Notes from The Freedom Dinner 2016

We could not have been happier with this year's Freedom Dinner.

Tuesday night's event at Boisdale of Canary Wharf exceeded expectations and the reason was pretty simple.

Rod Liddle, the former editor of Radio 4's Today programme, now associate editor of The Spectator and a columnist for The Sun and Sunday Times, gave a brilliant speech.

It was acerbic and very funny but there was a serious message concerning freedom of speech and freedom of choice.

I'll post the full speech tomorrow but here's the reaction of one guest:

Among the many things I did not expect in the last few weeks, this evening I heard Rod Liddle give the best political speech this year.

— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) July 12, 2016

Yes, it was that good and it was reflected in some of the emails and comments we've received. Here's one:

"Last night was a complete triumph! The venue was as good as ever, the food was perfect, and I think Rod Liddle gave the best after-dinner speech I've ever heard."

No event goes entirely to plan so there were a few hiccups.

There were a record number of guests – 170 – including several MPs and peers and we discovered quite late in the day that they had to remain in Parliament until 7.00pm when there was a vote.

That meant putting dinner back 20 minutes so they could get to Canary Wharf without missing the start of the meal.

That, in turn, meant more drinking time on the terrace for guests who had arrived at 6.15. Well, you can guess the rest.

Anyway there was a great turnout for this fifth (sixth?) annual event – MPs, peers, parliamentary researchers, journalists, political bloggers and friends of Forest.

Think tanks (Institute of Economic Affairs) and campaign groups (TaxPayers' Alliance) were represented.

We even had a world famous economist, Deepak Lal, who came as a guest of Claire Fox (Institute of Ideas).

And let's not forget Nancy Dell'Olio who is famous for other things but added a welcome touch of glamour.

We had a guest from the United States (who flew in that morning) and two from Ireland.

We were delighted too that Vapers In Power accepted an invitation to join us. ViP brought ten guests and added to the sense of inclusiveness.

Forest welcomes smokers and vapers to all our events and as Boisdale has a suitably liberal attitude to vaping they could vape quite happily in the restaurant.

See photos of the event here.

An innovation this year was the Voices of Freedom Awards. We presented five awards, one to Rod Liddle, the others to Chris Snowdon, Claire Fox (Institute of Directors), John Mallon (Forest Ireland) and Barry Curtis who campaigns for smokers' rights in psychiatric units.

I'll write a separate post on the awards later but this tweet is quite revealing, I think.

Delighted to have received this award last night. Wish I could remember what it was for. pic.twitter.com/r1L1TrZeou

— Christopher Snowdon (@cjsnowdon) July 13, 2016

Warning: explicit content

Now here's a delicious irony.

In 2011 singer-songwriter Annie Dressner recorded a song (her own composition, I'm guessing) entitled 'Cigarette'.

Delightfully it includes this refrain:

"And so I smoked a cigarette so I can taste you in my breath."

As I explained in my previous post Annie is currently campaigning to ban smoking in children's playgrounds.

According to an interview I've just done with her on BBC Radio Ulster she believes smokers should set a good example to children.

I assume she won't be playing 'Cigarette' to her own child any time soon.

Tobacco company targets "smoke-free world"

Spotted on the Philip Morris International website:

We are currently seeking a highly-qualified econometrician to join our international Corporate Affairs Research and Strategy team in Lausanne, Switzerland.

As part of our efforts to advance a smoke-free world [my emphasis], we are looking for a candidate to help us better understand, quantify, and model the impact of various fiscal and regulatory policies on adult smoker conversion to RRPs [Reduced Risk Products] as well as develop relevant socio-economic impact models.

The successful candidate will work closely with colleagues in Corporate Affairs and Research & Development ...

Words fail me. Almost.

Last year I concluded a short speech at the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum in Bologna by saying:

The bottom line is, most consumers want choice and the freedom to choose between a wide range range of tobacco and non-tobacco vapour products.

It's up to industry and regulators to accept and meet that demand and put the consumer first. So my message to the tobacco industry, as it's been every year I've attended GTNF, is this:

Embrace harm reduction, embrace e-cigarettes, embrace other new technologies including heat not burn and others that have yet to be invented, but don't forget who your core customer is.

There are enough groups trying to marginalise and stigmatise smokers. The last thing they need is the tobacco industry turning its back on the millions of adult consumers who enjoy smoking and don't want to quit.

