AmendTheSmokingBan.com

This page was archived on 14 January 2020 and is not actively maintained

Save Our Pubs & Clubs: AmendTheSmokingBan.com was a “coalition of groups and individuals who believe that the public smoking ban introduced in Scotland in 2006 and the rest of the United Kingdom in 2007 is excessive and should be amended”.¹
Its director was Simon Clark, who is also the director of Forest, which gets most of its funding from the tobacco industry.² The Save Our Pubs and Clubs campaign was actually run by Forest as well. The contact phone number for the campaign listed on its (now defunct) website – 01223 370156 – is exactly the same as the office number for Forest – 01223 370156.¹³

Affiliations

The AmendTheSmokingBan website listed the following partners:¹

• Forest
• Working Mens Clubs and Institute Union
• Progressive Vision
• Adam Smith Institute (which has a history of taking tobacco industry money)
• Manifesto Club

Supporters

The organisation’s website also lists the following ‘celebrity supporters’:

• David Hockney, artist
• Joe Jackson, musician
• Antony Worrall Thompson, TV chef and publican

All three are high-profile supporters of Forest.⁴
One of the seven bloggers who “support” the campaign is Taking Liberties, which is run by the Forest director Simon Clark.

Funding

Although no specific funders of AmendTheSmokingBan.com were named on the website while it was active, the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section of the Forest website says that the majority of its funding is provided by UK tobacco companies.³

Event at House of Commons, June 2011

The Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign organised an event at the House of Commons to mark the fourth anniversary of the smoking ban in England. Speakers included:

• Greg Knight Conservative MP for East Yorkshire
• Roger Godsiff, Labour MP for Birmingham Hall Green
• John Hemming, Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley

Other MPs in attendance included:

• Nigel Adams, Conservative MP for Selby and Ainsty in North Yorkshire;
• Alun Cairns, Conservative MP for the Vale of Glamorgan
• Therese Coffey, Conservative MP for Suffolk Coast
• Jackie Doyle-Price, Conservative MP for Thurrock
• Roger Gale, Conservative MP for Thanet North
• Caroline Nokes, Conservative MP for Romsey and Southampton North
• David Nuttall, former Conservative MP for Bury North
• Laurence Robertson, Conservative MP for Tewkesbury
• Mike Weatherley, former Conservative MP for Hove and Portslade
• Phil Wilson, former Labour MP for Sedgefield.⁵

Simon Clark, from Forest and former director of Save Our Pubs & Clubs, said: “Campaigners said they want a review of the ban and an amendment to the legislation that would give pubs and private members’ clubs the option of having separate, well-ventilated smoking rooms. The Government should review the ban and consider a change in the law that would allow separate smoking rooms in pubs and clubs.”⁶
Prominent pro-tobacco activists who attended included:

• Eamonn Butler, Adam Smith Institute
• Dan Hamilton, formerly of Big Brother Watch
• Alex Deane, FTI Consulting and formerly of Bell Pottinger, Weber Shandwick and Big Brother Watch
• Mark Littlewood, Institute of Economic Affairs
• Angela Harbutt, Institute of Economic Affairs and formerly of Liberal Vision
• Nick Hogan⁷