As I’ve already mentioned, despite being over 2,000 miles away, it wasn’t possible to escape work completely last week.
The Pinderfields hospital story rumbled on from the previous week and I had to do a number of BBC radio interviews from my hotel in Turkey.
I was also invited to go on Good Morning Britain (ITV) but couldn’t do it, obviously. Actually, I think I dodged a bullet because the response on Twitter to Dave Atherton, who took my place, was unremittingly hostile.
Another story I was asked to comment on concerned proposals to ban smoking in al fresco dining areas in Jersey. The Jersey Evening Post has the story with a quote from me.
Expect to see similar proposals put forward in the UK. Smoking in social housing is also under threat, in Scotland at least.
Some people however are remarkably complacent. The attitude appears to be: the government has no plans for further anti-smoking legislation in this parliament and is reasonably positive on vaping, so what’s the problem?
The reality is that the net is tightening on smokers all the time and the issue is not central government but local authorities - Sheffield, Manchester, Barnsley to name a few.
Later today I’ll have news of one council’s revised smoking policy that should concern not just smokers but vapers as well. Watch this space.