The unintended hypocrisy of some public health practitioners

I would never criticise someone for their weight or appearance.

One, it’s rude, potentially hurtful, and none of my business.

Two, as someone who is significantly overweight myself, it would be hypocritical to say the least.

It does astound me though when people who are hardly a picture of health themselves choose to advise or pass comment on other people’s habits.

Yesterday, for example, there was a story on the BBC News website in which Cornwall Council’s Marc Neeld said quitting smoking was "the best thing" a person could do for their health.

Neeld was described as a ‘health practitioner’ but does he practise what he preaches?

Click on the link and let me know, but don’t be rude or unkind!

Channel Island hopping

I was interviewed on BBC Radio Guernsey yesterday.

Like the UK, the island’s government is considering further restrictions on smoking and the sale of tobacco.

According to reports, the public supports extending the smoking ban to a number of outdoor spaces. There is also support for raising the age of sale from 18 to 21.

Whenever I appear on Radio Guernsey, or Channel Island News (BBC1), I am reminded of my one and only visit to the island 20 years ago.

I went at the invitation of a local hotelier who was campaigning against the proposed indoor smoking ban. He had organised a public meeting and wanted me to speak, which I did.

Unfortunately his campaign (Support Our Smokers) couldn’t prevent the ban which was introduced in 2005 when Guernsey became the first place in the British Isles to prohibit smoking in indoor public places.

Jersey followed on January 2, 2007, but unlike Guernsey I’ve never been there.

I wouldn’t say it’s on my bucket list but it’s the only significant part of the British Isles I’ve never visited so I ought to make the effort.

Funnily enough, I am currently watching the new series of Bergerac on U. At the same time I am dipping in to the ‘classic’ series that starred John ‘Midsomer Murders’ Nettles in the Eighties.

Aside from the rather grainy picture, I am enjoying the original more than the reimagined version of the Jersey detective.

In the original he was a recovering alcoholic and divorced but had a string of glamorous girlfriends. In the new version he is a recovering alcoholic but recently widowed with a daughter and intrusive mother-in-law, and the programme spends far too much time addressing his personal struggle, which is boring, frankly.

Apparently, the authorities in Jersey hope to enjoy a tourist bounce on the back of it, but the charm, humour and fun of the original series are noticeably lacking, so I’m not sure who would want to jump on a plane (or ferry) and follow in the ‘new’ man’s footsteps.

I’m not saying it’s bad but it doesn’t stand out in a crowded field of TV coppers, and it doesn’t help that a significant character in the new series is played by an actor who appears as a not dissimilar character in the current series of The Bay (yet another police series) on ITV.

Confused? I was.

From the archive: Forest’s No Smoking Day breakfast at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand

On No Smoking Day 25 years ago we organised a smoker-friendly fry-up at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand in London.

Those were the days when you could still eat and smoke in some of Britain’s finest restaurants so we invited 16 or 17 people to join us for a champagne breakfast that included Cumberland sausage, honeydew bacon, black pudding, devilled kidneys, fried bread, fried eggs, hash browns, grilled tomato, grilled mushrooms, baked beans … and cigars.

Guests included Lord Harris of High Cross (chairman of Forest for 20 years until his death in 2006), Tom Assheton (MD, Tomtom Cigars), and Claire Fox (director of the Academy of Ideas and now Baroness Fox of Buckley).

Claire is on the right, above, with Lord Harris directly behind her. Tom is at the back, in the centre.

At the time Forest employed four full-time staff. I’m on the left, Juliette Torres is at the front (centre), Martin Ball is next to her, and behind them is office manager Jenny Sharkey who went on to work for Theresa May for the next 20+ years.

Russell Lewis, the distinguished looking gentleman in the centre of the picture (behind Juliette), was a non-executive director of Forest for 30 years until his death at the age of 96 in 2022.

Other guests that day included journalists Lauren Booth (half sister of Cherie Blair) and the Evening Standard’s Pete Clark.

