Thanks, Ireland!

I flew back from Dublin yesterday.

Given all the storms in recent weeks I was a bit trepidatious when I booked my flights a few weeks ago, but all was well.

Both the outbound and inbound flights were fine, which hasn’t always been the case when flying to Ireland.

I had several meetings arranged, mostly business, but they all involved eating and drinking.

The one non-business meeting was with my old friend Bill who lives near Greystones, which is south of Dublin but the last stop on the Dart railway so it’s very easy to get to, albeit a 50 minute journey from the centre of the city where I was staying.

I first met Bill at Wormit Primary School in Scotland in 1969 and we’ve been friends ever since.

During the summer holidays we camped (and later hiked) in a number of places, most notably Pitlochry and the Lake District.

Our ten-day cycling tour of central Scotland in 1975 didn’t go according to plan because of the ferocious wind and rain, but we stayed in some interesting youth hostels, notably Loch Lomond which was more like a castle and had its own library, and one or two whose facilities were, how shall I say, a tad primitive.

In 1992, after I got married, we spent part of our honeymoon with Bill and his wife Patty (who had married shortly before us) in the Cayman Islands where he was working as a corporate lawyer following spells in Hong Kong and Bermuda (or was it the Bahamas?).

Twenty-five years ago they moved to Ireland, where Patty’s family lives, and since I started travelling regularly to Dublin on business (circa 2003) I have become a frequent visitor to Greystones.

Our normal routine is to meet for a drink in the Hungry Monk, a French wine bar and restaurant opposite the station, then walk to another restaurant just around the corner.

Chakra by Jaipur, founded in 2005, is a wonderful Indian restaurant with fabulous food several levels above your standard Indian menu.

Since we were last there it has been awarded a Michelin star (in 2023), but in recent years it has been joined by a new Indian/Pakistani restaurant called Daata, which is where we went on Monday night.

There are two Daata restaurants, one in Bray, up the road, the other in Greystones. A few weeks ago Gordon Ramsay and his team, who were in Ireland filming, dropped in to the Bray restaurant for dinner and word quickly spread.

Thankfully it was open when we went because many local restaurants are no longer open on Monday or even Tuesday nights. Even the wine bar at the Hungry Monk was shut so we had a drink in The Burnaby, a nearby pub.

Neither The Burnaby nor Daata were busy so it does make you wonder how long they can stay open every night.

It’s a problem that’s not restricted to Greystones or Ireland.

The day before I flew to Dublin I took my wife for Sunday lunch at one of her favourite restaurants outside Cambridge where opening times have been cut to just four days a week (Thursday to Sunday).

Given all the overheads that can’t be substantially reduced (rent, rates etc), is that a sustainable business model? I don’t know, but there’s clearly a post Covid problem in the hospitality sector and how it resolves itself remains to be seen.

Far busier than Daata on Monday night was Balfes, a bistro in the centre of Dublin, where I had a working lunch on Tuesday with three colleagues.

In the evening, though, it was back to another sparsely populated bar, this time in Malahide, north of Dublin, where I met Keith Redmond, a practising dentist and former councillor.

The last time I saw Keith he was compering Forest’s Farewell to Freedom dinner in Dublin in 2018.

Venue was Suesey Street, a ‘contemporary Irish restaurant’ whose major selling point (for us at least) was the magnificent outdoor area where guests could drink, smoke, and eat canapés before dinner in the main restaurant.

It had a real fire at one end and could be almost completely enclosed by awnings if it was raining or bitterly cold.

Sadly, since we were last there, smoking has been prohibited even in the outdoor area so we wouldn’t go back even if we were to revive the Farewell to Freedom dinner.

At the same time the Hibernia Forum, the free market think tank with whom we co-hosted two Farewell to Freedom Dinners and a series of private dinners with various guest speakers from the UK, has also died a death.

Whether the more aggressive ‘right wing’ movement that has popped up in Ireland in recent years will step in and defend smokers’ rights remains to be seen.

