Fighting talk

Thanks to everyone who attended yesterday’s Freedom Up In Smoke lunch at Boisdale of Belgravia.

Sixty guests - including MPs, parliamentary researchers, broadcasters, journalists, and friends of Forest - joined us for drinks on the covered terrace, lunch in the main restaurant, and further (post-lunch) drinks on the terrace.

I left with the last guests shortly after 7.00pm although it could have been later because I'd rather lost track of time by then.

The aim of the event was to highlight the strength and breadth of opposition to the Government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill so there were representatives from industry, the retail trade, and several think tanks and pressure groups including the Institute of Economic Affairs, Adam Smith Institute, TaxPayers Alliance, and the Freedom Association.

Principal speakers were Mark Littlewood (above), former director-general of the IEA, now director of Popular Conservatism (PopCon), and his former colleague Reem Ibrahim, communications officer at the IEA.

We also invited contributions from the floor and heard from Tatiana Camarcho, secretary-general of the International Tobacco Products Advisory Council (ITPAC); Olivia Lever, director, Blue Beyond; retailer Paul Cheema; and writer and journalist Alexander Larman.

One person who couldn’t make it was Sir Philip Davies MP who was due to speak but in his absence sent this message:

This legislation is utterly absurd.  Not only is it illiberal, and a triumph for the nanny state - treating adults as children - it is also completely unenforceable.

In years to come are we really expecting shops to ask 51-year-olds for ID to ensure they are not 50? Are trading standards going to send in 48-year-olds to see if a rogue shop sells them a packet of fags despite them being three years below the new age limit?

I look forward to voting against this nonsensical and embarrassing Bill at third reading.

Sadly my co-host Ranald Macdonald, MD of Boisdale, was also unable to join us but he too sent a message that I read out:

Wild horses could not drag me away from the magnificent annual Forest lunch which I adore. Sadly, though, illness can and I am somewhat under the weather but in very good heart thinking of you all having a wonderful celebratory and very greedy lunch. I am so jealous. I wish I could be with you all.  

For what it is worth I see the vital role of Forest now as being more keenly needed than ever. We are still negotiating the terms of the always inevitable divorce. I maintain that tobacco products, like alcohol or drugs, are not all the same. In Britain gin was made illegal and beer drinking encouraged by the state. Think for a moment of Hogarth’s compelling illustrations of Gin Lane and Beer Street. Marijuana will soon be legal and cocaine will not.

There are elements of freedom to be maintained and fought for across all tobacco products, but for me the focus is the beleaguered cigar smoker. You can’t smoke a cigar in five minutes. They are less addictive, not inhaled, and are overall a significantly lower health risk. There are also ecological ramifications. Cigar production employs millions in the third world.

Here’s to you all and have a wonderful day, and may the Forest be with you.    

Many thanks to our speakers, my assistants Jacqui and Amelia, and the staff at Boisdale who could not have been more helpful and even agreed to wear t-shirts bearing the slogan ‘Freedom Up In Smoke’.

Now that’s what I call dedication!

PS. I’ll post my own speech tomorrow. Meanwhile click on this link to see more photos of the event.

Update: The PM’s announcement of a general election on July 4 is almost certainly not good news for those of us opposed to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill because we now enter a period known as ‘wash up’ when unfinished business is rushed through before the dissolution of Parliament on May 30.

During wash up further scrutiny and debate is abandoned in favour of back room deals and with Opposition support Bills can pass within days rather than weeks or months.

Conceivably, therefore, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill could pass by the end of next week without another shot being fired by opponents of the Bill.

For further information see ‘Wash-up: What Happens to Bills before Parliament is Dissolved’.

Photos: Stuart Mitchell