Pete (who died last year) wrote a very funny piece about the event for the Standard, and I think Lauren may have mentioned it in the New Statesman, for which she was writing a column at the time. (She's pictured below, with Pete on the far right.)

Another guest in the photo below was writer and cigar aficionado James Leavey, author of The Forest Guide to Smoking in London (1997). James (with the beard) died in 2023.

Also present was Clive Turner, former director of public affairs at the Tobacco Advisory Council (later renamed the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association). As I explained here, I first met Clive in 1989 when I was a freelance journalist, and we kept in touch long after he retired.

He wrote an article about our No Smoking Day breakfast for the Forest magazine Free Choice, noting that:

Forest chairman Lord Harris of High Cross urged people to put two fingers up to intolerance and, as your correspondent discovered, the party was both hugely enjoyable and a small blow against the unremitting necessity the state seems to have to monitor and regulate individual enjoyment and pleasure.

Simpson’s closed during the pandemic and has yet to reopen. According to one report, however, it was due to re-open in May 2025.

I don’t know if that is still the case but I’ll keep you posted because it’s an iconic establishment and it would be great to have it back.

No Smoking Day? Who cares!

It’s No Smoking Day today (yawn).

You can always tell when this annual ‘event’ – launched in 1984 – is imminent because a handful of councils invariably seize the opportunity to launch some pointless anti-smoking initiative.

On Monday it was the turn of East Sussex County Council to announce that they were designating two beaches in their area as ‘smoke-free zones’.

Naturally, this was said to be a ‘first’ for England (although I’m pretty sure Bournemouth beat them to it in 1994 and again more recently).

However the scheme is ‘voluntary’ so it’s impossible to enforce other than by guilt-tripping smokers into complying.

They hope to achieve this by promoting the idea that the policy is designed to 'protect children, young people, and the environment from the harmful effects of smoking'.

According to Rob Tolfree, acting director of East Sussex Public Health, “Second-hand smoke is just as toxic outdoors as it is indoors.”

This is complete nonsense, of course, and I'd love to see the evidence on which he is basing this claim, but we live in a world where people, including council officials, are free make all sorts of absurd assertions and they get away with it because very few people (including journalists) can be bothered to challenge them.

Anyway, I've had a quick look online to see if there are any major stunts taking place to promote No Smoking Day 2025 and the best I can find is this:

A major Liverpool landmark is set to take centre stage with a powerful call for smokers to quit, this No Smoking Day (Wednesday, 12th March).

St John’s Beacon will be illuminated and transformed into a visual display, reinforcing the health benefits of stopping smoking and inspiring positive change across the city.

The Beacon will feature an animated image of a burning cigarette that gradually disappears, unveiling a series of powerful health messages symbolising the journey to a smoke-free life.

Also known as Radio City Tower, I was interviewed there once by Radio City (now Hits Radio Liverpool) after the station took over what had previously been a revolving restaurant a level or two below the top of the tower.

In those pre-blog days I wrote:

Thursday June 3, 2004
To Liverpool to do two interviews, one for BBC Radio Merseyside, the second for City Radio. I missed the last train north and had to drive to Liverpool from Cambridgeshire, arriving at my city centre hotel, directly opposite the BBC, at 3.30am. Considering that I had been awake for 22 hours without sleep I think I drove rather well!

BBC Merseyside wanted to record their item in the local shopping centre, an old Seventies-style shopping mall where smoking is still allowed in one section of the rather cramped food hall, much to the annoyance of SmokeFree Liverpool which is campaigning to make Liverpool 'smokefree' by 2008, the year the city is handed the title 'European Capital of Culture'.

Personally I would have thought most Liverpudlians would want the city to be crime free rather than smoke free, and said as much.

From St John's Shopping Centre I made my way to City Radio which broadcasts from Liverpool's answer to London's BT Tower. Like the former Post Office Tower, the City Radio HQ used to be a restaurant. I can't fault the panoramic view but I wouldn't like to work here. It’s quite unnerving to be this high up with no visible signs of support.

