Wanted - writers for The Free Society

Many thanks to Tom Miers for editing The Free Society website for the past two years.

In January Tom took up a new position as director of the Brussels-based think tank New Direction. Last week, as arranged, he stepped down as editor of The Free Society to concentrate on his new role.

The Free Society was set up by Forest in 2007 after the introduction of the smoking ban. The reasoning behind it was that we had to reach out to non-smokers (especially those who welcomed the ban) and explain that excessive regulation would almost certainly follow in areas such as food and drink.

(See The politics of health: is food the new tobacco?. This was based on a speech I gave to an ASI conference as long ago as 2004. Further articles on food and drink can be found, not surprisingly, in the Food and Drink section.)

Inspired by the Centre for Consumer Freedom in America, food and drink (and tobacco) were going to be our core concerns but very quickly we started to address other issues - taxation, surveillance, free speech etc.

In conjunction with The Freedom Association, The Free Society and Forest were responsible for launching The Freedom Zone at the Conservative party conference in 2008. To emphasise our concerns we added the strap line 'Putting individual freedom at the top of the political agenda'.

In collaboration with like-minded groups and organisations such as the Adam Smith Institute, Institute of Economic Affairs, Manifesto Club, Liberty League, Big Brother Watch and Privacy International – The Free Society then organised a series of debates in London in 2010 and 2011 and called it Voices of Freedom.

At last year's Conservative conference in Birmingham The Free Society hosted (with Forest) the first Liberty Lounge. Also with Forest, The Free Society was co-host for The Freedom Dinner.

Forest will continue to support The Free Society project. To justify its existence however it does need to raise its profile.

We are therefore going to publish a book, a compilation of articles posted on The Free Society website.

We will also be tweeting far more frequently. Tweets will include links to new posts so they are promoted to politicians, journalists and broadcasters as well as the wider public.

The Free Society will also co-host (with Forest) The Freedom Dinner 2013 and I hope contributors will join us for that.

Meanwhile I am grateful to everyone who has supported the project. Unfortunately, with very limited resources, it has struggled to find either a voice or an audience.

To develop it further and give it a new lease of life we need more writers and commentators.

We welcome both articles (500-800 words) and shorter posts (300-500 words). For further information email contact@thefreesociety.org.

PS. I have just posted a short piece about smoking in cars. See: Why a ban on smoking in cars would be a drag.