MP gives up - a fight against fags

After 47 years, Ealing North MP Steve Pound has given up smoking. He is writing a diary of his highs and lows for the BBC News website.

ANOTHER TWO WEEKS

Free of carbon monoxide... and several fillings

A strange and mysterious message reaches me from a keen and valued staff member, Bassam Mahfouz.

He is suffering from passive smoking withdrawal.

Working with me during the 50-a-day years had apparently given him a nicotine habit without his knowledge.

Either that or it was a bloody good excuse for going sick.

The odd thing about being a non-smoker is that the physical craving is far, far less than the prompting of habit.

Every time I answer a telephone I still reach for a fag.

I suspect it will take many years for me to gaze into a rich black glass of Guinness without putting down a mental cigarette before taking that first deep swallow.

I probably didn't choose the optimum time for ditching the snout as I always give up alcohol for Lent and have thus had neither since Ash Wednesday (or no-ash Wednesday, as I now call it).

In fact, if I go on at this rate I'll have to take up some new and exotic vice in order to have something to give up in the future.

A word of advice to the prospective non-smoker: don't go mad on the gum like I did.

I quite accept that I could become an evangelical anti-smoking bore but I actually still enjoy the company of smokers and rather appreciate the vicarious hit that I get when walking into a smoky pub.

Apart from the fillings going AWOL, I'm suffering from jaw-ache and a badly bruised tongue.

You would expect parliamentary colleagues to be a little understanding but one - Jenkin, B - complained to the deputy speaker on a point of order last week that I was breaching the rule that bans consumption in the chamber by chewing the gum.

I admitted to the solitary vice of mastication as part of my efforts to become weed-free. I suspect that Sylvia Heal had a little sympathy for me.

March 8th was National No Smoking Day and I usually mark this by ostentatious puffing in public.

This year I staffed a smoking cessation stall outside Tesco in Perivale and successfully avoided the temptation to be smug.

I did, however, have a lung-function test and am completely free of carbon monoxide - glory be!

I quite accept that I could become an evangelical anti-smoking bore but I actually still enjoy the company of smokers and rather appreciate the vicarious hit that I get when walking into a smoky pub.

However, I feel pity - not envy.

Day 28:

Cigarettes - nil

Withdrawal symptoms - none

Fillings dislodged by constant chewing - five