Anyway, if illuminating an unlovely tower in Liverpool is the best they can do to promote No Smoking Day in 2025 then it really is time to put this irrelevant PR dinosaur out of its misery.

Apart from a few councils and NHS trusts (all taxpayer funded, of course), and the likes of ASH, no-one cares.

Below: The Liberty Club of St Andrews marks No Smoking Day in 2002. Photo courtesy of Alex Singleton

Fighting talk

Spent an enjoyable afternoon yesterday discussing the Tobacco and Vapes Bill with various interested parties.

The desire to fight the Bill was palpable and I came away feeling unusually positive, even though the odds are stacked against us.

As for the report stage and third reading of the Bill in the House of Commons, there is still no news, officially at least.

The two stages normally take place on the same day, but the rumoured date has not been confirmed and I don’t want to spread what could be false information so I’ll keep it to myself.

Report stage and third reading are important because we anticipate a slew of amendments that MPs will debate and either accept or reject.

Thereafter the Bill will move to the House of Lords but given the two-week Easter recess, followed by a further break for the early May bank holiday, it could be some time before the Bill is debated in the upper house.

Yesterday there was plenty of speculation concerning the progress of the Bill, but no consensus. All I can say is, the battle is far from over.

OCD or not OCD?

The actress Tuppence Middleton has written a memoir that describes in detail her struggles with an extreme form of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

A couple of weeks ago she gave several interviews in which she discussed her symptoms. One or two sounded familiar so I did some research.

According to the NHS website, common types of OCD include:

• cleaning and hand washing
• checking – such as checking doors are locked or that the gas is off
• counting
• ordering and arranging
• hoarding
• asking for reassurance
• repeating words in their head
• thinking "neutralising" thoughts to counter the obsessive thoughts
• avoiding places and situations that could trigger obsessive thoughts

Thankfully I have none of the symptoms listed above except one - a compulsive need to check, multiple times, that the doors are locked when leaving the house.

Sometimes, having locked the front door (checking and re-checking that it is in fact locked), I then unlock it and go back in to the house to check that the back door, which I locked only a few minutes earlier, is also secure.

I then return to the front door and repeat the process of locking and checking until I am satisfied that it is locked, and I can get in the car. I have however been known to get out of the car and return to the front door for one final check.

I go through that process whenever I intend to be away for more than an hour. It gets worse when we’re going on holiday and may be away for a week or more.

On those occasions I ask my wife to witness me locking the door. I then invite her to check the door herself to confirm that it is indeed locked. Like Tuppence Middleton, who describes this affliction as her ‘biggest challenge’, I have started taking photos so I have ‘proof’ that the door is locked.

Variations on this include checking that no tap in the house is left dripping. Again, I have started to take photos to reassure myself and woe betide anyone who washes their hands after I have confirmed that every tap has been properly turned off!

This pattern of behaviour irritates my wife but it gets worse because, once or twice, I have driven for 10 or 15 minutes with a niggling worry in my head until I can’t go any further without returning to the house to check that I haven’t, by accident, left the iron on.

Even though our iron automatically switches itself off after it’s been inactive for ten minutes, the thought that I may have left it on is arguably an even bigger fear than leaving a door unlocked because in my imagination there is only one outcome.

That’s why, just as we are driving off on what is meant to be a relaxing holiday, I invariably ask my wife to confirm that our home insurance policy is up-to-date and covers house fires. (I won’t repeat her response.)

Once, to put my mind at rest, I even asked her to contact a friend - who lives ten miles away - to pop round (with the spare key we’ve given her) to check that the front door was locked and I hadn’t left the iron on.

Despite that I don’t really think I have OCD. Or if I do it’s an extremely mild version compared to Tuppence Middleton.

But there was something else she mentioned that I identified with. According to Tuppence, she gives ordinary inanimate objects human feelings. It’s not on the NHS list of OCD behaviours, but I used to do that too!

