"We have an idiot on the show"

En route to Bristol ...

... and a very public rendezvous with our old friend Stephen Williams MP, chairman of the All Party Group on Smoking and Health and a leading campaigner for plain packaging.

We're being interviewed by the BBC for the Sunday Politics West.

Last week the part of the programme that is broadcast nationally hit the jackpot when presenter Andrew Neil interviewed US shock jock and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

It was hilarious.

At the end, with Jones ranting in the background, Neil turned to the camera and said, "We have an idiot on the show."

Feel free to add your own punchline.

Heaters, waterproof TV screens and music piped from the bar

Quick update on yesterday's post about the Great British Pub Awards.

It didn't take us too long to choose a shortlist of pubs for Best Smoking Area but it was interesting to discover the extent to which some pubs have gone to accommodate smokers.

A recurring phrase was "bringing the inside out" so smokers don't feel alienated from the rest of the pub.

This might include outside TV screens (including waterproof monitors), special lighting and heaters.

One pub pipes music in to the smoking area from the bar. Another does the same with its karaoke events.

Personally that's my idea of hell but I won't let it influence my choice. Horses for courses, as they say. What matters is the desire to make smokers feel included.

Some businesses have invested serious money in developing comfortable smoking areas. One pub spent £80k in the last year on its smoking area, another £105k and a third invested £160k.

The reason is clear. According to one pub, 60-70 per cent of their customers are male smokers aged 30-60+.

Another explained that at weekends 40-50 per cent of their customers are smokers. (Many of them are social smokers, apparently.)

Without the smoking area, another pub claimed it would lose 50 per cent of its custom.

Another wrote that the smoking area encourages smokers to stay longer, sometimes for a meal (which is where a lot of pubs make their money nowadays).

Investment alone won't win a pub the Best Smoking Area award. Some factors – signs to the smoking area, for example – cost very little but represent a smoker-friendly attitude.

Likewise cigarette bins and ashtrays (regularly emptied).

Other factors we take into consideration are whether the smoking area has been purpose built, and is it promoted as a unique selling point?

Anyway, I'm pleased with our 2013 shortlist. The next stage involves a personal visit to each pub by a small panel of judges. After that, we'll decide on the winning pub, to be announced at the Great British Pub Awards in September.

Watch this space.

Judging the Best Smoking Area award

It's that time of year again.

I'm en route to Crawley - in particular the offices of the Morning Advertiser, the leading pub trade newspaper - to judge entries for the BT Sport Great British Pub Awards.

There are sixteen categories and an even larger number of judges. We have all been allocated a category - mine is Best Smoking Area - and our job is to sift through the mountains (ahem) of entries and select a shortlist.

There are normally five or six pubs on each shortlist. The winners will be chosen after every pub on the 16 shortlists has received a personal visit from a much smaller group of judges. (This is known in the trade as a pub crawl.)

A few years ago I was invited to join a team of judges in Scotland for the SLTN Awards. I couldn't go because I was on holiday that week but it did sound tempting. Three days in the Highlands travelling from one pub to another across hundreds of miles of breathtaking scenery. (This is known in the trade as a bender.)

The awards will be presented at a 'glittering' event at the London Hilton in Park Lane in September.

Before all that though we have to decide which pubs deserve to make the cut. It's a gruelling task made worse by the surprising lack of alcohol.

(If there's one time I fancy a drink it's when I'm judging the Great British Pub Awards.)

Anyway, this is the third year I've helped judge the Best Smoking Area award and I have a simple rule. You may have the most wonderful outdoor area but if the words 'smoking' or 'smoker' don't appear on the entry form you've no chance.

We might add your pub to the shortlist as an example of what a good outdoor area looks like but to win Best Smoking Area you have to convince us that it was designed with smokers in mind and that you invested your money to make smokers feel welcome.

The best smoking areas are effectively an extension of the pub. They encourage inclusion not exclusion because even non-smokers will want to join you but it's clearly designated as a smoking area so no-one can complain when you light up.

There should be attractive tables, comfortable seating, heaters and (frequently overlooked) ashtrays that are emptied regularly.

Some form of shelter from rain and wind would be good too. Ultimately the best smoking areas are those you would be happy to occupy all evening, with your non-smoking friends coming out to join you rather than vice versa.

That's my interpretation. What do you look for in a smoker-friendly pub?

Road to prohibition given prime time

Forest Eireann's John Mallon has been invited to appear on Prime Time, RTE's flagship current affairs programme, tonight.

The live Dublin-based programme encourages audience participation and tonight the subject is tobacco - plain packaging in particular.

Here, meanwhile, is a list of the radio stations that John appeared on during his recent Road to Prohibition Tour of Ireland:

30/05/13 ... Spin FM
28/05/13 ... 96FM (Cork)
27/05/13 ... Newstalk
25/05/13 ... Irish International Radio
23/05/13 ... Shannonside Radio
22/05/13 ... Midwest Radio
22/05/13 ... Ocean Radio (Sligo)
22/05/13 ... Newstalk
21/05/13 ... Limerick Live FM
20/05/13 ... Radio Kerry
16/05/13 ... Midlands FM
15/05/13 ... Tipperary FM
15/05/13 ... WLR FM (Waterford)

If there are any Ireland based readers out there, Forest is working as hard as we can on your behalf.

But we need your support because we face a hostile media and political environment, worse than the UK.

Smoke On The Water – last chance to register

Smoke On The Water, Forest's annual boat party, is just seven days away.

