Drugs: where do we draw the line?

Another guest at the Forest party on Tuesday was Suzy Dean, a journalist and writer who works for the Manifesto Club and is behind tonight's debate, "Drugs: Where Do We Draw The Line?".

Speakers include consultant psychiatrist Swaran Singh; Marcus Roberts, director of policy at DrugScope; and James Douglass, who has conducted postgraduate research into drug cultures and has written for the Independent, Guardian and Spiked.

To coincide with the debate, James has written THIS article for The Free Society.

For full details of the event click HERE.

PS. I intended to go to tonight's event - until I remembered that I have tickets to see Lou Reed's Berlin at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham. I can't be in two places at one time but if anyone wants to go to the Manifesto Club Night and post a report on this blog, please do.

Smoke-free England?

You know it's been a good event when Dr Eamonn Butler, director of the Adam Smith Institute, emails to say, "Jolliest party of the year! Thank you so much".

Last night close on 300 people squeezed into Boisdale Bar & Restaurant in London. Pausing only to pick up the first of several complementary complimentary drinks (vodka cocktail, glass of wine or beer), many headed straight for the cigar terrace (capacity: 45) which groaned under the weight of a hundred smokers.

Star guest was an old friend of Forest - David Hockney, Britain's greatest living artist. Just back from Baden Baden, the spa town in Germany which he visits every year, David told me that he came home with 6,000 cigarettes. "I never buy them in this country."

Hockney didn't hang around long - he's a bit deaf, and large, noisy crowds make it difficult for him to hear what people are saying - but while he was there he spoke to a number of people, including the Observer's Lynn Barber, another very welcome guest.

Others included Madsen Pirie and the aforementioned Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute; Matthew Elliott, director of The Taxpayers Alliance; Simon Richards, director of The Freedom Association; Claire Fox, director the Institute of Ideas and her colleague Tony Gilland; Rob Lyons, deputy editor of Spiked; Tom Utley of the Daily Mail; Telegraph leader writer Alex Singleton; Simon Hills of The Times; and Michael White, political editor of the Guardian.

Less well known (but no less welcome) was Sarah Bland and her husband Darren. Sarah is nine months' pregnant and even though the baby is due on Friday she still wanted to come and support our event. (You couldn't make it up.)

There was a warm welcome too for Dick Engel of the Dutch smokers' group Stichting Rokersbelangen. Dick is a former police officer (vice squad), a good man to have on our side. (His colleague Ton was supposed to come but missed the plane. I won't tell you what Dick said.)

Other long distance travellers included our own Brian Monteith (Edinburgh) and Neil Rafferty (the Borders), and Liz Barber (Stockton-on-Tees).

It was good to see (even briefly) some of the regulars on this blog: Dave Atherton, Joyce Stewart, Rose Whiteley, Dave Hook. (I don't know what happened to Peter Thurgood. If you're reading this, Peter, Joyce was looking for you.)

Friction TV came and filmed a series of "Smoking Breaks" for the Forest website (we will launch our own video player later in the year). I was interviewed by the Guardian and German radio.

Guest speakers were Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley (West Yorkshire); Nigel Farage, a 60-a-day smoker (did he really say that?) and leader of UKIP; and "rebel landlord" Hamish Howitt. Michael White describes their speeches HERE.

Most poignant sight of the evening had to be Ranald Macdonald, MD of Boisdale, gently asking guests in the (enclosed) Garden Restaurant to stub out their fags. "I felt really bad about it," he told me later, "but we could lose our license."

On the cigar terrace and out on the street, at the front of the building, nothing was going to stop guests lighting up. Smoke-free England? I don't think so.

Postscript: the picture above features Forest supporter Bob Loveday with a US duty free packet of cigarettes. Note the absence of any health warning. Bob is a long-serving member of Bob Geldof's band.

First, I need some sleep!

After a late night (following a 4.00am start), I have just got back from London and our Smoke-Free England? party at Boisdale. A report will follow later. For the moment I can record that an estimated 300 people turned up, including David Hockney (photographed, left, with yours truly), and our guest speakers were Philip Davies MP, UKIP leader Nigel Farage MEP, and "rebel landlord" Hamish Howitt who is standing in the Haltemprice & Howden by-election. More to follow.

BTW, Michael White, avuncular political editor of the Guardian, has THIS to say about the party. You can comment.

Total Politics: debating matters

The first issue of Total Politics is out this weekend. The publisher is Iain Dale and it's bankrolled by Tory billionaire Michael Ashcroft, see HERE. (Update: Iain tells me that Ashcroft is not bankrolling the magazine. "He is a commercial investor, just like several others.")

I haven't seen a copy yet (apparently it's on sale in some branches of WH Smith, Borders and Waterstones) so I'll reserve judgement, but the launch issue includes a head-to-head debate on the question "Was the smoking ban right?". In the "yes" corner is the Guardian's Polly Toynbee; and in the "No" corner is my old friend Madsen Pirie of the Adam Smith Institute.

Writing as an ex-smoker, Toynbee argues:

"Banning indoor smoking in public places was a big political risk. Would smokers rebel? The fear was that people would disobey and make the same monkey of the law we have seen with the fox hunting. But one year on, it is a law the country has taken to heart. No-one would dare light up in the wrong place – not for fear of the plod, but fear of the public. It has been an unexpectedly popular law."