At present (and I speak cautiously because I’ve only been following it intermittently and from afar) it seems focussed primarily on Ireland’s culture wars (and immigration).

On Tuesday however the Irish Times published a letter from ASH Ireland urging the government to follow the UK’s example and introduce a generational smoking ban, so the threat is clearly imminent and those who claim to support individual freedom need to speak out, regardless of the issue.

Once the UK has passed legislation, setting a precedent for a generational ban, other governments will undoubtedly consider and then propose a very similar policy.

This isn’t rocket science. Remember the process that led to the ban on smoking in all enclosed public places in the UK?

It wasn’t a British politician or prime minister who came up with the idea. It was a policy first copied by the Scottish Executive, and then adopted by the rest of the UK, from a blueprint created in Dublin.

Thanks, Ireland, and in return here’s a policy copied by the UK from legislation devised (albeit later rejected) in New Zealand.

You’re welcome.

Below: With Keith Redmond at Fowlers in Malahide

Some thoughts on the launch of Popular Conservatism

As I mentioned in a previous post, I attended the launch of the new grassroots campaign, Popular Conservatism, last week.

I went because I read a report in the Sunday Times the previous weekend and was curious to see what the fuss was about.

We were told that one thousand people had applied to attend the launch, but the Upper Hall at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster could only accommodate 250 so I guess I was one of the lucky ones.

I arrived 45 minutes before the main business was due to start and there was no mistaking the venue because outside stood Steve Bray, the ‘infamous’ and extremely tiresome anti-Brexit campaigner, blasting out music in an effort to disrupt proceedings.

I didn’t see a single policeman which I found odd because you could hear the racket 100 yards away so it must have been extremely annoying for everyone in the nearby offices and apartments.

Thankfully the walls of the Emmanuel Centre are thick and there was only a brief moment during the meeting when the noise filtered through.

Meanwhile the rather officious security staff inside the building were taking their duties extremely seriously.

In a previous post I wrote about the problem we had before our reception in the House of Commons last Wednesday.

Well, security for the launch of Pop Con was similarly tight, to the extent that they tried to take my laptop case even though it had nothing in it apart from my iPad which I wasn’t handing over to anyone!

Eventually they lost interest which allowed me to slip past and into the hall which was already two-thirds full, 30 minutes before the event was due to start.

Fair play to Pop Con (I much prefer the abbreviated name, btw), it was teeming with journalists, broadcasters and camera crews, and I saw several familiar faces including Beth Rigby (Sky News), Christopher Chope (GB News), and Harry Cole (The Sun).

There were familiar faces in the audience too, notably former minister Lord Frost and a number of Conservative MPs.

Nigel Farage, working for GB News, was there too so the atmosphere, if not electric, was several notches above your average Westminster or party conference fringe event.

Eventually, at eleven o’clock, there was movement at the back of the hall and the speakers, led by former prime minister Liz Truss, swept in and took their seats at the front.

The first to speak was Mark Littlewood, formerly director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs and now the newly anointed director of Pop Con, whose baby I suspect this really is.

After a short introductory speech, Mark introduced the four speakers – Lee Anderson (until recently deputy chairman of the Conservative Party), Jacob Rees-Mogg and Liz Truss, plus Mhairi Fraser, the Conservative PPC for Epsom and Ewell.

Truss and Rees-Mogg were clearly the big draws, but Anderson gave arguably the most entertaining speech. He certainly got the biggest laugh when he said, “Jacob and I were both born on an estate, except that mine was a council estate.”

For me, though, it was Mhairi Fraser who made the bigger impression when she declared, "The state is no Mary Poppins," adding, "It's time to put nanny to bed".

Rishi Sunak's generational tobacco ban was one of the policies she criticised, and her comments drew warm applause which surprised me a bit because Conservative audiences can be capricious when it comes to smoking.

Here, though, her criticism of the generational ban was met with approval, so I hope the PM was listening and taking notes.

Overall, it was a well organised event that attracted a large audience and an impressive amount of media coverage.