We are close to capacity with over 230 people already registered.

Our vessel, The Elizabethan, will dock at Westminster Pier where you can board at 7.15pm. The boat will remain static until 8.15 when it will cruise down river towards Canary Wharf before returning to Festival Pier on the South Bank at 10.15pm.

Smokers can light up on the rear deck or the covered walkway that runs the length of each side of the boat.

There will be live music and plenty to drink!

It's not too late to register but do it NOW! Email events@forestonline.org or telephone Ellie on 01223 370156.

Follow Tom Paine on tour and on Twitter

I have been following with interest Tom Paine's journey across America.

Tom (not his real name!) writes The Last Ditch, an extremely well-written blog that chronicles the "death of liberty in Britain".

I stumbled upon it in 2008 and wrote about it here.

Tom was working in Moscow at the time. Subsequently, I believe, he moved to China before returning to the UK in 2011.

I met him at Stony Stratford when a group of us - under Dick Puddlecote's direction - met to protest against a proposal to ban smoking in the town.

Tom, a "non-smoking gent" according to Dick, drove Mr Puddlecote to Buckinghamshire in his Maserati, much to the latter's delight.

We spoke briefly in the pub. It was noisy and I struggled to hear everything he said. In fact, when he told me his wife had a terminal illness, hence their decision to come home, I wasn't entirely sure I had heard him correctly.

I hope I'm not being insensitive. I wouldn't mention it were it not for the fact that when 'Mrs P' died the following month Tom wrote very movingly about both his wife and the funeral so it's already in the public domain.

It is also pertinent, I think, to his current adventure which some people might think is a bit of an indulgence. (I'm not one of them, to be clear!)

Truth is, there's a poignancy about Tom's journey that is extremely touching if you know the background.

Anyway, a few weeks before he set off I bumped into him again.

It was the day of Margaret Thatcher's funeral and Tom, Dick Puddlecote and I found ourselves in a crowded pub a short walk from St Paul's.

Tom told me about his forthcoming road trip and said he was shipping his own car, a Ferrari, to the United States.

I was impressed and I've been following his daily posts since his arrival last month. It's heart warming stuff, though I'm concerned he appears to be in love with his car, which even has a name (Speranza) and a gender.

Tom's epic 48-state journey is also a tribute to the power of blogging because at various points Tom has met up with readers and fellow bloggers who have provided hospitality and, sometimes, accommodation.

To follow the final stages of the tour pop over to The Last Ditch. You can also follow Tom on Twitter (@tompaine). Warmly recommended.

PS. In August my family and I are embarking on our own US road trip. We begin in San Francisco from where we will drive to San Diego via Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and Yosemite National Park, to name just a few stopping points.

Instead of a Ferrari I shall be driving a Grand Jeep Cherokee (on hire from Hertz). We will call him Fred. Or Tom.

Should Royal Bolton Hospital reinstate its smoking shelters?

I was contacted last week by the Bolton Evening News.

The Royal Bolton Hospital is reviewing its smoking policy. As things stand smoking is banned everywhere.

Like other hospitals however the Royal Bolton has found a comprehensive ban difficult to enforce so management is considering reinstalling its smoking shelters in the hope that they can control where people light up.

In partnership with the Evening News the hospital has decided to consult the public before reaching a decision.

The paper wanted Forest's opinion, which I was happy to give them. I also forwarded some reports about other hospitals that have abandoned smoking bans in favour of smoking shelters.

I can't vouch for their current status but the featured hospitals were Bradford Royal Infirmary (October 2012), Royal Bournemouth Hospital (June 2010) and Great Western Hospital in Swindon (September 2009).

You can read the Evening News report, with my comments, here – Hospital smoking shelters: for and against.

You can also vote online. At the time of writing the vote was marginally in favour of reinstating the smoking shelters – 53 per cent in favour, 47 per cent against.

To have your say visit Should the Royal Bolton Hospital reinstate its smoking shelters?.

Medal for Stephen WHO?

Now here's an unlikely hero.

Our old friend Stephen Williams MP is to receive a medal later today for his part in the war on tobacco.

It will be presented by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in honour of Stephen's efforts on tobacco control.

These include chairing the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health.

Helping to launch Plain Packs Protect, the piss poor taxpayer-funded campaign that failed to persuade the UK Government to adopt plain packaging.

And, er, that's it.

(If there's anything else I'll happily update this post. Perhaps someone could send me the citation, if there is one.)

I don't know but I assume the 'presentation' will take place at a meeting of the APPG (run by fake charity ASH) at the House of Commons.

For the record, APPGs are "informal cross-party groups that have no official status within Parliament".

Meetings could be held in the Dog & Duck and it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference.

Anyway I look forward to Stephen tweeting or posting a photo of his medal later today.

Apparently he was on the radio this morning "gushing" about it so it would be churlish not to congratulate him on his achievement.

Whatever that is.

PS. Two years ago ASH was also awarded a medal by WHO, to mark the group's 40th birthday.

I published a photo on this blog and commented, "Doesn't look the most exciting occasion, does it?"

Come on, ASH. A glass of champagne and a few canapés wouldn't go amiss. A stage, perhaps, lights, live music ...

Anything!

Update: "Delighted to be awarded world health org award for anti smoking work" (via Twitter)

Update: Williams has now tweeted a picture of himself with public health minister Anna Soubry and the words, "With public health minister @annasoubry, she backs my campaign for #plainpacks"