Politician defends freedom to smoke
Ukip Wales has called for the smoking ban to be amended, with publicans allowed to have separate, well-ventilated smoking rooms.
This is of course identical to the policy advocated by Forest when we launched the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign in 2009, two years after the ban was introduced in England and Wales.
Nigel Farage was one of the speakers – alongside Antony Worrall Thompson and Conservative MP Greg Knight – when we launched the campaign at a pub in Westminster.
It subsequently attracted cross-party support (a reception at the House of Commons was hosted by three MPs – one Labour, one Conservative and one Lib Dem).
In 2010 Conservative MP David Nuttall – a supporter of the campaign – even tabled a ten-minute rule bill urging the government to allow smoking rooms.
It was defeated by 141 votes to 86 but given the odds stacked against it we were pleased with the level of support. The campaign continued.
Last week's announcement by Ukip Wales was made by party leader Neil Hamilton who – to put this in perspective – is currently the only Ukip member of the Welsh Assembly. (In the previous parliament the party had seven, more than a tenth of the total number of AMs.)
According to the former Conservative government minister:
"Ukip believes in freedom of choice. Freedom not to drink in smoke-filled rooms but also freedom to smoke if others are not inconvenienced. That's the free society we believe Wales should strive to be.
“Individuals should decide for themselves what risks they run in life - whether smoking, free-fall parachute jumping, or being bored to death by a Mark Drakeford speech.
“Only Ukip stands for liberty and freedom of choice in these Senedd elections.”
Sadly the smoking ban is not going to be amended unless one of the major parties backs it – and by that I mean the Welsh Conservatives who have hopes of becoming the largest party in the Welsh Assembly after next year's election.
The problem is, while there are individuals within the party who would probably support a relaxation of the ban, very few will consider it a priority and I can't see the policy being adopted unless the Conservatives are worried that a significant number of voters might switch to Ukip over the issue.
That is unlikely because, post Brexit, Ukip has become an irrelevance.
In Wales, mirroring its disarray nationally, the party has had five leaders since 2016. The previous leader quit last year and now sits as a member of the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party.
Hamilton is right, though. Liberty and freedom of choice ought to be an election issue. What a pity there is so little support for this radical concept among mainstream political parties and politicians.
The remarkable thing is there is far more support for an amendment to the smoking ban than most people realise.
According to the Western Telegraph last week (Smoking inside pubs in Wales could make a return):
A 2017 poll by Populus found that around 60 per cent of the Welsh public supported the introduction of contained smoking rooms.
The poll referred to was commissioned by Forest on the 10th anniversary of the smoking ban in Wales.
Intriguingly the result was very similar to another Populus poll the previous year (2016) that found that 54 per cent of adults in Scotland would allow smoking rooms in pubs and clubs.
Likewise, a third poll conducted ahead of the tenth anniversary of the smoking ban in England (2017) found that 48 per cent of adults would allow smoking rooms in pubs and clubs, with 42 per cent opposed to the idea.
Politicians however are repeatedly told that the legislation is hugely popular with the public and has been a great "success".
The ban is credited (wrongly) with a reduction in the smoking rate and, with very little evidence to support the claim, we are told the health of the nation has benefitted enormously.
At the very least governments should examine the evidence and review the impact on pubs and clubs, but don't hold your breath.
As we have seen throughout the pandemic governments are now so risk averse there is very little chance that ministers will relax a single one of the existing anti-smoking regulations.
Instead we are fighting to prevent the ban being extended to other (outdoor) areas where there is not a shred of evidence of risk to by-standers.
Nevertheless, if Neil Hamilton's intervention encourages further debate in the run-up to the Welsh election in May it will have served some purpose.
I should perhaps add that the late Lord Harris, chairman of Forest from 1987 until his death in 2006, was a very good friend of Hamilton.
Admirably, he stood by him when the latter's political career went belly-up in the mid Nineties.
I knew about the 'fighting fund' Ralph set up to help Hamilton fight various legal battles. Until this morning however (when I Googled 'Lord Harris, Neil Hamilton') I was unaware of a letter he wrote to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards in February 1997.
It even includes a reference to Forest:
One among many libertarian causes Mr Hamilton and I share is upholding the rights of adult smokers. Indeed, I am chairman of Forest (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco) of which he has been a member for many years. Whatever view is taken of personal health risks, we believe it to be the hallmark of a free society that adults should be able to make up their own minds about such indulgences so long as no harm is caused to others.
Ralph's key point however was this:
I am therefore able to declare from direct knowledge over almost 30 years that he [Hamilton] has been unwaveringly consistent in the causes he has espoused and I know of no exceptions to that course of conduct.
Last week's policy announcement suggests that Harris was right. Hamilton is indeed "unwaveringly consistent", even when the 'cause' is the freedom to smoke, an issue on which few politicians are currently willing to stick out their necks.
Whatever your view of him (and opinions vary enormously), how many politicians can honestly say that?