As a child (under the age of ten) I treated quite a few objects as if they had feelings. If I had some pocket money, for example, I had to spend the coins in a particular order, prioritising the ‘older’ ones.

I thought it might hurt their feelings if I ignored the coins I'd had for a while in favour of those that had only recently come into my possession, so I made sure the new additions went to the bottom of the pile.

I grew out of it but it’s good to know I’m not alone!

See: Actress Tuppence Middleton: my life with extreme OCD (The Times)

Terrorist threats and weather warnings, welcome to New Orleans!

My daughter has just returned from America where she spent four days in New York followed by eight days in New Orleans.

As part of her American Studies course at Birmingham University she spent a year at Loyola University in New Orleans and still has friends in the city.

Most years she returns to NOLA for Mardi Gras, the famous carnival season that stretches from twelfth night (January 6) to the day before ASH Wednesday.

Culminating on Mardi Gras Day (or Fat Tuesday), the celebrations include a week of processions and parades.

Compared to previous carnivals I'm told that things were a bit muted this year, a result perhaps of the terrorist attack on January 1 when 14 people were killed after a pick up truck was intentionally driven into a crowd of people in Bourbon Street.

Thankfully the biggest threat to the conclusion of carnival season 2025 was merely the weather, with some parades moved forward ‘ahead of expected severe winds, thunderstorms and tornado warnings’.

Welcome to New Orleans!

PS. To be clear, I would love to visit NOLA and the state of Louisiana. But not, perhaps, during the rainy season.

Below: Daughter (left) in New Orleans, March 4, 2025

From Montecito, with love

Aside from a few clips, I didn’t see the Netflix series Harry & Meghan, but last night I did watch the first episode of With Love, Meghan.

The reviews - in Britain, at least - are so damning I thought it would be rude not to take a peek.

It wasn’t quite as bad as many British journalists are suggesting. (I stress ‘British’ because I suspect that in America they may view it a little differently, or at least through the prism of similar lifestyle programmes.)

The production values appear high (as you would expect, given the reported budget), and Markle/Sussex is clearly comfortable in front of the camera (as you would also expect of a former actress).

Some reviewers have highlighted the fact that the series is shot not in Meghan and Harry’s home in Montecito near Santa Barbara but in another rental property nearby.

But is that so different to other, similar, programmes? I remember Nigella Lawson filming several series on a set designed to look exactly like her own kitchen, but wasn’t. And to be fair to Markle/Sussex, she doesn’t hide the fact that filming didn’t take place in her own home.

There’s a surfeit of mood music, which also brings to mind some of Nigella’s programmes, but it’s clear that Meghan is no Nigella.

She decorates a cake, for example, but there’s no evidence that she personally made or baked it. And I’m not convinced that chucking a load of spaghetti and tomatoes into the same pan and cooking them together is going to take the culinary world by storm (although it will reduce the washing up, which is a bonus).

The biggest issue, however, is not that Montecito’s domestic goddess is filmed in the kitchen and garden of a rented farmhouse rather than her own home, or that her cooking and party prepping skills are arguably more basic than we are being encouraged to believe.

It’s the fact that the programme is ultimately rather boring and I struggled to get to the end without turning it off and doing something more interesting. (I’m not the target audience, I know, but still.)

I’m glad I persisted though because episode one of With Love, Meghan concluded with Markle/Sussex sitting in the garden of the rented farmhouse with her guest (make-up artist and friend Daniel Martin) and before them was the most incredible view of what I’m guessing are the Santa Ynez Mountains.

If that didn’t make viewers more than slightly envious I don’t know what will.

Finally, and whatever you think of Meghan or the programme, it’s inspired some of the best (and bitchiest!) writing I’ve read for some time. There are several pieces to choose from but if I had to select one, take a bow, Julie Burchill (Spectator)!

Below: Santa Ynez Mountains from the rooftop terrace of our hotel in Santa Barbara, August 2013. You can’t fault Harry and Meghan for choosing to live in Montecito, which is five miles away. If I had the wherewithal, I’d probably live there too.