Stand up for smokers' rights
Monday, October 3, 2011 at 12:28 
Looking forward to seeing some of you at The Comedy Store in Manchester tomorrow.
Stand Up For Liberty! follows our hugely successful event at the Labour conference in Liverpool last week. (That's something I didn't expect to write!) Ed Miliband's Parliamentary Private Secretary even described it as "The best event of the conference".
Anyway, tomorrow's fringe event at the Conservative conference is another first – a drinks reception followed by 60 minutes' of stand-up comedy.
This afternoon we are also hosting a panel discussion (Civil Liberties Up in Smoke: what are smokers' rights in a free society?) in the Barbirolli Room at the Bridgewater Hall.
This is a re-run of the Voices of Freedom debate in London in June that coincided with the publication of the Privacy International report Civil Liberties: Up In Smoke.
Chairman is Mark Littlewood of the Institute of Economic Affairs and panellists are Peter Hitchens (Mail on Sunday), Dan Hamilton (Big Brother Watch), Chris Snowdon (Velvet Glove Iron Fist) and me.
Reader Comments (4)
Good luck. If it wasn't for work, I'd be there.
One thought on "Smokers' Rights". It's often been said that smokers do not have any rights because smoking is a choice (although lifelong smokers would have issue with that). However, if there is such a thing as "Non-Smokers' Rights" which are recognised then there must be "Smokers Rights" because you cannot have one without the other.
It's like saying Catholics have rights, but Protestants do not - especially those who "choose" to be.
Please tell me that you're videoing this and it'll be up on You Tube soon.
What a tremendous evening Simon, another Forest triumph. Me and Liz B has such a good time, as I twittered later "bar till 3, foyer to 4, train at 5.00am, desk at 8.50. Will I sleep well tonight after the Forest party."
as a smoker I believe that is totally right taht people who don't smoke have a spece totally free from our smoke, also I think that we the smokers need a place to smoke without annoying anyone, also we deserve a special amount of Generic Viagra, just in emergency case.