Accidents of timing

Two weeks ago Forest hosted a panel discussion at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

The title, 'Smoking Gun: The Infantilisation of Britain', was actually chosen six months earlier for an event we hosted at the IEA.

Although the conversation had moved on, with the Government announcing what seemed to be a relatively liberal and sensible approach to tobacco control, we nevertheless kept the title for Manchester because it still felt relevant.

As it turns out - and as Benjamin Elks of the TaxPayers Alliance pointed out in a blogpost last week - Forest’s fringe event in the Think Tent suddenly looked rather prescient.

And here’s another accident of timing. At the end of the month I shall be speaking at the annual Battle of Ideas in London.

The subject, ‘Freedom: Up In Smoke?', may sound like a reaction to Rishi Sunak’s recent policy announcement, but it’s actually the title of a short essay I wrote for the Academy of Ideas, organisers of the Battle of Ideas, in July, long before the prime minister u-turned on tobacco policy.

It’s one of a series of pocket-sized pamphlets that are collectively called Letters on Liberty. The first three were published in December 2020 and they have been appearing at regular intervals, three at a time, ever since.

When ‘Freedom: Up In Smoke?' is published with two other Letters it will bring the number up to 36.

Copies will be available at the Battle of Ideas but for those who can't join us at Church House, Westminster, on October 29 there may be another event next month to mark its publication. Watch this space.