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Claiming that this loon who got 8 votes is a barometer of support for anything has to be the most feeble attempt yet from F2C to explain why there is so little support for overturning the ban. Can you REALLY not do any better. To come back to the point I made at the start of the thread - all the evidence points to there only being a TINY proportion of the smoking population of 15 million actually being bothered enough about it to vote. There are not 15 million angry smokers out there, it looks like there are 70,000 angry smokers and 14,930,000 smokers who are happy, indifferent, or apathetic about the ban. And before you say it, nobody in their right mind would expect these 14,930,000 people to turn out and vote for Tony Farnon (except perhaps F2C as a means of diverting attention away from Hamish and his 91 votes)

I waited for the spin, it took a lot longer and then it came. It wasn't very good. Tony Parsons doesn't seem to be anti-smoking - he looks like someone trying to sell something, possibly a stop smoking system, but his website doesn't work. His statement was "I believe that everyone should have the opportunity of living and developing in freedom as long as they do not injure the freedom of others. State control should be limited to promoting this ideal through all its points of contact with society, especially in the educational, legal and financial systems." Hamish's statement " my politics are i'm old Labour i see new Labour as new Tory, i see the three main parties completely out of touch with the people. luvvie dovies pampering to the politicaly correct. the smoking ban is one example of many a law of oppression that creates apathy and social exclusion for the working classes and under classes. the traditional british independent pub as we know it will be a museum piece. a pub is a hub of political and social debate not parliament or the lords. The elderly and handicapped are to frightened and proud to be paraded like animals in a zoo outside what once were the best pubs in the world. I'm fighting to save the pub and give choice." And the best spin anyone can come up with was a vote for Parsons was a vote against smoking. And he didn't get many so people must love smoking. Feeble. You surely can do beter than that. Where were all the angry smokers who hate the ban? Alan

Terry Hamish received 91 votes out of an electorate of 70,264. If you scale that up to the English population of 50 million, it equates to 65,000 people who would be behind him. The rest of the 15 million you talk about don't seem to be that bothered. Before anyone comes out with the 'smokers are afraid/too lazy/too apathetic to vote' argument, remember he was beaten by 5 independents plus the New Party, Monster Raving Looney Party, Miss Great Britain Party, National Front, English Democrats and the Green Party as well as David Davis. He polled only 3 times as many votes as the bloke who was trying to get no votes at all. I keep saying that the people on here who think there is massive opposition to the ban are deluding themselves, and here is another example of just how little opposition there is. I look forward to the F2C spin and associated insults. Alan

Colin So you agree the F2C interpretation of the HSE document is a wild misrepresentation? Alan

Bill   Meanwhile in the Henley by election, only about 850 people voted for the UKIP candidate.   UKIP are the only party who have said they would amend the smoking ban.   There are 69,000 voters in the constituency   Even Labour beat them!   Alan