The coverage may have been overwhelmingly negative but given the political climate that's to be expected and I don't think it will concern Pop Con’s director too much.

Truth is, most campaign directors would be thrilled with the interviews and column inches the launch generated, and Mark is no stranger to controversy. In fact, he seems to enjoy it.

He also has a thick skin (he's a former Lib Dem press officer, for goodness sake!) and won’t be phased by the initial reaction, I’m sure.

Pop Con’s launch may have provoked derision on social media and in parts of the mainstream media, but it put it on the political map, and after a single event you can't ask for much more.

If I have one small criticism, based on nothing more than the launch, it was the scattergun nature of the speeches, a problem best summed up by political journalist Kate McCann (Times Radio).

'So far,' she posted on X, 'speakers at Pop Con have rallied against: smoking ban, green levies, Davos man, private jets, not being able to mine fossil fuels, fear of steak tax, cake tax, the EU, courts, quangos in general, “Green weirdos”, self-ID, Equality Act, Covid lockdowns, Human Rights Act.'

In his closing remarks Mark announced that Pop Con is going to publish a book in June, which may clarify things, but leaving the hall I wasn't entirely sure what I had just witnessed.

Was it the launch of a new grassroots movement to bring about change within the Conservative Party, as we were led to believe, or was it something else - the first tentative step, perhaps, towards a new, populist, centre-right party to rival the Conservative Party itself?

The grassroots movement idea is certainly consistent with what I know of Mark because ever since I’ve known him (and I don’t claim to know him well) he has been an advocate of grassroots movements.

Back in the day I remember him arguing for a grassroots movement of smokers. (We disagreed not on the concept, but on the practicality. In my view, that ship had sailed long ago, if it ever existed.)

Today the army Mark wants to march on Westminster is from a rather different pool of potential foot soldiers, but the principle is much the same.

Whether the ambition of a low tax, small state movement is achievable at present remains to be seen. Realistically, this has to be a long-term project.

I would query too whether attempting to revive a dead horse (the current Conservative Party) is even the way to go. It’s such a broad church, some MPs are Conservative in name only.

So instead of banging heads against brick walls, how about launching a UK version of the ACT party in New Zealand (whose hand was behind the generational tobacco ban being dropped)?

It’s true that under our first past the post (FPTP) voting system, small parties have a huge disadvantage, but I suspect that launching a political party with consistent, clearly defined, policies may ultimately be easier and more impactful than trying to change from within an existing behemoth that has no identity or purpose other than winning general elections.

Either way, I’ll be watching with interest.

Postscript: Prior to its launch, and before I had even heard of Pop Con, I had invited three of the five speakers at last week’s event to attend and address Forest’s generational tobacco ban event at the House of Commons.

I was told that one had a previous commitment (fair enough).

A second accepted our invitation but didn’t turn up, despite being sent a reminder.

The third, disappointingly, didn’t even reply to our invitation(s).

I'll leave you to guess who they were!

Just say no

Here’s the leaflet we took into the House of Commons last week.

As I explained in my previous post (House rules), a background banner featuring the same caricature was confiscated by security staff on the grounds that:

“You can’t have a banner with the prime minister pushing a pram.” 



Fortunately the leaflets and beer mats (that featured the same illustration) weren’t detected by the jobsworths so we got those through without mishap.

You can download the leaflet by clicking on the image below. Copies are being sent to MPs, journalists and broadcasters.

House rules

Hugely enjoyable evening at the House of Commons on Wednesday as Forest hosted a reception to highlight opposition to the Government’s generational tobacco ban.

Numbers were restricted by the size of the venue but we had a full house including MPs, peers, and parliamentary researchers.

Other guests included representatives of various think tanks and pressure groups including the Institute of Economic Affairs, Adam Smith Institute, TaxPayers Alliance, Consumer Choice Center, Students for Liberty, LSE Hayek Society, and Blue Beyond, a grassroots initiative that engages with young Conservatives.

The day didn’t start well, though, because shortly after I set off to drive to London I got a call from the office of Philip Davies MP.

