A tale of two events: "decent humans" versus "whey-faced drones"

Postscript to last week's Forest party.

Dick Puddlecote and the Random Vaper have written two very similar accounts which is hardly surprising because they arrived together, hot foot from another (very different) event.

I urge you to read both articles because they are equally illuminating:

From the ridiculous to the sublime (Random Vaper)
A funny thing happened on the way to Boisdales (Dick Puddlecote)

In his post DP records the breathtakingly arrogant assertion by "whey-faced drones" that public health campaigners are driven by "moral" rather than "financial" reward:

Apparently, anti-smoking NGOs do it all for the love and don't get paid a penny (splutter), while those working in the tobacco industry earn a fortune and "have no morals whatsoever". None of them.

He later repeats this comment by the Random Vaper, aka Sarah J:

The comparison between the two events I attended yesterday could not be more extreme. At the first there were the ideological rantings of those who think it their place to control how we all live, what risks we take, how we balance risk against pleasure, and who are conceited enough to believe that their own war on the tobacco industry trumps all other interests. At the second were people who were happy to enjoy life to the full, and just want to be left alone to do so. I know whose company I prefer.

Fellow blogger Tom Paine, who was also at the Forest party, adds this comment to DP's post:

You shame me by continuing to expose yourself to the secondary smugness of these authoritarians, while I have retired from the fray to dedicate myself to pleasure. Keep up the good work Mr P. It was a pleasure to see you and have a chat in a room full of decent humans.

So on the one hand we have "authoritarians", "ideological rantings" and "whey-faced drones". On the other we have "decent humans" and "I know whose company I prefer".

There's a theme developing here but I'll leave the final comment to Brian Monteith, one of three speakers at the Forest party.

As he was leaving Brian told our roving cameraman:

[Tonight] was all about freedom, choice and enjoying yourselves. And of course the people who like to stop us, those public health commissars, they have no sense of fun. This was all about a fun evening and we all chose to have fun. It was brilliant.

I'll post a short video of the event tomorrow. As well as Brian's contribution it includes comments by Joe Jackson, Ranald Macdonald (MD of Boisdale), and Conservative MP Brian Binley.