Freedom: Up In Smoke?

I have written a short essay for the Academy of Ideas:

From David Hockney to Syrian women smoking cigarettes in defiance of religious extremism, smoking can be an expression of personal and political freedom. Unfortunately, writes Simon, such freedoms are increasingly undermined by public-health measures, designed to control and regulate our behaviour beyond what ought to be reasonable.

‘Freedom: Up In Smoke?’ is part of the Letters on Liberty series of pamphlets and you can download (or purchase) a copy here.

I shall also be discussing the subject at the Battle of Ideas which takes place in London next weekend when I will be joined by philosopher, author and lecturer, Dr Piers Benn, and businessman and former Brexit Party PPC Rick Moore.

Are you listening, Rishi?

A friend has reminded me that it was ten years ago this week that I took part in a debate hosted by one of the world's oldest debating societies.

Founded at Durham University in 1842, the Durham Union Society holds weekly Friday night debates on topical issues.

Ironically, in view of Rishi Sunak’s recent announcement, the motion on Friday October 18, 2013, was ‘This House would ban all tobacco products'.

Opposing the motion with me was Nick Barton, a retired headmaster and a tutor at Durham. As I wrote at the time:

What a lovely man. He brought with him a number of pipes and snuff boxes that have passed down through his family, including a pipe that was smoked on the battlefield in the First World War.

He spoke about them, and the pleasure and comfort they had given several generations of his family. He spoke quietly - albeit with a twinkle in his eye - and kept it personal. It was affecting, and effective.

In contrast our principal opponent, Dr George Rae, chairman of the North East BMA, bombarded us with so much information it was hard to keep up or take him seriously after he insisted he was against the nanny state.

The floor contributed some interesting points and questions, but what I remember most was the good-humoured atmosphere, and I sensed the debate was going our way.

Durham Union Society debates are decided by ‘acclamation’ - that is, the biggest roar of support from the chamber - and it was following this process that the chairman (a self-confessed smoker!) announced that the motion to ban all tobacco products had been defeated.

The question is: are you listening, Rishi?

See: Libertarians 1-0 Prohibitionists

My first podcast

Until this week the closest I had got to appearing on a podcast was a recent request to take part in the Sky News Daily Podcast.

That fell through because of ‘technical problems’ but not before I had downloaded, as requested, a shiny new app that describes itself as ‘Your online recording studio’.

On Wednesday however I finally joined the global podcasting fraternity when I was interviewed for an episode of TPA Talks, the TaxPayers Alliance podcast.

There are 25 episodes on YouTube and previous guests have included journalist and broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer, education reformer Katherine Birbalsingh, and comedian Leo Kearse, so I am in good company.

I arrived shortly after lunch and was led into a small but impressively equipped studio at the back of the TPA’s office in Westminster.

Unfortunately, despite being told that most TPA Talks last 20-30 minutes, verbosity got the better of me and I couldn't stop talking.

Perhaps it was the relaxed, friendly environment, but I’m mortified to report that I was still talking even as we passed the hour mark.

I can only apologise to my hosts who were lovely and far more professional.

I’ll post a link to the edited version when it ‘drops’. Available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and other platforms.

Above: with TPA operations manager Benjamin Elks

Tom cruises in to Lord North Street

I’m a little late to this but congratulations to Tom Clougherty who, it was announced on Friday, has won the race to be the new director-general of the Institute of Economic Affairs.

Tom will take over from Mark Littlewood who announced in August that he was stepping down after 14 years.

If you’re unfamiliar with the name, Tom’s think tank pedigree is pretty impressive. A former executive director of the Adam Smith Institute, he subsequently spent several years in America working for the Reason Foundation and the Cato Institute, before returning to the UK to work for the Centre for Policy Studies.

He starts his new job at 2 Lord North Street in December, I believe, and I wish him well.

See also: Mark Littlewood: End of an era

Below from left to right: John Burton, non-executive director of Forest; John O’Connell, director, TaxPayers Alliance; Tom Clougherty; and Dr Eamonn Butler, co-founder, Adam Smith Institute

Accidents of timing

Two weeks ago Forest hosted a panel discussion at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

The title, 'Smoking Gun: The Infantilisation of Britain', was actually chosen six months earlier for an event we hosted at the IEA.

Although the conversation had moved on, with the Government announcing what seemed to be a relatively liberal and sensible approach to tobacco control, we nevertheless kept the title for Manchester because it still felt relevant.

As it turns out - and as Benjamin Elks of the TaxPayers Alliance pointed out in a blogpost last week - Forest’s fringe event in the Think Tent suddenly looked rather prescient.

And here’s another accident of timing. At the end of the month I shall be speaking at the annual Battle of Ideas in London.

The subject, ‘Freedom: Up In Smoke?', may sound like a reaction to Rishi Sunak’s recent policy announcement, but it’s actually the title of a short essay I wrote for the Academy of Ideas, organisers of the Battle of Ideas, in July, long before the prime minister u-turned on tobacco policy.

It’s one of a series of pocket-sized pamphlets that are collectively called Letters on Liberty. The first three were published in December 2020 and they have been appearing at regular intervals, three at a time, ever since.

