Talking liberties

At the Battle of Ideas last year I took part in a session entitled ‘Freedom: Up In Smoke?’.

It was prompted by my essay of the same name, which is one of a series called Letters on Liberty published by the Academy of Ideas.

Letters on Liberty are published three at a time, and one of the essays published at the same time as mine was ‘Boxing: Don’t Count It Out’ by Chris Akers.

Chris has written about boxing for 15 years, covering title fights and interviewing domestic and world champions.

He also has a podcast, The 286 Project, in which he discusses sport, politics, and the arts with a wide range of interviewees.

The latest edition, recorded last week, features an interview with me which you can watch on YouTube (below) or listen to on Spotify.

We discussed the proposed generational smoking ban and other tobacco-related issues and, although I didn’t go into it too much, I think there are similarities between the war on boxing (a predominantly working class sport) and the war on smoking, which is now a predominantly working class habit.

I’m not sure if that bit of the conversation survived the edit, or took place after we stopped recording, but have a listen anyway.