Ealing North
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Steve Pound MP Ealing North |
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How One Vote Has Changed My LifeMarch 2006 - Gazette Article Don’t look for consistency with politicians! Tuesday 14th.February saw the Great Smoking Debate in the House and I made a fairly passionate speech in favour of a partial smoking ban. This was the position on which I fought the last election and I suppose I was duty bound to stick to the manifesto promise. It seemed reasonable to me that some bars could allow smoking and others could ban it – I even defended this position in the “Gazette”. However; on the night of the vote I actually felt the argument falling away from the proponents of the partial ban. I just couldn’t argue against the awful truth that while the individual has every right to kipper their lungs there is no right to inflict the same on people who work in clubs and bars. Having voted as promised I went back to my fetid smokey office where I lit up and decided that enough was enough. I put the fag out and chucked away all the packets that were littering the room and I haven’t smoked since. To go from fifty a day to zero has been amazingly easy – and bear in mind that I’d been smoking since I was ten years old. Ealing Primary Care Trust have a brilliant smoking cessation scheme and there is a world of support out there for anyone who wants to stop poisoning themself. My worst mistake was to switch straight from gaspers to gum and I went through what seemed like tons of the stuff with the result that my jaw locked up and all my fillings came out. The Smoking Cessation Clinic rode to the rescue and introduced me to super strength nicotine lozenges, which I can pop in my mouth when I feel temptation. I can highly recommend them and the new fillings inserted by the wonderful Julie Chang are still in place. I’m sure that there will be times when I’ll miss my constant companion of forty-seven years but, at the moment, I delighted to be shot of an expensive, lethal and increasingly anti-social habit. I am also discovering what I last experienced in the 1950s – that food has taste. As someone whose diet consisted almost entirely of coffee and Cornish pasties bought from the Wild Bean at 2am I have just experienced the extraordinary sensation of eating something called a salad – and enjoying it! I’ve even decided to give away my cherished solid brass Zippo lighter emblazoned with the crest of HMS Grafton – in whose decontamination locker I once puffed my way through packs of duty frees. I appreciate that there is a down side to this sea change in my personal habits but I hope that political opponents will not be too distressed by the fact that I might live a little longer. On the plus side I can report that I’m saving over £10 a day and that I’ve finally done something to make the kids proud of me. I’m not going to turn into an evangelical anti-smoker but anyone who still smokes should accept that if I can give up then anyone can! |
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| Disclaimer | Copyright | Designed by Bassam Mahfouz. Promoted by Julian Bell, The Labour Party, Ruskin Hall, 16 Church Road, W3 8PP on behalf of Steve Pound MP |