For the record, Forest last received a donation from Philip Morris in 1997. Call me psychic but I don't think we'll be getting another one any time soon!

PS. Just read the job details in full. Under 'PMI is an Equal Opportunities Employer' it says:

PMI is also committed to sustainability across our entire business ... Our commitment to sustainability is not complete without first reflecting, and acknowledging, the societal harm caused by our products. This is why we are leading a full scale effort to ensure that cigarettes are ultimately replaced in society [my emphasis]. For more information, please visit www.pmi.com.

Funnily enough I've been a minor cheerleader for heat not burn technology, including PMI's Iqos system, on the basis that it appears to offer a halfway house between combustible and electronic cigarettes while staying faithful to consumers who want to consume tobacco.

I would happily encourage people to switch from combustible to heat not burn or electronic cigarettes if that's their choice, and I likewise support every attempt to develop less harmful nicotine delivery devices that satisfy existing smokers.

What concerns me is the language. A "full scale effort to ensure that cigarettes are ultimately replaced in society" is the sort of target you expect public health fanatics to set.

If the aim is to put every effort into developing a range of non-combustible products that smokers enjoy as much as cigarettes, allowing them to switch with equanimity, fine.

For smokers however a "full scale effort to ensure that cigarettes are ultimately replaced in society" conjures up a more illiberal scenario involving coercion, restrictions and further heavy-handed regulations designed to force consumers to switch or quit cigarettes completely.

I appreciate the fine line a company like PMI is treading because I'm sure the goal is not to prohibit smoking but to encourage and manage an orderly transition from combustible cigarettes to non-combustible products without losing too many customers en route.

The problem is, if they come across as 'anti-smoking' and are unwilling to support adults who continue to smoke (because they enjoy it), the long-term impact on consumer relations is anyone's guess.

At risk of repeating myself, the key issue is choice. Whatever the health risks, smoking tobacco is a perfectly legitimate thing to do.

If PMI's goal is a "smoke free world" in which cigarettes have been completely replaced by non-combustible products that's their prerogative, but it won't happen in my lifetime nor, I imagine, in my children's lifetime.

In the meantime what does it say about PMI's commitment to freedom of choice and the rights of millions of consumers who smoke their products that they are actively endorsing a "smoke free world"?

As someone commented on Forest's Facebook page, it's like a big brewer pursuing an alcohol free world.

Good luck with that!

Dinner date

Today is the closing date for nominations for the inaugural Voices of Freedom Awards.

The awards – to be presented at The Freedom Dinner at Boisdale of Canary Wharf on Tuesday – are designed to recognise the work of those who have consistently opposed excessive regulations on lifestyle issues.

The highlight of next week's event however promises to be our guest speaker, the irrepressible Rod Liddle, associate editor of The Spectator and a former editor of the Today programme.

A non-apologetic smoker, Rod currently writes weekly columns for The Spectator, The Sun and Sunday Times so we're delighted he accepted our invitation.

To give you an idea of how big a draw he is, a recent event – An Evening with Rod Liddle – had to move to a larger venue not once but twice to meet the demand for tickets.

No surprise then that this year's Freedom Dinner has attracted a record number of guests and is now fully booked.

The work doesn't stop with putting bums on seats, though. Today we've been working on the table plan and cross referencing that with a list of dietary requirements.

Here's one:

"No pork, no lamb, no beef, no prawns, no egg, no cheese."

Er, they have heard of Boisdale, haven't they?!

Another requests "No orange." Now that's a first.

MPs, journalists, parliamentary researchers, an iconic Seventies' TV star ... The Freedom Dinner 2016 is shaping up to be the best yet.

I'll keep you posted.

Small world

Michael (now Lord) Forsyth was the first person I ever worked for.

He offered me a job after we were introduced by Madsen Pirie and Eamonn Butler, founders of the Adam Smith Institute.

The meeting wasn't planned. I was in London for an interview with a business magazine and after the interview I'd arranged to meet a friend from university.

We met at The Albert, a Grade II listed pub in Victoria Street. Madsen and Eamonn were with my friend, and Michael was there too.

At the time he was the youngest director of a public relations company based in Fleet Lane, a stone's throw from Fleet Street where it was my long-term ambition to work.

He invited me to drop by and see him the following day and within 24 hours I'd been offered a job on a salary of £3,500 per annum rising to £5k after six months.

