Yesterday evening I spotted a Facebook post by our old friend Nick Hogan.

Nick is the former pub landlord who was jailed after he allowed customers to smoke in his pub, and today he is attending the launch of Reform’s new ‘save the pub’ campaign.

Sorry to hear that actor Donald Douglas has died, aged 92.

You may not have heard of the former Poldark star but for 18 months in the mid Eighties I was his tenant and he was my landlord.

Went to Stamford Bridge yesterday to watch Chelsea Women play Arsenal.

Chelsea lost 2-0, which was disappointing, but the official attendance was 30,000 including 3,000 away fans who were in good voice throughout. At one point my wife turned to me and said, “Have Arsenal brought a choir?”, which wasn’t as silly as it sounds.

I had lunch with Ranald Macdonald, MD of Boisdale Restaurants, this week.

The Macdonald restaurant at Boisdale of Belgravia was pretty much full, which I didn’t expect because January is normally the quietest month of the year for restaurants.

I’m not sure how much of the following story I should reveal but since I’m not bound by the Official Secrets Act here’s an edited version.

A couple of months ago I was asked if I would drive a former head of MI6 to a meeting followed by dinner at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire.

I was delighted when Robert Jenrick defected to Reform last week.

“What a ****” I thought., “The Conservatives are better off without him.”

Congratulations to Lord Forsyth of Drumlean who is the new Speaker of the House of Lords.

If you’ve been paying attention to my musings (and name dropping) over the years you will know that Michael Forsyth gave me my first job after I left university in 1980.

There is a photo circulating on social media that features what appears to be a young Iranian woman lighting a cigarette using a burning picture of the Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran.

It’s not clear where or when the photo was taken, but it’s an incredibly arresting image and it’s not the first time that freedom has been linked with smoking in the Middle East.