The two faces of Norman Lamb MP

H/T Angela Harbutt

See also Norman Lamb: perfect example of the genre (Dick Puddlecote) and Norman Lamb: Doh! (Liberal Vision)

'Tobacco smoke biggest home pollutant in Ireland' – the truth behind the headline

'Tobacco smoke is biggest home pollutant in Ireland' screams a headline in today's Irish Times.

It's based on a study that compared the impact of tobacco smoking in the home with households that use coal, wood and peat for heating and gas for cooking.

As always there's good news:

Concentrations of air pollution in homes using coal, wood, peat and gas for cooking were low, and mostly well within health-based standards.

And bad news:

The researchers concluded that “exposure to environmental tobacco smoke represents the greatest impact on health from combustion derived air pollution in the home”.

But of course.

[Researchers] then went on to state that the exposure of non-smokers to ETS in the home accounts for a health burden that is “broadly comparable to that currently experienced in both countries from road traffic accidents and there is a real need for public health policy and research professionals to develop interventions to address this”.

See: Tobacco smoke is biggest home pollutant in Ireland

What the Irish Times didn't mention is this. The study was conducted on the following sample group: 20 households that used peat as heating fuel, 20 that used coal, 20 that used wood, 20 that used a gas stove to cook, and 20 that had at least one adult resident smoker (with no other combustion source present).

Of the 20 homes that had "at least one adult resident smoker", eleven were in Galway and nine in and around Aberdeen.

In other words, the claim that 'Tobacco smoke is biggest home pollutant in Ireland' was based on a sample of just eleven households in one Irish city.

See Indoor Air Pollution and Health.

Ignoring this the Irish Times notes that 'the private home remains a last bastion of privilege for smokers' before adding:

[The] report recommends that there should be a co-ordinated national campaign to educate smokers and non-smokers about the health effects of environmental tobacco smoke in the home ...

The report’s authors have called for improved national survey campaigns to determine what proportion of the population is exposed to environmental tobacco smoke at home.

Their recommendations include a co-ordinated national campaign to educate smokers and non-smokers about the health effects from smoking at home and the promotion of smoke-free homes.

Well, we all know where this is going.

How ironic that my Forest colleague John Mallon is currently on tour in Ireland warning people about "creeping prohibition".

See: Road to Prohibition – part one

It's Monday so it must be ... Tralee

Forest Eireann's 'Road to Prohibition' tour has reached the south west of Ireland.

Beginning in Cork last Wednesday, our representative John Mallon travelled to Waterford where he was interviewed by the local radio station WLRFM.

He then moved on to Tipperary and Offaly for interviews with Tipp FM and Midland Radio respectively.

Today he's in Tralee for an interview with Radio Kerry and tomorrow he'll travel to Limerick and Ennis.

After that he'll be in Galway (Wednesday), Sligo (Thursday) and Donegal (Friday).

The tour will finish next week with two days in Dublin. (I've just booked my flight. Should be fun!)

As you can see from the map above, the 'Road to Prohibition' tour will have covered most parts of the country.

So far it's not been entirely plain sailing. As I reported last week the head of news at KCLR in Kilkenny refused to interview John because 'smoking kills' and Forest is supported by the tobacco companies.

In addition an interview with the Irish Examiner was spiked by the editor, as John explains:

Last Wednesday I did a long interview on creeping prohibition with a journalist from the Irish Examiner. The man wrote up the piece, including my observations on the attacks on other lifestyles, but the editor decided not to publish it and instead, this weekend, that paper’s editorial screams, Tobacco saga must inform obesity war.

Inside a report is headlined, 10% tax on junk food to tackle obesity and elsewhere another article informs us that, Foods marketed as ‘healthier’ could lead to weight gain: study.

Nevertheless we are still getting a fair number of interviews so hats off to John for taking on a difficult challenge.

Click here to read part one of John's tour diary. Comments welcome.

Legendary watering hole for sale

Further to my recent post about the Mason Arms (above) in South Leigh, Oxfordshire ...

