Smoking: pathetic addiction or lifestyle choice?
The cover of the current edition of The Oldie features Lionel Blair.
The well-known dancer, choreographer and broadcaster turned 90 in December and last month he was awarded the title Oldie of the Year.
Many years ago I had a chance encounter with Blair (Lionel not Tony) when we shared a table while waiting for a train at Kings Cross.
Clutching a cup of coffee, he caught my eye and asked, very politely, if he could smoke. “Of course,” I said.
A number of things went through my head but I didn't want to invade his privacy so I kept quiet, finished my drink and eventually stood up to leave.
Before I hurried away however I thrust my business card into his hand. It read: 'Simon Clark, director, Forest, voice and friend of the smoker'.
The following day I contacted his agent, explained what had happened, and asked if we might interview him for the Forest magazine Free Choice. (I had the headline already: 'Blair's Britain'.)
“Sorry,” I was told. “Lionel feels guilty about smoking. He doesn't like to talk about it.”
That was 19 years ago. In 2017, discussing his health, he told the Daily Mail, “I know that I shouldn’t [smoke]” so he clearly hadn’t given up.
However, apart from being treated (successfully) for prostate cancer a decade ago, he’s remained in good health. The key to his longevity, he told the Mail, was a balanced diet.
Smoking, then, may be Lionel’s 'big vice' but it hasn't stopped him staying fit and living to a grand old age.
Sadly he's not the only smoker who feels guilty about his habit.
I first met journalist Tom Utley at a soiree sponsored by Forest and organised by Auberon Waugh at the Academy Club in Soho.
That was in 2001. Since then Tom has attended a number of Forest events and written several must read articles on the subject of the smoking ban and the supposed threat of passive smoking, which he rightly describes as 'a lie'.
See, for example, ‘I resolve not to be a shameful smoker' (2004) and 'Why my smoking habit proves you can't believe a word the b******s tell you' (2007).
On Friday, in the Daily Mail, he took aim at the proposal by Democrat politician Dr Richard Creagan to eventually prohibit the sale of tobacco in Hawaii to anyone under the age of 100.
However, as with most of Tom’s articles about smoking, it came with a caveat, the sort of self-loathing I can only put down to decades of relentless anti-smoking propaganda.
In contrast, in the Mirror today, we got a rather different take on smoking from 'life coach Paul McKenna' that didn’t involve phrases like ‘disgusting habit’ or ‘pathetic addiction’:
As it happens, I bumped into McKenna once, several years ago, while we were waiting to be interviewed on Radio 2.
We weren’t on together because he was there to promote a new book about something else but we nevertheless had a short chat outside the studio.
Knowing he helped people stop smoking I expected a negative reaction when I told him what I did for a living but his response was consistent with what he told the Mirror.
In fact, he was extremely personable and I liked him immediately. His latest comments make me like him even more.