Yesterday afternoon Forest and The Free Society hosted a two-hour event – The Liberty Lounge – in the Symphony Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
Knowing that many people would have been too busy for lunch, we sold the event with the line 'Free food, free drinks, free speech'. In practise that meant biscuits, sandwiches and cream cakes, plus a selection of drinks including beer, wine, tea and coffee.
That seemed to do the trick because the room was soon full of people eating, drinking and talking. To create a suitably lively atmosphere we also played the Forest/Boisdale CD, You Can't Do That! Songs For Swinging Smokers, over the PA system.
The discussion part of the event was compered by writer and comedian Timandra Harkness who began by introducing her short film, Your Days Are Numbered: The Maths of Death. She then introduced the first team of panellists: David Nuttall (MP for Bury North and a great friend of Forest), Angela Harbutt (Hands Off Our Packs) and me.
We were each invited to speak for up to five minutes and it was while Angela was talking (telling the audience how much she enjoys smoking, drinking, gambling and having sex) that the PA system briefly went into meltdown. In fact, I got such a shock from the sudden howl of feedback that I spilled tea all over my notes (and my trousers).
Part one ('The War on Tobacco') concluded with another video, Plain Packaging? No Minister!, which got quite a few laughs.
Part two ('Food, drink and other lifestyle issues') introduced the audience to our second team of speakers – Rob Lyons (author, Panic On A Plate), Chris Snowdon (The Art of Suppression) and John O'Connell (TaxPayers Alliance).
If the meeting had a weakness it was perhaps a little too long. Another problem was that all six speakers (and most of the audience) were largely in agreement with one another, which didn't really lend itself to a vociferous or argumentative debate.
There were a couple of people – both doctors – who didn't agree with us, but they were far too polite!
Truth is, we invited speakers from ASH, Alcohol Concern and other similar groups, but they all declined to take part. If people don't want to engage in serious debate, what can you do?
Overall it was a reasonably successful event and I know how to improve it next year.
Tonight we are co-hosting a drinks reception for MPs, parliamentary researchers and other delegates. But first I am going to hear my friend Deborah Arnott of ASH address the subject 'Does Prohibition Ever Work?'.
Also speaking is Alex Deane, head of public affairs at Weber Shandwick and former director of Big Brother Watch. If I'm not mistaken, Alex is also a former debating champion and if he has a fault it's a tendency to bully those he's debating with.
Should be fun.