I have received a note from the agent selling the pub. He read my comments and thought I might be interested in the following:

The Masons Arms in South Leigh – the first pub in Oxfordshire to be prosecuted for disregarding anti-smoking laws – has been put on the market by larger than life owner Gerry Stonhill.

Described by Raymond Blanc as his all time favourite pub and awarded 20 out of 20 by Marco Pierre White, the legendary watering hole draws celebs from all over the country and is a particular favourite of the motor racing fraternity.

Complete with its own helicopter pad, the Masons Arms is on the market with Colliers International at £895,000 freehold.

According to hotels director Peter Brunt the unique pub represents one of the most exciting pub opportunities for years.

Peter Brunt said: “The Masons Arms is a privately owned and personally run thatched pub close to Oxford boasting trading areas of tremendous character and a memorably eccentric owner.

“This foodie haven had received ringing endorsements from some of the biggest names in the business - one look at the website will give prospective purchasers an idea of the calibre and quality we are talking about.

“The Mason Arms was run in a very individual - probably unrepeatable - style by our client Gerry Stonhill but all the fundamentals for a fabulous business are there in spades.”

The first pub landlord in Oxfordshire to be fined for flouting the smoking ban was fined £5,750 and famously invited Tony Blair to stick his anti-smoking laws.

Peter Brunt continued: “The Mason Arms just oozes character and appeal with its two huge fireplaces in the main bar area, heavily beamed ceilings and with lots of interesting nooks and crannies for customers to enjoy.

“The particular paraphernalia that our client liked to have around him restricted the capacity to about 60 covers through the bar and restaurant but there is clearly scope for many more. South Leigh is a fabulous location to support a quality inn.”

"Gerry bought the Mason Arms 18 years ago and has now decided the time has come for him to retire.”

Situated in a very favoured location north west of Oxford with easy access from the A40, the Mason Arms is a large, attractive building with its own helicopter landing area for particularly well heeled guests, with plenty of car parking, unexploited gardens and plenty of room for further development.

Believed to be a former farm house dating from the early 1600s, the Grade II listed Mason Arms is a two storey building constructed of limestone beneath a thatched roof.

There is plenty of space at first floor level for letting bedrooms although only two were offered and the extensive range of outbuildings offer tantalising development potential.

Part of the range of outbuildings to the rear, the owners’ cottage comprises a large sitting room with open fire and kitchenette, bedroom and bathroom.

Apparently Dylan Thomas wrote a large part of Under Milk Wood while living in South Leigh and during that time made good use of the Mason Arms.

Peter Brunt concluded: “The sense of the possibilities at the Mason Arms are apparent as you enter the bar with its flagstone floor and the enormous fireplaces. There is an atmospheric restaurant in two sections with about 60 covers scope for more.”

I was gutted to miss out on dinner at the Mason Arms after it closed last month. I am even more gutted that I can't afford to buy it and employ someone (who knows what they're doing) to run it while I potter around with a pint in one hand and a cigar in the other.

Then again, if it was that easy Gerry wouldn't be selling. I have enormous respect for publicans and restaurateurs, especially those at the top of their profession.

The pressure of having to 'perform' day in day out and maintain the high standards that customers expect (and pay for) must be pretty intense.

Everyone has off days but in the hospitality trade they can destroy even a well established business.

Think I'll stick to running a tobacco lobby group. No pressure there!

PS. Spoke to Gerry last week and invited him to The Forest Freedom Dinner on July 2. Tickets available online but hurry, they're going fast.

Below: the very individual Gerry Stonhill at the Mason Arms

Lamb slaughtered

Dick Puddlecote has written a follow-up to my post about health minister Norman Lamb.

See Norman Lamb: Perfect example of the genre. Now that's what I call a Sunday roast.

Sad, really. By all accounts Lamb is a fine constituency MP. Nor is he a bad bloke. Far from it.

