Tonight's the night

One hundred and eighty reasons to enjoy The Freedom Dinner

Looking forward to The Freedom Dinner tomorrow night.

Last week I wrote that we had a handful of places left. I can now report that the event is fully subscribed – 180 places have been booked, up from 160 last year and 140 in 2012.

Guests include two very well known journalists but I won't say who they are until after the event in case they don't turn up!

We have libertarian bloggers, political researchers and representatives of various think tanks and pressure groups.

A dozen MPs are also due to attend but the Government has called an emergency vote on the new surveillance bill and the Tories have issued a three-line whip.

How many MPs will still make it to Canary Wharf remains to be seen but it won't spoil my enjoyment of what should be a great evening.

I am delighted to say that this year's event is supported by the Institute of Economic Affairs, The Free Society and Liberty League, the libertarian group for students and young professionals.

Following in the footsteps of General Sir Mike Jackson (former head of the British Army), Lord Bell, the IEA's Mark Littlewood, Claire Fox (director of the Institute of Ideas) and journalist James Delingpole, this year's speakers are Alex Deane, co-founder of Big Brother Watch and David Cameron's first Chief of Staff, and Brendan O'Neill, editor of the online magazine Spiked.

Brendan is also a columnist for The Big Issue and The Australian.

Like Brendan, Alex has his own Australian connections. He's married to one, for a start, and following a recent trip Down Under he's just written a Diary column for The Spectator Australia. He even mentions The Freedom Dinner.

Full article here.

Anyway, with the help of our partners, Boisdale of Canary Wharf, I am currently finalising the table plan (some people want to sit together, others need to be kept apart!) and dietary requirements.

So far the list includes:

Vegetarian
No fish
No pork
No seafood
No fish but seafood is OK
No prawns
Dairy free

And so on.

Someone else is looking forward to "top-notch Scottish steak". Oops, how shall I break it to them that, for the first time, steak is not on The Freedom Dinner menu?!

Personally I'm looking forward to the whisky cocktail reception (on the smoking terrace, naturally) beginning at 6.15.

I don't actually like whisky but our unique cocktails are laced with lemon which softens the taste dramatically.

I must remember though not to drink too many before dinner when the wine flows even more freely. After all, I have to say a few words and introduce the squeakers – sorry, speakers.

Only in Ireland

I love my regular visits to Ireland.

When I was in Dublin ten days ago I couldn't help notice that the main story was not the forthcoming Government reshuffle – finally announced on Friday – but an extraordinary kerfuffle about a series of concerts in the city.

The story, much abbreviated, is as follows:

American country and western singer Garth Brooks had been booked to perform three concerts at Croke Park, home of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA).

Demand for tickets was so high an additional two concerts were added, making five in all.

Allegedly this exceeded the agreed number of events Croke Park is allowed to stage each year and a very small minority of local residents, led (again, allegedly) by a long-standing political activist who is not a local resident but has a grievance with the GAA, complained.

Consequently Dublin City Council insisted that only three concerts could go ahead and Brooks responded by saying "All or nothing".

Concert-goers, some of whom were travelling long distances from abroad, were up in arms. So too were local businesses including Dublin hotels which were expecting hundreds of thousands of extra visitors.

It's a total mess and utterly compelling. I urge you to read about it. The Irish media is awash with reports but here are a few:

Croke Park residents threaten legal action if Garth Brooks concerts are licensed by council (Irish Times)

Brooks issues ultimatum: 'Five shows or none at all' (RTE News)

Noisy neigbours: Battle for Garth Brooks rumbles on (Irish Independent)

Blame report for Garth Brooks fiasco will be extensive (Irish Times)

Mystery grows as man who tried to stop Garth Brooks gigs claims: I was given £12,000 to fund court case (Belfast Telegraph)

Even our man in Cork, John Mallon, has something to say: Common sense and the Irish.

Meanwhile the long-awaited Irish Government reshuffle finally took place on Friday.

This was of special interest to Forest because we wanted to know the fate of health minister James Reilly whose personal mission to rid the country of tobacco had become all-consuming.

Not only does he want to ban smoking in cars with children and introduce plain packaging, longer-term he wants Ireland to be "smoke free" by 2025.

Being anti-tobacco however was not enough to save his reputation. Generally Reilly was perceived as a bumbling, incompetent minister who presided over a health service whose budget was wildly out of control.

In fact it has been assumed for months that his days as health minister were numbered and the only thing keeping him in office was his friendship with Irish prime minister Enda Kenny and his position as deputy leader of Fine Gael.

Lo and behold, and to save his old friend losing face, Kenny has come up with one of the great political fudges.

The Taoiseach has appointed a new Minister for Health (Leo Varadkar) and has given Reilly the job of Children and Public Health Minister, "with an emphasis on tobacco and obesity".

How Varadkar will react to Reilly calling the shots on tobacco and obesity remains to be seen. All we know is, Reilly will take his anti-smoking crusade to the Children portfolio.

The most unusual appointment however involves Simon Coveney, Ireland's Minister for Agriculture, because in addition to his existing job, Coveney has been handed the defence portfolio.

I'll hand you over to John Mallon for his comment:

"Just how Coveney is to reconcile those two is the subject of conjecture. Perhaps he'll opt to arm the farmers by putting gun turrets on tractors? If we are invaded then Simon could issue rotten vegetables to throw at the enemy.

"In this new set-up he also controls both our gun boats and our trawlers under one umbrella meaning he must help and encourage fishermen while doing everything he can to stop them."

Me? I couldn't possibly comment.

My meeting with mysterious Mr A

Apologies for the lack of posts last week.

I spent two days in Switzerland – Zurich, to be precise – but what with the travelling and other work I haven't had time to write.