I jumped at the chance although in hindsight it probably scuppered any hope I had of working for a national newspaper because in those days PR execs were not viewed kindly by old school journalists.

The following year Michael founded his own company, Michael Forsyth Associates, and took me and another colleague, Kevin Bell, with him.

Including a secretary there were four of us in a small office in St Andrew's Hill, a narrow Dickensian-style street on the other side of Ludgate Hill.

We were on the top floor. (There was no lift.) A sandwich shop occupied the ground floor. The Observer was a short walk down the hill, just past the pub.

That was 35 years ago.

Today Michael is a member of the House of Lords while Kevin is one of the leading members of his profession, described by The Times as a "PR guru".

By coincidence Kevin was a friend of Stephen Eyres, Forest's very first director, who I remember visiting the office on one or two occasions.

That was my introduction to "smokers' rights".

I mention all this because I couldn't help noticing all the positive tweets Michael attracted last night following his intervention in a House of Lords debate about e-cigarettes and Article 20 of the Tobacco Products Directive:

In a short debate on the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, Lord Forsyth said: "This is a classic example of gold plating of European regulations by the UK health department."

Full report here.

Oddly enough the last time I saw Michael was at the wedding of Neil Rafferty, Forest's former spokesman in Scotland.

Neil previously worked for the Sunday Times Scotland and Michael and I ended up on the same table in a marquee in a rural setting somewhere near Stirling.

Neil went on to be co-founder of the Daily Mash.

As for Kevin, the last time I saw him was at the unveiling of a statue of Adam Smith in Edinburgh's Royal Mile.

Also present were Madsen Pirie, Eamonn Butler and ... Lord Forsyth of Drumlean.

It's a small world.

Miracles do happen

The weather has been absolutely appalling.

I've been checking the weather forecast for weeks and the outlook for Wednesday June 29, the date of our annual boat party, never changed:

Cloudy with heavy showers or persistent rain. Moderate southwesterly breeze. 13^oC.

Yesterday afternoon, as I drove to London from Cambridgeshire, it didn't stop raining once.

Over 240 people had registered to attend Smoke On The Water 2016 and at that moment I genuinely thought we'd be lucky if 50 turned up.

Who would want to spend an evening on the Thames in those conditions? You'd have to be mad.

And then a miracle happened.

At five o'clock, shortly before we boarded The Elizabethan at Butler's Wharf by Tower Bridge, the rain ceased.

To say it improved dramatically would be an exaggeration. There was still a blanket of thick grey clouds above the Thames but at least we could stand on the open rear deck without getting wet.

At seven o'clock prompt we docked at Westminster Pier to collect our guests.

At least 100 people were waiting for us.

By the time we left to cruise down river to Canary Wharf over 150 people had boarded the boat.

"I'm a hard Northerner," said one.

"I'm freezing," said another.

Either way I'm extremely grateful to them for braving the weather to support the event.

For the record guests consumed 60 bottles of prosecco and 60 jugs of Pimms. And that was before we opened the cash bar.

Here are some of the comments received today:

"Thank you very much for an enjoyable evening."

"Thanks for a great evening. Wonderful views of London and we even saw a seal in the river."

"I had a wonderful evening. It was a fantastic event. Hope there's another one next year!"

Undemocratic bullies

I voted Leave.

So did my children who are 19 and 21.

I don't think they will mind me mentioning it because they each posted a thoughtful comment on Facebook.

On Friday my daughter Sophie (right) sent me a series of texts from a house in south London:

Dad, it's kicking off now. People are angry.

My friends are all unhappy. I'm having to keep it cool.

Things are tense.

If we'd lost we wouldn't be making such a fuss.

God knows there are cranks and extremists on both sides of the referendum debate but my daughter is right.

Had Remain won, even by a tight head, the overwhelming majority of Leavers would have accepted the result with no more than a grumble.

That's the nature of democracy. Win some, lose some. Get over it.

Anyway, so much has been said and written since Thursday I'm reluctant to add to the cacophony, but here's an observation.

If you're on Twitter you'll have noticed that tobacco control campaigners are almost universally opposed to Brexit.

The most explicit reaction was tweeted this morning by the University of Bath's Tobacco Control Research Group which set up the controversial Tobacco Tactics website:

Brexiters admit they have no plan and campaign based on lies. Unbelievable. None of these people fit to lead @BBCr4today

— Tobacco Research (@BathTR) June 27, 2016

What's unbelievable is the fact that a "tobacco research group", part of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, "one of the five UK Public Health Research Centres of Excellence", and "funded by a number of organisations including the Medical Research Council, Government bodies and Charities" thinks nothing of engaging in a political battle about the UK's membership of the European Union, and doing so in a highly partisan way.

