The nanny state we’re in
Tuesday, August 4, 2020 at 16:52 
We have an impressive panel of speakers for the next Forest webinar on Monday August 10.
Claire Fox (shortly to become Baroness Fox) needs little introduction to readers of this blog. Former publisher of Living Marxism, she subsequently founded both the Academy of Ideas and the annual Battle of Ideas festival.
Last year she stood for election to the European Parliament as a member of the Brexit Party and served as an MEP from May 2019 to January 2020 when the UK left the European Union.
Claire appears regularly on TV and radio programmes such as Newsnight, Politics Live, Any Questions and The Moral Maze.
I’m delighted that she will be joined by Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle, aka Natalie Bennett (above), former leader of the Green Party (2012-2016).
Prior to becoming a politician, Natalie worked as a journalist for The Times and the Bangkok Post. She currently writes a weekly column for the Left Foot Forward blog and in a recent article she argued that Boris Johnson's obesity strategy 'lacks ambition and urgency'.
Speaking in the House of Lords last month she also called on the Government to introduce "emergency legislation to bring in a smoke-free 2030 fund".
Another guest speaker is Brian Monteith. Like Claire, Brian was briefly an MEP but long before that he was a member of the Scottish Parliament (1999-2006).
A former spokesman for Forest in Scotland, Brian has written 'The Bully State: The End of Tolerance' (2009) and 'The McNanny State: How Scotland is becoming a puritan's playpen' (2018). He currently writes a weekly column for the Scotsman.
Next week's event will be chaired by Rob Lyons, former deputy editor of Spiked and author of ‘Panic on a Plate: How Society Developed An Eating Disorder’ so expect a lively debate and some forthright views.
I do hope you can join us. To register click here.
Update: Pleased to add that we will also be joined by Tam Fry, spokesperson for the National Obesity Forum.
Reader Comments (2)
Can we smoke during this meeting?
It’s online, if you’re in your own home it’s entirely up to you!