When ‘Freedom: Up In Smoke?' is published with two other Letters it will bring the number up to 36.

Copies will be available at the Battle of Ideas but for those who can't join us at Church House, Westminster, on October 29 there may be another event next month to mark its publication. Watch this space.

Let’s see ACTion

Have you been following the election in New Zealand? In January I wrote:

If anyone is hoping that the resignation of New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern might signal a change in tobacco policy, don't hold your breath.

The law that will make it an offence to sell tobacco to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009, has already been passed by the New Zealand Parliament so it would be a surprise if it was reversed, even if the governing party (Labour) was to lose the general election later this year.

The purpose of that post (New Zealand - meet the new boss, same as the old boss?) was to query whether a change of government might prompt a change of policy.

I wasn't hugely optimistic, pointing out that:

Christopher Luxon, leader of the centre right National Party, is already on record saying he is "broadly supportive" of Labour's plan so don't expect much change there.

If there is a tiny flicker of hope it probably rests on there being a hung parliament in which the National Party can only govern with the support of smaller parties like ACT.

Nine months later Labour has been heavily defeated and Luxon is about to become prime minister.

Intriguingly, however, results suggest the National party will probably require the support of ACT, the ‘libertarian’ party whose leader David Seymour last year tweeted:

Labour’s authoritarian prohibition of tobacco has been signed up to by every party except ACT. Prohibition has never worked and it always has serious unintended consequences.

In January the Sunday Times even reported that Seymour ‘would seek to reverse Labour’s anti-smoking legislation if his party gains office'.

“This has gone beyond a public health initiative to a public control initiative,” he said.

Realistically, I would be surprised if tobacco policy is a hill Seymour will choose to die on.

Nevertheless, if the National party does need ACT's support, the issue should at least be on the table for discussion.

Either way, Sunak would be well advised to watch developments closely.

The new law may not have been a major election issue in a country where it won’t have any direct effect on consumers until January 2027, but nor did it provide the incumbent Labour Party with any sort of bounce in the polls.

Likewise, polls in the UK are largely the same as they were before the party conference season so if the aim was to generate support it would seem that Sunak’s ill-judged policy announcement has been a failure here too.

Put simply, if the PM hoped that a war on tobacco would rally the troops and attract floating voters he was poorly advised, as Jacinda Ardern and her hapless successor Chris Hipkins have now discovered.

Picture this

I think we need a brief respite from current events, so …

When I wrote about Glenda Jackson following her death in June, I mentioned that:

One of my memories of secondary school is being taken, with the rest of my history class, to the New Picture House in St Andrews to watch a special screening of Mary, Queen of Scots, the 1971 historical drama in which Jackson played Elizabeth I.

The name, New Picture House, was an anomaly even then because it opened in 1930 (or 1934, recollections vary) and was 'new' only in relation to the Cinema House on the other side of the road. That opened in 1913, hence the ‘New’ Picture House opposite:

Today the New Picture House is the only cinema in St Andrews because the Cinema House closed in 1979 before being demolished and replaced by a block of flats.

Little did I know that, four months later, the New Picture House would be subject to a bid by Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods who hope to turn it into a ‘luxury sports bar.’

According to reports this week:

The venue is expected to have golf simulators, duckpin bowling and darts and will screen sporting events.

Furthermore:

It will be named T-Squared Social - an homage to "Timberlake" and "Tiger" - after a similar venue of the same name opened in New York City last month.

That doesn’t scream ‘St Andrews’ to me so I’m not surprised the news has received a mixed response.

North Street, where the New Picture House stands, is normally pretty quiet. Although it’s within easy walking distance of the 18th green on the Old Course, there are only a handful of shops at one end, and the one pub (The Castle, at the far end near the old ruined cathedral) is long gone.

There are however lots of small hotels and b&bs nearby so I’m guessing the principal target market is the many overseas visitors who flock to play the Old Course. (It’s a public course so anyone, in theory, is allowed to play on it, regardless of their golfing ability.)

There is however a glimmer of hope for film buffs and local residents upset at the thought of losing the one remaining cinema in town:

If approved by Fife Council, the New Picture House will retain one cinema screen for theatrical releases.

How long that will survive is anyone’s guess but I’ll keep you posted on this important, and developing, local news story!

Only in Scotland

I haven't read the smoking and vaping consultation documents in full yet (see previous post), but one thing I did notice was this:

This policy [raising the age of sale by one year every year] will make it an offence for anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 to be sold tobacco products (and in Scotland, also an offence for anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 to purchase tobacco products).

I may be wrong, but buying tobacco – even if you're under age – was never previously an offence in Scotland. Like the rest of the UK, the offender was, and is, the seller not the purchaser.

Does this mean that young adults may in future be prosecuted if they attempt to buy tobacco products in Scotland? Bizarrely, the list includes heated tobacco, a reduced risk product used by smokers to quit.

It also begs the question: will it then become an offence, in Scotland, to smoke tobacco if you're born on or after 1 January 2009?

Imagine, in ten years’ time, being arrested, aged 24, for the ‘crime’ of smoking a cigarette, even in a smoking area or, potentially, your own home.

Is that where this is heading? I think we should be told.