for Harrow East and chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health (run by ASH), has been awarded a CBE, which is one level down from a knighthood.

I suspect though that given his long political career - he was elected as an MP in 2010 following 24 years as a councillor - the award is to recognise that rather than his unremitting campaign against smoking.

(Update: My hunch was correct. The award is ‘For Political and Public Service’.)

Either way it would be impolite not to congratulate him, but here’s something I wrote for ConservativeHome, in response to an article by the MP for Harrow East, just over ten years ago:

Whatever happened to Conservative values such as tolerance and common sense? Whatever happened to the party that advocated less state intervention and more personal responsibility? Education is better than coercion because the state should impose itself on individuals only in extremis.

If Bob Blackman believes a ban on smoking in cars with children represents ‘true Conservative values’ I worry for the future of the party. But then I’m only a lifelong Conservative voter, and my opinion doesn’t seem to matter any more.

See: Bob Blackman is wrong. We don’t need a smoking ban in cars to protect children (ConservativeHome, April 2013)

Three years later I noted what I called his ‘paternalistic, even socialist, attitude to private health’. See: Memo to Bob Blackman MP - call yourself a Conservative? (Taking Liberties, October 2016).

Meanwhile, this is how the political website Guido Fawkes reported a December 2015 debate in Westminster Hall on the government’s future smoking strategy tabled by Labour MP Kevin Barron:

Bob Blackman appeared to be giving a speech from notes printed on the fanatical Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) campaign’s headed paper. His key point was more money was needed for tobacco control – in other words more taxpayers’ money for ASH – reading line for line from their own note. Fancy that …

See: “This debate brought to you by …” (Guido Fawkes, December 2015).

As for Arnott and Duffy, what can I say? Next year, perhaps?

Glenda Jackson RIP

I am sorry to hear that Glenda Jackson has died. She was 87.

One of my earliest memories of secondary school was being taken, with the rest of my history class, to the New Picture House in St Andrews to watch a special screening of Mary, Queen of Scots, the 1971 historical drama in which Jackson played Elizabeth I.

I remember it because it was mid morning and it was nice to be out of school.

Also, and I may be wrong because it's a long time ago, the film was quite violent in parts, although the violence may have been off screen and left to our teenage imaginations.

The reviews at the time were mixed, and I'm not sure how historically accurate it was, but that didn't seem to bother our teachers!

Either way, it was Jackson’s performance that left the biggest impression and I had completely forgotten, until I looked it up, that Mary Stuart was played by Vanessa Redgrave.

If you include her famous appearance on the Morecambe & Wise Show in 1971, playing Cleopatra, followed by another appearance on the 1972 Christmas Show, watched by half the nation, it’s fair to say that Glenda Jackson played a small but not insignificant part in my childhood.

Astonishingly, despite winning two Oscars, she gave up acting to become a Labour MP from 1992 to 2015 and, although I didn't share her socialist politics, I admired the fact that she stuck to her beliefs and remained a maverick to the last.

Incredibly, after stepping down as an MP at the age of 79, she returned to acting and enjoyed further success playing a gender blind Lear in King Lear, among other roles.

I was aware of course that she was a smoker and we did invite her, once or twice, to Forest events, but she didn’t bite which was a pity because I would have loved to have met her, fearsome reputation or not.

As for the New Picture House in St Andrews, where I first saw Jackson on screen, it wasn't new at all.

It opened in 1934 and was 'new' only in comparison to the Cinema House on the other side of the road. That opened in 1913, hence the ‘New’ Picture House.

Today the New Picture House is the only cinema in St Andrews because the Cinema House closed in 1979 before being demolished and replaced by a block of flats.

I knew you’d be interested.

Update: ‘Chain-smoking and often barbed, she tolerated no fools. "No-one does scorn like Jackson," said one shell-shocked interviewer.’ (Glenda Jackson obituary, BBC)