A few years ago I shared a platform with him at a Westminster Health Forum event on alcohol. I described it - and Norman Lamb - thus:

The first session, chaired by Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb MP, began on cue at 9.05 and finished, on schedule, 40 minutes later. There were four panellists - Professor Sir Charles George (British Medical Association), Cathie Smith (British Institute of Innkeeping), the rather fearsome Professor Mark Bellis (Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University), and me ...

I was the last to speak ... In my allotted time I expressed scepticism at the extent of Britain's "binge drinking culture" and the ever-changing definition of what constitutes "binge drinking". I also voiced concern that if the scale of the problem is exaggerated, then the reaction to the problem will also be exaggerated (eg Boris Johnson's booze ban).

Alcohol, I said, is a legal consumer product. (Sound familar?) Adults have every right to purchase alcohol, to consume alcohol, and to enjoy alcohol. People have every right to "binge drink" or get drunk, if they so wish. And if, when they get drunk, they become boorish or bad-tempered, fall asleep in their chair or wake up with a hangover, they have every right to do that as well.

What they DON’T have the right to do is to become violent or aggressive or threaten people and damage property. But we already have laws – and a police force - to deter that sort of behaviour, so I see no need for yet more rules and regulations. Or to tar all drinkers with the same brush.

The audience (a mixture of MPs, peers, civil servants, health professionals, PR execs and people from the drinks industry) seemed a bit non-plussed. When I confessed (shock horror) to being an occasional binge drinker myself (according to government guidelines) there wasn't a murmour - not even a titter.

It wasn't my best performance but I must have made some impression because Norman Lamb prefaced his closing remarks by saying, "Simon Clark issued a challenge". (Challenge? I'd hardly started.)

Inevitably, though, he concluded by saying that the evidence (of the harm allegedly caused by binge drinking) supported a "powerful case for society to intervene". (Funnily enough, he said much the same in his opening remarks so no-one can accuse him of inconsistency. A decent chap but better, perhaps, if we'd had someone more impartial in the chair.)

Full post: Driven to drink (Taking Liberties, October 22, 2008)

No fairytale ending to my dream of being Scottish (or Farage's visit to Scotland)

I have been following the fallout from Nigel Farage's visit to Scotland.

But first, some background. As I have mentioned before, my family moved to Scotland when I was ten. I had six months at a local primary school, six years at secondary school in St Andrews, and four years at university in Aberdeen. I then lived and worked in London for 13 years before moving to Edinburgh for six and a half years (1993-1999).

My maternal grandmother was originally from Bannockburn and when I was at school in Maidenhead (ie before we moved to Scotland) I told everyone I was Scottish, to the obvious disbelief of my classmate Duncan Macintosh.

Ignoring him I wore my Scotland football shirt with pride when Scotland lost 4-1 to England at Wembley in May 1969, a week or so before we packed up and headed north.

I can't tell you how excited I was to move to Scotland. I'd never been north of Watford Gap so when we boarded the car-sleeper train at the old Motorail terminal in Kensington it was the start of a huge adventure.

We arrived the following morning in Perth. The sun was shining as we drove to our new home overlooking Dundee and the River Tay.

A day or two later I enrolled at the local primary school. My new classmates must have been sceptical about my Scottish credentials because on my first day I was asked to recite "It's a braw bricht moonlicht nicht".

I did my best but from that moment I realised I was ... English.

Actually, I didn't mind. Being English in Scotland in the Seventies was no big deal. I don't remember it ever being an issue.

Fast forward to Edinburgh in the Nineties and the atmosphere had changed. I experienced frequent anti-English sentiment.

The Scottish media in particular was full of it. Whether journalists were reflecting or leading public opinion, I don't know, but as someone who reads several newspapers every day it wore me down.

Two episodes stand out. (I have written about this before so apologies for repeating myself.)

In 1994 the Rugby Sevens World Cup came to Edinburgh. England rugby captain Will Carling was a hated figure in Scotland but the sevens team featured none of the big name players who played for the Five Nations team.