Philip was sponsoring the event but eight hours before guests were due to arrive - including two from Edinburgh - his office told me there had been a ‘cock-up’ and he was double-booked.

Without a sponsor - who has to be present throughout - the event could not go ahead.

I was assured that a replacement would be found but an hour later I was none the wiser and fearing the worst.

Eventually I got the call I was praying for. Giles Watling, the Conservative MP for Clacton in Essex, had agreed to step in and the event was back on.

Phew!

But that wasn’t the end of the drama. When we arrived at the Palace of Westminster, we were carrying two background banners (each one two metres long when rolled up), plus flyers and beer mats.

One of the banners featured a caricature of Rishi Sunak - the same illustration we have been using throughout our campaign against the generational tobacco ban - and we were told by a member of the security team:

“You can’t have a banner with the prime minister pushing a pram.” 



Seriously? Clearly, these jobsworths are unaware of Britain's centuries old tradition of using caricatures of politicians to make a serious political point.

Anyway, as a result of this our banner was confiscated and I had to pick it up the following day from lost property. (More on that later.)

Fortunately, our flyers and beer mats - which featured the same caricature of the prime minister - were less conspicuous and weren’t spotted so we managed to slip them through security without further mishap.

And so to the reception which began at 7.15 and was supposed to end at 9.00 but it was closer to 10.00 before the last guests left.

Describing the event as ‘lively, going on boisterous at times’, journalist George Gay noted that:

The UK’s proposed generational tobacco products ban was variously described as nuts, insane, ludicrous, mad, illiberal, impractical and petty minded by speakers …

Those speakers were Giles Watling, Baroness Fox, Reem Ibrahim (communications officer at the IEA), and me.

Something else we agreed on was that the Government has far more important things to focus on, at home and abroad, than prohibiting adults from purchasing tobacco. As George also wrote:

Watling, a non-smoker but at one time a 60-Marlboro-a-day man, described the proposed ban as insane and said it was not good for the Conservative Party. There were better things that it should be doing than this piece of legislation.

The idea that there were more important things for the government to be doing was taken up forcefully by Baroness Fox of Buckley, who sits in the House of Lords as a non-affiliated life peer.

After outlining some of the huge and urgent domestic and international issues facing the government, she said she found it unbelievable that the prime minister had dedicated precious legislative time and energy on the most ludicrous anti-smoking law.

You can read George’s full report here (Defending liberty), while Guido has the banner story here.

Postscript: When I returned to get the banner the following day, I had to explain to two policemen at the Cromwell Green entrance what my business was.

I explained what had happened and the nature of the banner and found myself, a 64-year-old man, being given a mini lecture by a policeman half my age on why a banner with an illustration of the prime minister pushing a pram wasn’t suitable to take in to parliament.

For most of my life I have been very respectful of the police, but my patience is wearing thin. In this instance, if the banner wasn’t a security risk, or clearly offensive, I resented being lectured like a naughty schoolboy.

Far more offensive and inflammatory placards and banners have appeared outside Parliament and on the streets of London in recent weeks, and the police invariably turn a blind eye.

But taking a banner with a light-hearted caricature of the PM into parliament for a private event? Unacceptable!

Busted!

I don’t have time to write about it now, but I was one of several hundred people who attended the launch of Popular Conservatism in London yesterday.

I went because I was curious to see what all the fuss was about, and here’s the evidence … caught on camera as Liz Truss swept in to take her seat!

I’m in London again today for tonight’s reception - hosted by Philip Davies MP on behalf of Forest - at the House of Commons.

More on that, and Pop Con, tomorrow.

The week in Westminster

The Sunday Times reports that Liz Truss is launching a new movement, Popular Conservatism, on Tuesday.

According to the paper, several hundred guests are expected at the event in central London, including Nigel Farage, although 'sources' say he has been invited only in his role as a GB News presenter.

Director of the new initiative is Mark Littlewood, former director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs (pictured above at the Forest Freedom Dinner in 2014).

