We are here because we care! Yesterday, Monday the 13th of September, I got such a call from Gill, a researcher from BBC radio two who asked me if I would like to talk on the Jeremy Vine radio show about the apparent u-turn at the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital. (They had dismantled smoking shelters at the hospital but are now forced to re-introduce them because...)
Not being the best of speakers, although I try, I looked around my F2C contacts book to find the best spokesperson and Dave Atherton instantly came across my mind as he is the official spokesperson for Freedom To Choose and has a wealth of knowledge about smoking, the health benefits thereof or not and has an all round sensible knowledge about the subject. Being the gentleman that he is, and is not a man that likes the sound of his own voice, unlike many an anti smoker who pervades the airwaves on the subject of smoking, he suggested Eddie Dowthwaite, Chairman of Freedom2Choose (Scotland) as a worthy commenter as he has most experience on the subject of hospital smoking bans, unfortunately Eddie had prior commitments and could not do the interview at that time.
Now it could be concluded that I was scratching around for a spokesperson to give the smokers point of view but that couldn’t be further from the truth, I had too many people to choose from and I had to make a decision, a Freedom of Choice decision, as to who can best talk to the anti smoking fraternity in their own vernacular.
Stepping up to the breech was the esteemed author Rich White, author of The Truth about Tobacco fame and a blog writer.
On the following recording you will hear a commentator, a fireman no less, say that the Ninewells hospital fire was caused by a dirty, filthy smoker, oh, the anti smoker’s are ready with there anti smoking rhetoric before they know the facts, their hatred of us knows no bounds.
In the interview you will hear subtle ‘hate’ words, words like “these people” and “they abuse hospital staff!” You are not a name anymore if you are a hospitalised smoker, you are ‘they!’
Listen to Rich White’s account of the treatment his grandmother got, a cancer victim, when she was wheeled out into the rain to have a smoke, it is disgusting to say the least.
And yes, they do play, ironically, Elvis’s You Are Always On My Mind.
2 comments:
Just for the record, is this the Ninewells fire which was actually caused by a faulty light fitting according to the BBC?
Yup DP, that's the one.
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