Despite that, every time England walked out at Murrayfield, the home of Scottish rugby, they were booed mercilessly by a remarkably hostile crowd. Bile rained down from the stands. (As it happens England won the tournament so it may have helped!)

Two years later, at Euro 96, the England football team famously reached the semi-finals. One newspaper (the Scottish Daily Mail) ran an article with the headline 'Why we hate the English when they're winning'.

It wasn't tongue in cheek. It was poisonous and there were plenty more articles like it. Among other things, England fans were castigated for waving the flag of St George as if this was nationalism gone mad.

In fact, Euro 96 was the first time I can ever remember England fans using the English flag en masse. Prior to that they always brandished the Union flag and, guess what, they were criticised in Scotland for commandeering the British flag in the name of England.

So it was alright to wave the saltire but not the cross of St George, and it was OK to have pride in being Scottish but not in being English.

In my experience most of this hatred and hypocrisy came from the Barbour-jacketed middle class. Typical of the type was a solicitor I met socially via a friend.

He was shortly to become a partner at an Edinburgh firm but could barely bring himself to speak to me or my English friends. He hated England so much he refused to go on holiday there – not even a weekend break.

Bizarrely the animosity seemed to get even worse after devolution in 1997. I realised I no longer wanted to live in Scotland and started looking for a job in London. (That's how I came to work for Forest.)

Ironically my wife is from Glasgow which makes my children half Scottish. They were both born at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. I support a Scottish football club and I love visiting many parts of Scotland, the Highlands in particular.

I am a regular visitor but as things stand politically I have no wish to live there again.

Anyway, that's the background to my reflections on Nigel Farage's unhappy visit to Scotland this week.

I say unhappy but, for a moment on Thursday, I thought it had gone rather well. Nigel had been shouted down by a handful of protestors, forced to retreat to a pub, before being driven away in a police van for his own safety. Allegedly.

Stories emerged of the UKIP leader laughing at these mindless bigots and with first minister Alex Salmond refusing to condemn the extremists the whole thing was a disaster for the independence movement.

But – and I say this with a heavy heart – Nigel couldn't resist putting the boot in. Instead of being statesmanlike, he stoked the fire and accused the protestors of being "yobbo fascist scum". He also said the incident the previous day was "deeply racist" which isn't true.

He then put the phone down during an interview with BBC Radio Scotland, describing the questions as "insulting".

Having occupied the moral high ground the previous day, Nigel threw it away by using language and hyperbole similar to his opponents.

Salmond was off the hook and the story was all about UKIP and its leader instead of the extremists who were attacking him.

Yesterday I heard Farage vow to return to Scotland. I admire his determination not to be intimidated but he has to look at the bigger picture.

Polls suggest that, by a substantial margin, the majority of Scots don't want independence. At the same time, in my experience, they don't want English politicians telling them what to do or how to vote.

David Cameron understands this, hence his current low profile on the independence issue.

If I was Alistair Darling, leader of the No campaign, I would be tearing my hair out. The all party campaign was chugging along quite nicely. Then UKIP turn up and it's all about them.

Nigel Farage had an opportunity to be a statesman in Scotland on Friday. Sadly, he blew it.

PS. Minutes before the story broke on Thursday I sent an email inviting Nigel to take part in a forthcoming Forest event.

We could start by asking him about Scotland and the smoking ban ... Now there's a double whammy.

Then again he may read this post and decide the event is not for him. I'll let you know.

Minister for Europe: economic recovery will not solve democratic deficit

Plain packaging was also mentioned by the Minister for Europe this week.

Unlike self-styled "liberal" Norman Lamb (see previous post), the Rt Hon David Lidington MP adopted a different tone.

Speaking in Berlin, his theme was democracy in Europe:

The democratic deficit in the EU is not a new problem. It is as old as the EEC itself. But the current economic crisis has accelerated an underlying trend. The latest Eurobarometer polling data on public opinion provides clear evidence of a fundamental lack of support for the EU across almost all Member States.

