Preparing to smoke on the water
Wednesday, June 20, 2012 at 10:39
Simon Clark

Tonight's Smoke On The Water boat party is fully subscribed.

Almost 300 people have registered for this annual event which this year is being held to mark the fifth anniversary of the smoking ban in England. We'll also be inviting people to sign the Hands Off Our Packs petition.

Tonight's guests include people from all parts of the Westminster village. High profile think tanks and other libertarian pressure groups will be represented. There will be parliamentary researchers, libertarian bloggers and several MPs.

Guest speaker is David Nuttall, Conservative MP for Bury North. In October 2010 David proposed a 10-minute rule bill in a bid to overturn the ban. It failed but the 86 MPs who supported it demonstrated the strength of feeling that the ban still provoked, even in Parliament.

We've hired a steel band and drinks will be free for the first hour when the boat will be static at Westminster Pier.

After that we will cruise down river towards Canary Wharf where the boat will turn around. Guests will disembark at Festival Pier at 10.15.

If previous years are anything to go by, the party will then continue in one of the many bars on the South Bank ...

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