Dutch smoking ban partially repealed: BBC interviews all day

As reported here, the Netherlands has repealed its smoking ban for bars under seventy square metres with no employees. This has been announced with some media fanfare in the UK, with the question even being asked on air whether a partial revocation of the ban would work over here. (By over 'here', I mean the UK. I am sorry to say that this reversal in the fortunes of anti-tobacco has not been reported in the Scottish press [edit: see first comment]).

Interviews went on throughout the day. It started with a broadcast with Paul Greer interviewing Wiel Maessen and Cecilia Farren. The story in the clip is badly presented with nil research evident on how to spell Wiel's name or even what gender he is. But it's worth hearing the interview, in which Cecilia Farren (ASH) accuses opponents of smoking bans of conducting a campaign of terror. She also suggests that the tobacco-related interests of a single sympathetic MP outweigh the interests of around twelve hundred rebel bar owners, and are sufficient to characterise the reversal in the smoking ban as the result of tobacco industry lobbying.

A debate on Radio Five Live from 9 this morning (Nicky Campbell) was spirited and showed anything but consensus. Brian Binley MP, who has campaigned to reform the smoking ban, participated.

An interview on the World Service (start from 49) follows with Paul Greer interviewing Wiel and Southampton publican Simon Bell who runs Talking Heads and another pub in the city. Wiel explains the history of the ban's reversal, the huge losses that publicans had experienced following the ban. Simon Bell obligingly opines that the Dutch system would be adaptable to the UK provided that extraction and air cleaning were in place.

In The World Tonight (at 40.00), Paul Greer distresses Cecilia Farren by conducting a group interview inside a smoky pub. The locals' views reflect support for the move, commenting mostly on viability and an improved atmosphere, and the move is declared popular with English visitors. The landlady comments that people have clearly missed the experience of pub smoking and come into the bar because they see people smoking inside. Paul Greer again invites Simon Bell to reiterate that it would be possible in the UK to provide separate accommodation for smokers and non-smokers.

Finally BBC News 24 saw a head-on confrontation between Nick Hogan, the celebrated licensee of the Swan Inn in Bolton and the Swan with Two Necks in Chorley (both sadly now closed), and Paul Hooper of ASH. It happened at 9.30 pm, and is worth a look if anyone can find it. Nick does not flinch through Paul Hooper's denials that the smoking ban hit bars and the licensed trade, and his insistence that passive smoking kills and that heart attack rates have materially changed, but argues the point for a change in the law.

After a long day of interviews, Wiel's assessment surely gives grounds for optimism. The smoking ban and similar legislation are based on a failure to negotiate. The smoking ban has been defeated by people who know how to negotiate, and who will not allow doctrinaire attitudes to dominate. The solution to the smoking issue is not to be found in excluding part of the community but by actively resolving conflicting preferences. No solution that starts out by attempting to marginalise or denormalise is acceptable, and the Dutch have proved it.

What's the Dutch for Congratulations? Proficiat! And Cheers? Proost!

Barron defeats Nuttall without cowing Binley

I'm away from home this week, hence the sketchy blogging. However since I'm in holiday mode I can rely on another blogger to pad this post out a bit. Also I am in England so once again resorting to a story about the smoking ban south of the border.

This one. 

The blog post, Dick Puddlecote's, is here.

David Nuttall MP's Bill was brought in under the ten-minute rule, which allows ten minutes on each side of the debate. The debate is normally a backbench affair but on this occasion the opposing speech was given by Kevin Barron, formerly of the All-Party Committee on Smoking and Health, whose secretariat is managed by none other than Action on Smoking and Health. Kevin Barron's speech is here (preceded by David Nuttall's speech), and includes some spectacular nonsense: heart attack drops (inaccurately quoted as 5 per cent in England, which found a drop in heart attacks of 2.4 per cent, a lower drop that still failed to show up in routine statistics), and the idea that 80 per cent of smokers approve of the smoking ban.

In a further post, Dick quotes Barron saying: 'we are the state's representatives in their constituencies', suggesting that he has completely inverted the whole power relationship that underpins democracies. 'We should not be frightened of taking decisions on behalf of our constituents because that is to the general good.'

Happily Brian Binley, another MP seeking change in the smoking ban, is determined to keep up the pressure, alongside many others.


It seems that some people in government think that all they have to do is to identify a health issue, and they can vote in anything they like – for the common good, of course.