Beer and burgers in Brussels
Saturday, December 9, 2017 at 9:38 
Just back from Brussels.
On Thursday I joined 45,000 pro-Catalan protestors marching in support of independence.
Just kidding.
The weather was foul and nothing would have tempted me to take to the streets.
Instead I spent most of the afternoon in a meeting. When it finished I checked in to my hotel before getting a taxi to Be Burger, venue for the third in a series of ‘Burning Issues’ dinners organised by Forest EU.
As the name suggests, Be Burger is a restaurant specialising in, er, burgers - albeit a large and luxury version of the popular delicacy.
The format of these events is simple. Guests are invited to enjoy a complimentary burger (with chips) and a bottle or two of beer.
Last night, in keeping with the season, the restaurant also provided a small vat of mulled wine.
While guests eat and drink our speaker talks for 15 or 20 minutes. That’s followed by a short Q&A.
After that we stand around chatting until the booze runs out. We then totter off into the night, or the bistro next door.
Speakers at the first two dinners in Brussels were Dr Neil McKeganey, director of the Centre for Substance Use Research, who talked about his report, ‘The Pleasure of Smoking: the views of confirmed smokers’, and Claire Fox, director of the Institute of Ideas, who reprised a subject she addressed at another Forest event in Dublin in May, ‘Is health the new religion?’.
Last night it was the turn of Sinclair Davidson, professor of Institutional Economics at RMIT University in Melbourne and an honorary senior fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs in Australia.
Sinclair is an increasingly familiar face at tobacco-related events worldwide. I first met him in Chicago in 2015 where I had dinner with him and his wife Dominique (Dom).
Last year I particularly enjoyed his speech at the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum in Brussels when his gently humorous tone was a welcome antidote to some of the more corporate speeches.
The subject of his talk on Thursday was ‘How to torture data to justify public policy’. In hindsight it didn’t really lend itself to a lighter approach so - rightly, I think - Sinclair played it fairly straight.
Plain packaging featured heavily because, it could be argued, few policies have been introduced (and justified) with so little evidence that it actually works.
Having written several papers on the subject, Sinclair is one of Australia’s leading voices on plain packaging. On Thursday however his greatest feat was simply turning up.
Truth is, he had no plans to be in Brussels this month. Our paths crossed at GTNF in New York in September and he mentioned he was taking a few weeks off in December to visit Europe with his wife.
He told me they were staying in Paris for a few days and I asked him if he would interrupt his holiday to speak in Brussels.
He agreed. What he didn’t tell me was that December 7, the most suitable date, was Dom’s birthday.
So not only did he interrupt his holiday, he also left his wife in another city on her birthday. Brave man!
The real drama though was getting a message at 4.30pm that said he was still in Paris where his train to Brussels had been “delayed”.
At that point I seriously thought I might have to speak myself. Thankfully all was well and the train arrived in Brussels at 6.00, 30 minutes before the event was due to start.
Thanks, Sinclair, you almost gave me a heart attack.
Thanks too to Guillaume Perigois, director of Forest EU, who organised another successful evening - 64 guests, many of them attending their first Forest EU event.
Sadly, owing to the weather (it never stopped raining), our smoking area was entirely redundant - despite the lighting and heaters Guillaume hired for the occasion.
Viewed through the floor to ceiling glass doors it looked nice, though.
Reader Comments (3)
The endless rain rendering the smoking area useless aptly describes why indoor smoking areas are needed.
Sadly, owing to the weather (it never stopped raining), our smoking area was entirely redundant
Aww, Simon! You missed a trick there! You should have got some umbrellas printed with the new Forest logo and given them out as freebies to any smokers wanting to use the area! In fact, if the restaurant wants to get itself some low-cost advertising, it should do the same – free gifts for their smoking customers and mobile publicity to boot. What’s not to like?
Thank God for coffee and cigarettes! I count on these to be an honest, productive worker and volunteer!