At risk of appearing to jump on the bandwagon, I’d like to add my voice to those applauding the comments of actor Laurence Fox on Question Time on Thursday.
To be honest, I rarely watch the programme any more. I gave up watching it regularly a long time ago, and I say that as someone who used to view it religiously and was in the audience several times back in the day when it was chaired by the late great Robin Day.
Today I’ll watch it only if someone I’ve met or have a specific interest in is on the panel. This week two guests met those criteria.
Madeline Grant worked for the IEA before joining the Telegraph. A former smoker, she took part in a balloon debate organised by Forest at the Tory party conference in 2018 and was a guest at our 40th anniversary dinner last year.
I’ve never met Fox (although I did spot him when I was in the departure lounge at Corfu Airport last October!) but his smoking has been well-documented – and noted by Forest – for at least a decade.
In 2010 I defended him and his ex-wife Billie Piper when they were accused of putting their young son’s health at risk by allegedly blowing smoke in his face in a pub garden.
It was nonsense, of course. Aside from the fact that they were outside, in the open air, the photos - taken from afar - gave the misleading impression Piper was smoking much closer to the child than she actually was.
Nevertheless it didn’t stop those pious zealots at ASH from piling in. Director of research Martin Dockrell, who now champions tobacco control from his pulpit at Public Health England, commented:
‘There are two good reasons not to smoke in front of children.
'First, especially in enclosed areas second-hand smoke seriously damages a child's health and even risks causing a cot death.
'The second reason is that the more a child sees adults around them smoking the more likely they are to try smoking themselves as they get older.
'In fact only one in five adults smokes but children often overestimate this and the more they do, the more they are likely to smoke themselves.'
Since then most reports and interviews with Fox seemed to feature some reference to smoking, hence my interest. In 2015, for example, he told the Telegraph:
“I thought I’d wean myself off by smoking roll-ups. Then someone suggested liquorice Rizla papers and Golden Virginia tobacco, and I realised not only did I not want to quit, but I’d found the perfect cigarettes.”
Paradoxically, when asked by the Guardian last month what his most ‘unappealing habit’ was, he replied, “Smoking.”
A day or two later I stumbled upon his Twitter account.
Following him on social media felt like joining an elite but fun club but the truth is I was late to the party. His anti-woke views had been reported and commented upon for some time. I just hadn’t noticed.
Anyway, when I saw he was appearing on Question Time I made a mental note not to miss it. And I’m glad I did because there were some great moments, most of them courtesy of Fox whose contributions were, as many people have said, a “breath of fresh air”.
They were also a model of brevity. The last Question Time guest I can recall giving such pithy answers to questions was the ASI’s Madsen Pirie who would speak for no more than 15 or 20 seconds, leaving everyone else looking ridiculously long-winded. It probably explains why Madsen hasn’t appeared on the programme for the best part of two decades.
Anyway, it must be said that while Fox has grabbed all the headlines - and rightly so - Madeline Grant played a blinder too.
Unconsciously, perhaps, they were the perfect tag team, Grant’s more analytical responses complementing Fox’s blunt and increasingly acerbic tone. It was amusing too to see a picture of them enjoying an after show drink with a smiling Fiona Bruce. Naturally, that wound up the conspiracy theorists even more.
(As an aside, government minister Helen Whately owes Fox a huge debt of gratitude. Without him her cringeworthy performance would be the talk of Westminster. A penny for Boris Johnson’s thoughts. The forthcoming cabinet reshuffle may tell us more.)
Anyway, since Thursday night Fox’s followers on Twitter have shot up from 60k to (at the time of writing) 116k which leaves me with mixed feelings. On one hand it’s good that his not unreasonable views have found a receptive audience.
On the other hand it’s like following a band that enjoys a cult following and then has a big hit, attracting lots of fair-weather fans. The secret is out and our semi-private passion will never be the same again.
Actor @LozzaFox jokes about the hypocrisy of many celebrities, who create a “huge carbon footprint” by taking flights. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/6xqZyfsdfW
— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) January 16, 2020