I should have known something was afoot because on January 26, almost two months after Mark stood down as director-general, the IEA issued a press release announcing that he was moving on completely, even relinquishing the title ‘senior economics fellow’.

I’m guessing that was not unrelated to Mark’s new role running a ‘grassroots movement of popular conservatism’.

Anyway, on Wednesday evening, 24 hours after the launch of Popular Conservatism (aka PopCon), another Conservative MP, Philip Davies, is hosting a rather smaller event at the House of Commons on behalf of Forest.

It’s a reception with speakers, the aim of which is to highlight the breadth of opposition to the generational tobacco ban.

Invited guests include MPs and peers, plus individuals and representatives of groups outside parliament who oppose the ban.

As I say, it's not a large event but the good news is that it is fully subscribed.

I can’t deny I’m a bit jealous, though, because I would love to be organising something on the scale of the PopCon event.

Back in October, after Rishi Sunak’s announcement, I did come up with an idea for a large event to oppose the tobacco ban (part of a broader campaign).

I suggested one of two venues in Westminster - the Emmanuel Centre or Church House, both of which can accommodate 300 people - and among the proposed speakers were Liz Truss and Nigel Farage.

Sadly, we didn’t have the resources to take it any further, hence the more modest event at the House of Commons.

I am nevertheless extremely grateful to Philip Davies for hosting it, not least because this is the second time he has hosted an event for Forest in the House.

The previous time was on July 1, 2008, which was the first anniversary of the public smoking ban in England.

On that occasion he hosted a 'champagne tea party' and we invited MPs and a small group of people for whom the ban had had a major social or economic impact.

As I wrote here, the event exceeded expectations. Including our host, there were 17 MPs plus five peers. Sadly, most of them are no longer in parliament, or have subsequently died.

From that event emerged the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign that was launched in 2009 with the help of … Mark Littlewood, who was then director of a small classical liberal think tank called Progressive Vision.

Mark was one of a number of speakers that day. Another was … Nigel Farage.

The primary aim of the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign was to persuade MPs to amend the smoking ban.

That part of the campaign ultimately failed but not before 80+ MPs supported a private member's bill to allow designated smoking rooms in pubs and clubs.

The campaign also featured a reception for 200 people on the terrace of the House of Commons. It's remembered today largely for the appearance of Britain’s greatest living artist. (See David Hockney lights up the House of Commons.)

This week's event may be smaller but it's no less ambitious. Our goal? To stop the generational tobacco ban.

A tall order, certainly, but I've never been one to throw in the towel so we'll give it our best shot until there is nothing more we can do.

Meanwhile, if anyone represents popular conservatism it’s Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley.

Elected to Parliament in 2005 by the slender margin of 422 votes (defeating the incumbent Labour MP), in 2010 he retained his seat with a greatly increased majority of 9,944 votes.

Although it slipped a little in 2015, and fell to 4,681 votes two years later, he nevertheless increased his share of the vote in 2017, and in 2019 increased his majority to 6,242.

Unlike many MPs who set their sights on ministerial positions and even the Cabinet, Philip’s ambition was always to be a good constituency MP, and in my experience he is also one of the most principled politicians we have.

For example, he has never hidden the fact that he dislikes smoking. Despite that, he has consistently voted against anti-smoking legislation because he is firmly against excessive state intervention.

In fact it’s no exaggeration to say that if there were more Conservative MPs like Philip Davies in parliament both the party and the Government might not be in the mess they are, flip-flopping from one unconservative policy to another.

As for Popular Conservatism, we’ll learn more about it on Tuesday, but I wish it well. The Tories may be toast, election-wise, in 2024 but there’s still the future to fight for.

Below: David Hockney with Greg Knight (now The Rt Hon Sir Greg Knight) MP at the Save Our Pubs & Clubs reception on the terrace of the House of Commons in June 2011

Medical bulletin

I had an appointment with my GP yesterday. It was the first time in a year so it was like an annual check-up.

I have two ongoing issues - high blood pressure and an enlarged prostate. The latter ailment I share with King Charles although mine doesn’t need surgery (yet).

