I am pleased to report that Stephen Williams MP has agreed to take part in a debate on plain packaging.
You may recall that following the launch of Plain Packs Protect in January the MP for Bristol West, who is chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, wrote a blog on the subject.
In the ensuing uproar (over 1300 comments were posted on his blog alone) Williams invited Forest to "rise to the challenge".
I took this at face value and invited him to take part in a public debate. He accepted on condition that the debate was organised by a third party - a think tank or university debating society.
As luck would have it, the University of Bristol Debating Society has decided to organise a discussion entitled 'Plain packaging: sensible health policy or nanny state nonsense?
Speakers currently include me, Chris Snowdon and ... Stephen Williams.
The event takes place on Thursday May 10 at the Faculty of Arts. Members of the public are welcome so if you live near Bristol do please come. More details on this Facebook event page.