Trust in the EU has never been so low. It has fallen from a pre-crisis high of just over half of those surveyed to just a third last autumn. New survey data from Pew, issued this week, confirms the downward trend in support for the EU.

And for the first time since Eurobarometer started their surveys in 1978, more respondents across the EU were dissatisfied with the way democracy works in the EU than were satisfied.

But, you might ask, why does this matter?

It matters because stable democracies rely on citizens accepting the rules as effective and legitimate, and feeling like they have a stake in how decisions are made.

It matters because people feel that decisions affecting their lives are taken faraway, by unaccountable individuals.

In some countries we have seen the rise of protest parties and social unrest ...

Now, some people might argue that the loss of trust in the EU is a temporary blip and is linked to the current crisis.

My experience tells a different story. Economic recovery will not solve the democratic deficit.

Politicians and academics talk about principles – about subsidiarity and proportionality. Our citizens put this in more practical terms.

People question why the footwear and jewellery worn by hairdressers should be regulated at the European level.

Why they cannot determine shop opening hours locally in accordance with local traditions and practices.

Why it is that the EU needs to ban branding on cigarette packets or set quotas for women on company boards.

And they question why their local hospital or fire service no longer offers 24-hour cover due to judgments on working time rules made far away by the European Court of Justice.

In short, public dissatisfaction is not solely a consequence of the economic crisis, though that has of course emphasised the trend, but results from a longer-term and much broader sense that decisions at European level are remote from both citizens themselves and their interests.

At a time of great change, particularly for those in the Eurozone, trust in the EU is at a record low and public dissatisfaction at a record high. The EU is often seen as inefficient and out of touch with the real world. The ordinary European does not feel that his or her voice counts.

At last, a minister who 'gets it' and, better still, has decided to speak out.

You can read the full speech here.

Open minded? Another health minister comes out for plain packaging

A few weeks ago, on the day of the local elections and before the Queen's Speech, I received an email.

It read:

About 30 minutes ago a man knocked on our front door. "I'm Norman Lamb, your MP. Have you voted yet today?" I shook his hand and told him that because of the smoking ban and plain packaging I wouldn't be voting for his party.

He made clear that he 'respects my opinion' (ie thinks I am wrong). But we chatted on about plain packs and he said, almost verbatim, "I can reassure you that it won't be coming in during this parliament". He made fairly clear that the preference is to wait to see the body of evidence coming from Australia/New Zealand, which he believes will come.

I had little doubt the story was genuine but I didn't publish it at the time because it was based on a private conversation.

I nevertheless took heart that it seemed to confirm reports that plain packaging would not be in the Queen's Speech.

Norman Lamb, you see, is not only a Lib Dem MP, he's also a minister at the Department of Health.

Today the Guardian reports that the very same Norman Lamb is urging the coalition "to press ahead with forcing cigarettes to be sold in plain packets to reduce sales, despite the plan being dropped from the Queen's Speech because of unease in Downing Street".

No-one can accuse Lamb of hypocrisy. He made it clear, when speaking to my correspondent, that he supports plain packaging.

Then again, having allegedly reassured a constituent that plain packaging won't be introduced in this parliament, he is now actively urging the Government (of which he is a member) to do exactly that.

Another point: we are repeatedly told that the Government has yet to make a decision, one way or the other, about plain packaging and that it continues to have an "open mind" on the subject.

Despite this, Norman Lamb becomes the second health minister to openly declare his support for the policy.

Moreover, he intends to "keep fighting" to get plain packs introduced.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt needs to get a grip on his ministers who, when they're not privately leaking information to newspapers, are in open revolt about government policy.

Meanwhile, nine months after the end of the public consultation on standardised packaging of tobacco, we are still waiting for publication of the report and official confirmation that 500,000 people signed petitions opposing plain packs whilst a relatively meagre 220,000 people supported it.

Could that be the reason it has yet to appear? Or perhaps the Department of Health is desperately hanging on for evidence from Australia that plain packaging is working as intended.