For some years Forest has used the expression "bully state" in preference to "nanny state".
In 2009, using The Free Society imprint, we even published a book by Brian Monteith entitled The Bully State: The End Of Tolerance.
Barely a week goes by without some new example of the "bully state" but, sadly, some of the worst cases are never publicised.
This is because the people who are being targeted are so intimidated, or fearful of the consequences of the story being made public, that they ask us not to make all the facts publicly available.
For example, there is a story I am not at liberty to tell about a leading blogger losing a "massive advertising contract" because he wrote a blogpost that was sympathetic to smokers.
It happened two years ago and even now I am sworn to secrecy. The identity of the advertiser was never revealed to me but I believe it was a member of the public health/tobacco control lobby.
Then there is the tale of freelance designer Dan Donovan. Unusually Dan is happy to go public with this story but he has asked me not to name names or be too specific.
Dan first worked for Forest in 2007. A few years ago, via a third party, he also did some work for an NHS Primary Care Trust. Proud of the work he had done for Forest and the NHS he added both bodies to the client list on his website.
Imagine his surprise when, a few weeks ago, he received a request – prompted by the work he had done on the Hands Off Our Packs campaign – to remove the reference to the NHS from his site. "Working for the NHS and then being funded, albeit indirectly, by the tobacco industry" represented a "conflict of interest", he was informed.
Effectively he was being asked to pretend that the work he had done in good faith in a professional capacity had never happened. Talk about re-writing history! It reminds you of those old Soviet photographs in which out-of-favour officials were quietly erased, never to be seen again.
No doubt Dan has been blacklisted by the NHS, the Department of Health and other tobacco control organisations. The man is a professional designer, for heaven's sake! He should be able to work for anyone, within reason, without it harming his job prospects.
As an aside, it demonstrates the extent to which people who have worked - even on an occasional basis - for groups such as Forest are being monitored by the tobacco control industry. A clearer example of a Big Brother state is hard to imagine.
Furthermore, I wonder how many companies, including top design agencies, will think twice about opposing plain packaging of tobacco for fear of losing a contract with the NHS or some other state-funded body.
What this suggests is that bullying, intimidation and censorship are now standard practise for Tobacco Control.
Yet, hilariously, it is they who squeal "foul" if Forest – or members of the public – question their methods, which include the use of public money to manipulate the outcome of a major public consultation.
In their eyes they are the innocent "victims" of "sabotage" and I suspect that they truly believe it, so warped is their current mindset.
In the meantime keep those stories coming. One day all will be revealed, in detail. Watch this space.