Nowhere to smoke in 2016? Try Brighton beach

Cheer up; 2015 wasn’t all doom and gloom from tobacco’s point of view.

The UK’s pro-smoker group Forest (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Tobacco) describes in a round-up of the year how it, its supporters and others were successful in defeating a proposal that would have seen smoking banned on the beaches and parks of Brighton, a town on the south coast.

Ordinarily, such a proposal would have been expected to cruise into the expanding rule book that controls modern life.

Forest’s director, Simon Clark, was quoted by a local paper as saying that there was no justification for banning smoking in the open air. There was no risk to anyone else’s health and the inconvenience to non-smokers was usually minimal or non-existent, he said.

Of course, this was a victory amongst a number of losses, notably including the passing of legislation that will require that tobacco products are sold in the UK only in standardized packs.

But what the round-up shows is that, importantly, there is a well-organized (though probably under-funded) group with good connections to the general media trying to get the message of the ordinary smoker across to those in authority and anybody else who is willing to listen. And, occasionally it makes a difference.

The round-up concerns only the UK, but many of the issues raised are those being faced in other countries around the world.

The round-up, and a peek at 2016, can be accessed here: http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=1030eb36d388dac8b85eb0ab8&id=54295aed9f&e=ffdfbf2691.