Of course there are parallels between tobacco control and the more strident, undemocratic Remainers. For example:

1. In 2006 public opinion was strongly against a comprehensive ban on smoking in all enclosed public places (Office for National Statistics). Despite that tobacco control persuaded government to ignore the more nuanced wishes of a significant majority of the people and impose regulations with no exemptions for private members' clubs or pubs that didn't serve food.

2. In 2012 the Government's plain packaging consultation resulted in a huge majority opposed to the policy. Ignoring this inconvenient fact tobacco control continued to lobby government until the PM bowed to pressure and legislation was finally passed in 2015.

3. Tobacco control routinely treats people like idiots, portraying all smokers as addicts who want to quit. Snobbishly these middle class crusaders imply that smokers (the majority of whom are working class or from poorer backgrounds) are too stupid to make choices for themselves. They must be 'helped' to quit, even if that means restricting choice and imposing punitive taxation on those who don't want to give up.

Over the last few days we've witnessed a similar refusal by some Remain advocates to accept the outcome of a legitimate, democratic plebiscite that attracted one of the largest turnouts in British voting history.

Sound familiar?

We've also seen a groundswell of bullying and intimidation with many people reluctant to admit to friends or work colleagues that they voted to leave.

Bizarrely even those pro-vaping public health campaigners who have spent the past few months complaining bitterly about the EU's Tobacco Products Directive and its impact on e-cigarettes supported Remain when it must be obvious to all that the UK government has a far more liberal attitude to e-cigs than any other EU member state and vapers will probably be better off if the UK is outside the EU.

Finally (for the moment), what should we make of the fact that Diane Abbott is the new shadow health minister?

The next time our paths cross it would be nice if she referred to me by name rather than jabbing her fingers in my direction while talking dismissively (and contemptuously) of "people like him".

It's that kind of attitude that has brought Labour to its knees.

But it's not just Labour. Politicians of all parties are guilty of an arrogant refusal to engage with people whose opinions or habits differ to their own.

And that attitude has seeped into all areas of public life including public health.

The underlying message is, "We know better than you and you will do as we say."

Last week a majority of the voting public chose to rebel. Whatever happens in the months and years to come it was a glorious moment.

BMA prohibitionists shame medical profession

Those of us who have been fighting the smokers' corner for an indecent number of years knew it was only a matter of time before the prohibitionists turned on vapers.

This is obviously the more extreme wing of public health but 15 years ago we said the same about campaigners who wanted to ban smoking in every pub, club and bar in the country.

It'll never happen, most people said. Don't bet on it, we said. And look what happened.

Anyway we were a bit late to this story but Forest's response reads:

The smokers' group Forest has condemned a call to ban the use of electronic cigarettes in bars and restaurants.

Responding to reports that the British Medical Association wants e-cigarettes banned in enclosed public places to avoid the risk of 'passive vaping', Forest director Simon Clark said:

"The BMA has taken leave of its senses. E-cigarettes are often used by smokers who are trying to quit.

"Banning vaping would be counter-productive because it would completely undermine the number one reason for switching to e-cigarettes.

"There's no evidence that 'passive vaping' is a risk to anyone so bars and restaurants must be allowed to decide for themselves what their policy is."

He added: "Once again the BMA has underlined its prohibitionist tendencies. Doctors should disown this ridiculous organisation before it brings the medical profession into disrepute."

Oddly enough the New Nicotine Alliance, which advocates the use of e-cigarettes, used exactly the same language when they tweeted this:

The BMA has taken leave of its senses. https://t.co/m9M3MPUeNL

— NNAlliance (@NNAlliance) June 23, 2016

I may use it again when I discuss the issue on LBC after 7.00pm.

If I get a chance I'll also point out that as well as allowing vaping there is absolutely no reason why publicans shouldn't be permitted to allow smoking as well, subject to certain air quality standards.

Meanwhile we're still waiting to hear pro-vaping bodies like the NNA criticise smoking bans (even outdoor ones) in the manner that Forest opposes bans on vaping.

Safe to say I'm not holding my breath. If I did I'd have been dead long ago.

Update: You can listen to me on LBC here.