Pleased to announce that Forest will be hosting two fringe events at the Conservative conference in Birmingham.
The first, ‘Should smoking be consigned to history?’, is the first time Forest has shared a platform with Philip Morris since the tobacco company announced that it wanted to stop selling cigarettes in the UK by 2030.
Chaired by Claire Fox, director of the Academy of Ideas and a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4’s The Moral Maze, panellists are me, Mark MacGregor (Philip Morris UK), Rae Maile (Cenkos Securities) and Chris Snowdon (Institute of Economic Affairs).
The second event is a reprise of the debate we hosted at the IEA in London last year. Subject: ’The most pleasurable nicotine delivery device in the world’.
Is it the combustible cigarette? Or the cigar? The pipe, perhaps? Or maybe it’s snus (still illegal to sell in the UK) or that new kid on the block, the e-cigarette.
Contestants on Tuesday October 2 include Claire Fox, Madeline Grant (IEA), political consultant and former MSP Brian Monteith, parliamentary researcher Mark Oates, and James Price (TaxPayers Alliance).
Austin Court, the venue for both meetings, is outside the secure zone so everyone is welcome to join us, no passes required.
Should be fun.
