Forest@35 – morning after the night before
Wednesday, November 5, 2014 at 9:55 
That went pretty well.
Over 250 people registered to attend and despite the rain and the odd cancellation because of 'man flu' over 200 guests came to Forest's 35th anniversary party at Boisdale of Belgravia.
In other words, a full house.
Guests included at least six MPs. Brian Binley, Nigel Evans, Sir Greg Knight, David Nuttall, Ian Paisley and Laurence Robertson were the ones I saw and spoke to but there may have been more because twelve were on the registered guest list.
MPs' researchers were out in force and it was great to see representatives of various think tanks and pressure groups including the Adam Smith Institute, Institute of Economic Affairs, TaxPayers' Alliance, Parliament Street, The Bow Group and The Freedom Association.
Guido Fawkes (aka Paul Staines), "Britain's most popular political blogger", was there. Other bloggers included Dick Puddlecote, Chris Snowdon, Devil's Kitchen and Tom Paine (The Last Ditch).
Journalists included Tom Utley (Daily Mail) and Simon Hills (The Times), both of whom are old friends of Forest.
Simon has been writing for our Free Society website for six years (we're publishing a book of his articles shortly) and I first met Tom 13 years ago at an event hosted by the late Auberon Waugh and 'sponsored' by Forest in as far as we paid for the drinks.
Delighted too to see Joe Jackson, who flew in from Berlin. It's hard to read Joe sometimes but I think he enjoyed himself. He was still there when I left shortly after midnight!
In fact, six hours after the event began quite a few people seemed reluctant to go home, which was a good sign.
What I was most pleased about was the number of younger people, by which I mean people in their twenties and early thirties. I doubt many of them are smokers but they support our cause, which is encouraging.
Consequently the event highlighted the broad appeal of our message which, as someone tweeted this morning, is about one thing – choice.
Needless to say guests were far more interested in eating, drinking and smoking so we kept the speeches short. Brian Monteith (Forest's spokesman in Scotland before he became an MSP), Ranald Macdonald (owner of Boisdale) and Elise Rasmussen (publisher, Tobacco Reporter) had some nice things to say about Forest and I hope it wasn't too self-indulgent.
The heated smoking terrace was packed all night but those who chose to stay in the main restaurant had the benefit of being entertained by Hidden Charms, a young band I hope we hear a lot more from.
As always at Boisdale music was a feature of the event and in addition to the band we showed the Forest/King Kool video Buzzin Me. (Dan Donovan, who made the video, was also at Boisdale filming interviews for a short video of last night's event.)
Towards the close of the event we also played the Boisdale/Forest CD 'You Can't Do That! Songs For Swinging Smokers' recorded in 2007 and featuring the Boisdale Blue Rhythm Band.
I'll link to a gallery of photos later. Meanwhile here's a report in today's City AM:
Update: Just remembered - former LibDem MP Lembit Opik was there too.
Unusually for a Lib Dem Lembit is a genuine liberal. I didn't get a chance to speak to him but pictures of him at last night's event have been popping up on Twitter.
He appears to have had a good time!
Reader Comments (3)
Thank you for yet another great night Simon - we didn't get to talk but I did get to speak to most of the people you mention. Probably one of the best Forest Bashes I can remember.
Big congrats to Forest on 35th year going strong what would we smokers do without youse its a good job there's someone there still punching for smokers rights.
Congrats to Boisdale for keeping a heated smoking area going for us in this day and age of cow sheds.
Last but not least congrats to the hoi poloi of govt knobs who showed up to make a stand.
But where was Nigel?!!
Nigel was invited but sent his apologies because he had a prior commitment. I forgot to mention that Ukip MEP Tim Aker was there.