Instead I take two pills a day and if I remember to take both the symptoms are manageable, which is probably all the information you need.

High blood pressure can lead to a stroke, apparently, especially in men my age, so another of my daily pills (I take four in total, including a statin) is designed to reduce it.

For years however it has remained obstinately high, probably due to my weight, but yesterday my GP took my blood pressure and declared it “normal”.

To say we were astonished is an understatement. I even queried whether his monitor was working properly.

The bad news is that, since Christmas, my feet and ankles have experienced mild swelling which is an occasional side effect of one of the pills I have been taking.

My GP has therefore prescribed a weaker version of the same pill but says it will probably result in my blood pressure going up again.

So I currently have a choice. A return to high blood pressure - that can lead to a stroke - or itchy, swollen ankles.

In the meantime, I have been offered a pneumonia jab which I am going to have on Tuesday.

When I am 65, in a few weeks, I also qualify for the shingles vaccine which I will probably have because I had shingles once, in my early twenties, and it was extremely painful.

Fortunately, because I was young and my body could fight it off, I only had it for a month, but I remember an older man - an architect at the Barley Mow Workspace in Chiswick where I then worked - experienced it for 18 months and it was very debilitating.

I thought that if you’ve had shingles once you couldn’t get it again, but my GP said that isn’t the case, so if I get offered a vaccine I’ll take it.

What else? Oh yes, for years I’ve had a lump on one shoulder. An MRI scan in 2022 showed it isn’t a tumour but it’s getting bigger and if I don’t want to end up like Quasimodo I should probably have it removed.

However, because it’s classified as ‘cosmetic’, the NHS won’t touch it and I will have to go private, at considerable cost.

“If it was me I’d have it done,” said my GP, who also had surgery on a similar, albeit much smaller, lump two years ago.

Then again, as he also told me, he got mate’s rates.

He also hinted that I am drinking too much, although he eventually agreed that half a bottle of wine, four days a week, is not excessive.

The conversation did however take me back to when I was a student and all my flatmates, including me, were diagnosed with (mild) alcohol poisoning.

Today I’m far more likely to poison myself with too much caffeine.

The prime minister’s illiberal legacy

Fair play to The Spectator.

The magazine has outdone itself this week with a cover and feature article whose headline says it all: ‘How the Tories gave up on liberty’.

Written by Kate Andrews, the magazine’s economics editor, it should be read by every Conservative MP.

Referring to both the generational tobacco ban and the proposed ban on disposable vapes, she writes:

It’s difficult to take away established rights and legal products from adults who already enjoy them. What this government plans to do instead is to take them away from those who are less likely to complain. You don’t miss what you never knew.

That’s why the proposed legislation is so cowardly. The prime minister is picking on a minority whose numbers (in relation to smoking tobacco) have been in decline for decades and are currently at their lowest recorded levels in every age group.

That’s why we’ve read and heard so little about the generational ban in recent weeks. It won’t affect most people, including existing adult smokers, so few people - including newspaper editors - care.

Those that do are dismissed as a ‘tiny minority of the electorate’ whose views, presumably, are irrelevant.

But Kate Andrews has an answer to that:

More important than any single piece of evidence [about the health risks] is that adults should have the right to make personal choices about how they live their lives. Smokers will die younger on average, but this is a risk they are informed about on every cigarette packet.

Crucially, she adds:

It’s not simply smoking that MPs are about to phase out of existence, but the principle that a person should be allowed to determine his or her own destiny.

If you’re a subscriber, you may have read the article already. If you’re not I urge you to buy a copy and send it to your MP, if he or she is a Conservative.

We can dream, but it may give some pause for thought before many of them vote, with Labour MPs, to ban the sale of tobacco to all future generations of adults in the UK.

PS. One Conservative MP who will almost certainly vote against the ban is Philip Davies. (If he doesn’t I’ll be very disappointed!)

I’m pleased to say that next week Philip is hosting a small reception at the House of Commons to address this very issue.

It’s not a big event but it is already fully subscribed. More to follow …