The principal purpose of my visit was to meet a mysterious Russian, Mr A, who has an ambitious embryonic plan I can't divulge. Not yet, anyway.

We arranged to meet in a cigar shop – La Casa del Habano – a 15-minute walk from my hotel.

I arrived a few minutes early to find another man waiting. Mr B had flown in from Vienna for the same meeting.

Two minutes later Mr A arrived with a rather attractive East European translator.

I was beginning to feel like a character in a John le Carré novel.

Mr A spoke neither English or German, although he understood German.

Being English and of a certain age I speak neither Russian, German or any other language.

Fortunately Mr B spoke very good English so with the help of the translator we muddled through.

Following the initial introductions we crossed the street to a restaurant called Aura where I discovered the most magnificent bar and smokers' lounge.

Within seconds my colleagues produced two enormous cigars which they proceeded to light. The unobtrusive ventilation was so good I could barely see or smell any smoke.

Sadly I must draw a veil on the conversation that followed.

All I'll add is that the Swiss attitude to smoking, in Zurich at least, seems pretty tolerant.

At the railway station, for example, I spent a spare hour reading English newspapers and drinking coffee at an Italian caffe that had chairs and tables on the main (covered) concourse.

Every table had an ashtray and seated at the tables were smokers of every age group bar children.

Meanwhile people drifted around or walked purposely across the concourse, some lighting up as they did so. No-one paid them any attention. Why should they?

Somehow, with our ridiculously extreme anti-smoking legislation, Britain has created problems that don't exist in countries like Switzerland and Austria.

Below: Bar and smokers' lounge at Aura, Bleicherweg 5, Zürich

Another day another airport

Got back from Dublin on Saturday.

Today I'm off to Switzerland via Luton Airport. It's a business trip but if I told you who I'm meeting (and why) I'd have to shoot myself.

All will be revealed in due course. (Teaser: we're meeting at Casa del Habano, Bleicherweg 18, Zurich.)

Business done I'm going to visit my aunt and one or two cousins who I last saw in 2011 when I took my family to Zurich by car. I wrote about it here:

Good Friday in Switzerland

And here: Homeward bound.

See also: Swiss stay reasonable.

I'm told it can be very hot in Switzerland at this time of year but I checked the BBC website yesterday and it predicted moderate temperatures, heavy rain and high humidity all week.

No sitting on sunny patios or balconies for me, then.

Thanks a bunch.

PS. Just been told the person I am meeting doesn't speak English and I don't speak his language.

This should go well.

Handful of tickets left for The Freedom Dinner: last chance to book

We have less than a dozen tickets remaining for The Freedom Dinner on July 15.

Over 150 places have been snapped up and for the third year since it was launched in 2012 it promises to be a wonderful evening.

Organised by Forest, this year's event is supported by the Institute of Economic Affairs, The Free Society and Liberty League.

We begin with a drinks reception on the smoking terrace overlooking the fountains at Cabot Square.

A three-course dinner including wine will then be served in the main restaurant which boasts Europe's longest whisky bar.

There will be live music and stimulating after dinner speeches.

This year's speakers are Brendan O'Neill, editor of the online magazine Spiked and a columnist for The Australian and The Big Issue, and Alex Deane, co-founder and former director of Big Brother Watch and David Cameron's first chief of staff.

Guests include MPs, journalists, political researchers and bloggers, plus representatives of various think tanks and other groups.

Tickets cost £95 (single). To book visit this page.

See also: "Marxist proletarian firebrand" to speak at Forest's Freedom Dinner.

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Delayed or derailed? Ireland's plain packaging bill parked on siding

Currently in Dublin.

Arrived yesterday morning and spent the afternoon watching TDs discuss the Public Health (Standard Packaging of Tobacco) Bill as it went through its second stage in the Dáil having already been passed by the Seanad.

There wasn't much of a debate. TDs who wanted to speak were allotted a time. As far as I could tell they came, said their piece to a largely empty chamber, and left.

As the session was coming to an end Minister for Health James Reilly turned up to make what I thought would be a concluding speech before leaving the chamber in a blaze of glory.

Instead, and somewhat bizarrely, the long-winded efforts of earlier speakers resulted in the 'debate' being adjourned.

Insiders tell me it will be September, at the earliest, before stage two is completed. By that time Reilly will be long gone as everyone expects him to be sacked in a Cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday.

Given the Fat One's determination to force plain packaging on Ireland as quickly as possible I was surprised at the lack of urgency among the bill's supporters.

Although he supported it one TD spoke so slowly and inconsequentially it sounded like he was trying to filibuster the bill.

From a smoker's perspective the best speech was made by Independent TD Finian McGrath. As I was listening I tweeted a couple of his comments:

Plain packaging: "Important to challenge the cosy consensus that exists on this matter," says @Finianmcgrathtd

Plain packaging: @Finianmcgrathtd calls for "honest presentation of facts"

Finian has agreed to send Forest Eireann a copy of his speech and when he does we'll post it on our website.

You don't have to wait to read it in full however because you can also read a transcript here (scroll down).

His comments were also noted by today's Irish Times in this report, Smokers ‘hammered’ with punitive legislation, TD claims.

What will happen when James Reilly is removed from his post remains to be seen. The new incumbent might want the legislation introduced as soon as possible; then again, he (or she) might not.

As a poll for Forest Eireann demonstrated last year, very few people believe plain packs will stop children smoking, and plain packaging ranked last of four issues people thought the Minister for Health should prioritise in 2014.

Meanwhile it was tweeted from New Zealand on Tuesday that:

Health Committee just voted 6-4 in favour of delaying the Plain Packaging Bill.

If I was an anti-tobacco campaigner bent on world domination (or standardised packaging) I'd be a little concerned. Wouldn't you?