The Hayek Society at the London School of Economics is marking No Smoking Day with a special event this evening.
'Nicotine Wars: Fight For Choice' is an 'in conversation' style event featuring me, Chris Snowdon, and Reem Ibrahim, a final year student at the LSE who was recently appointed communications officer at the IEA.
Non-students are welcome so if you live or work in London and would like to come along, click here to register.
After the main event we shall be heading to a local pub for free drinks so do join us.
This is the first student event I've spoken at for a while. (The last time was on Zoom in 2020 when I spoke to the Students for Liberty group in Cardiff.)
I have happy memories of speaking to the Durham Union Society (Libertarians 1-0 Prohibitionists) but that was ten years ago.
Likewise it's nine years since I was invited to take part in a debate organised by University College London (UCL) Conservative Association. (See 'Morning after the night before'.)
I enjoyed the theatre of taking part in two debates at the Oxford Union (most recently in 2015) but I was on the losing side each time so the experience was bittersweet.
I was also on the losing side in a debate at University College Dublin (UCD) prior to the introduction of the smoking ban in Ireland in 2004, but I should be on friendlier territory this evening.
Actually, it won't be the first time I've spoken at a Hayek Society meeting. In January 2008 I wrote:
I have just accepted an invitation to address the Oxford Hayek Society. The OHS is a libertarian society at Oxford University, committed to the advancement of individual liberty ...
The late Lord Harris (former chairman of Forest) was himself a disciple of Hayek. According to Ralph's obituary in The Times:
'A frank apologist for free markets, Harris was among a group of post-war economists inspired by Friedrich Hayek who, at a time when it was deeply unfashionable, opposed the legacy of government planning left by John Maynard Keynes and proposed an unbound capitalist society.'
The funny thing is, I discovered very quickly that, compared to the bright young things of the Oxford Hayek Society, any pretence that I was a true libertarian ran hollow.
While they were sympathetic to my arguments about smoking, what they really wanted to discuss was the legalisation of all drugs, from cannabis to heroin.
I can't remember what happened after the meeting but I suspect I made my excuses and hurried back to my hotel!
