Ahead of this the UK Government is launching a new series of hard hitting ads to promote the idea that smoking in front of other people is really not very nice - it is unsociable and down right poisenous. All true enough, and I doubt most right-minded people will have an issue with any of this. Certainly, medical experts have been hammering on about this for years. So that is that.
Out of curiosity, however, I thought I would wander across to the sites of ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) and their arch nemisis FOREST (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco).
ASH, of course, have picked up the story pretty quickly. News and Press reveals an active mixture of good news and bad news (Europe is being a pain) Stuff in their e-news section, etc etc. All more or less up to date. February the 14 was the last entry.
Now onto FOREST. The last entry under News was "California, EU, More Big Smoke Debates" Which is dated 30 April 2004. Up to date then. So, lets get onto Press Office - Seems like last January they were giving away 5 copies of Thank You For Smoking - a comedy about a Tobacco Industry Lobbyiest and there is a Press Release form November last year. Well, that is all wonderfully current!
I have to admit to being totally biased against the Tobacco Industry financed FOREST and their idiotic president Anthony Worral-thickhead-Thompson. The man is either completely blind to medical reality or has really been standing way too close to a microwave.
However, with any luck FOREST will continue to lose so much credibility that they will simply dissapear in a puff of noxious smoke. Going by how slow their site is, I am assuming they can no longer afford a decent server, so are probably on their way out anyway.
Nobody
EDIT: There are a couple of comments on this article from the PRO smoking lobby below - a group of desperate people who obviously have nothing better to do than seek out obscure blogs like mine and publish their idiocies on there. I could have removed their comments but chose to leave them included. However, I think it is fair to state how I view them:
I group these people with the many daft conspiracy theorists out there - Ignorant fools lead by Selfish people.
Read thier post, but please, don't support their rediculous sites.