Pirie (an occasional cigar smoker) responds:

"The smoking ban arose from an unfortunate desire some people have to make others live as they would have them live, rather than as they themselves would want to live. The same desire has characterised destructive political ideologies and religious zealotry, and does not belong in a free society. The smoking ban has significantly eroded that freedom."

You can read the full feature online HERE.

Update on Sunday, June 22, 2008 by Simon Clark

I have just spent the afternoon at a garden party in Cambridge where one of the guests was ... Madsen Pirie.

Forest in the House

On July 1st, the first anniversary of the public smoking ban in England, Philip Davies MP is hosting a reception for Forest in the House of Commons. This is an invitation only event to which we are inviting MPs and a small representative group of people for whom the legislation has had a major social or economic impact. (The group includes include smokers, tolerant non-smokers, pub and bar owners, to name a few.)

If you have a message for your MP (or MPs generally) concerning the smoking ban, please comment here or email me direct. We are particularly keen to register with MPs the negative impact the ban is having on many people's lives. Describe how the ban has affected you personally.

Also, what amendments to the current legislation would you like to see introduced following the review of the Health Act in 2010? Third, has the ban influenced you to cut down or quit smoking? Fourth, what do you think of the government for introducing a comprehensive ban (ignoring its manifesto commitment to exclude private clubs and pubs that don't serve food) and will it influence your vote at the next election?

We need your name and (optionally) your age and occupation. The best comments will be added to the document we are sending to MPs to mark the launch of our Amend The Smoking Ban campaign.

Have you RSVP'd yet?

We have a handful of tickets left for our Smoke-Free England? party at Boisdale on Tuesday (June 24).

The event marks the first anniversary of the smoking ban in England. We are holding it in advance of  July 1st to give journalists an opportunity to speak to a wide range of smokers from different backgrounds who are opposed to the ban and who believe there should be amendments to the legislation.

If you want to come and have not yet RSVP'd, don't delay. Email events@forestonline.org or telephone Georgina on 01223 270156 (office hours).

David and Shami need to lighten up

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty, has been advising David Davis (allegedly). This week government minister Andy Burnham expressed surprise that a man "who was, and still is, I believe, an exponent of capital punishment" could be having "late-night, hand-wringing, heart-melting phone calls with Shami Chakrabarti".

Some people, including it seems Chakrabarti herself, have leapt to the conclusion that these comments were designed to set tongues wagging. Today's papers report that she has written to Burnham and Gordon Brown accusing Burnham of "debasing" his office.

Hmmm. In the cut and thrust of politics, Burnham's comments are pretty tame stuff. It's a mildly amusing line which suggests that Burnham has a sense of humour. Had Boris Johnson said it I'm pretty sure we'd all be laughing with him, not talking about smears or the threat of legal action.

I'm a fan of Chakrabarti in the sense that I admire her intellect, her drive, and the fact that she has put herself very firmly on the political map. (I'm less of a fan of Liberty, but that's another matter.) If however she has a genuine interest in helping Davies, she should let this matter drop. DD's campaign is not about Shami Chakrabarti. It's about civil liberties: 42-day detention, compulsory ID cards, record numbers of surveillance cameras etc.

Now that she is a "celebrity" in her own right (she recently appeared on Have I Got News For You) I wonder if she is taking herself a little too seriously. We've never spoken, or been introduced, but our paths do occasionally cross, usually in some anonymous BBC corridor.

Two years ago we were guests on The Late Edition with comedian Marcus Brigstocke (same programme, different slots) and last year I attended a dinner in London where Shami was the guest speaker. Humour, it has to be said, isn't her forte. Gravitas is her thing, and she should stick to it.

That, perhaps, is why she wants to nip any innuendo in the bud. Ditto David Davis. My advice? Keep the campaign focussed on the issues. The government wants the by-election to become a farce. Ministers and their lapdogs in the media will inevitably want to mock the candidates and their advisers. It's to be expected.

Don't play their game. Rise above it. But if you are attacked personally, laugh, dismiss it - and let people draw their own conclusions about why you are being targetted.

Joe Jackson Down Under

Joe Jackson is back in the UK this week for concerts in Wolverhampton, Gateshead, Manchester, Edinburgh and London. His current world tour - which began in February and has taken him to Canada, America, Australia, South Africa and Israel - will finally wind up at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam in July after further gigs in Germany, France and Belgium.

In addition to his two-part Smoker's Guide to Europe, published HERE and HERE, Joe has now written a smoker's eye view of Australia. It doesn't make pretty reading. Describing Brisbane as "the place where bad smokers go when they die" he notes:

In Brisbane it's illegal to smoke anywhere food or drink is served or consumed, including at outside tables. Sometimes there's a dismal area 15 feet away where you can go and have a fag but it's illegal to take your drink.

Most disturbing was the email Joe received from a journalist from the Melbourne paper The Age, with whom he'd done a telephone interview a couple of weeks earlier.

He'd been sympathetic to my views on smoking, and wanted to tell me that his article had been 'butchered' by his editor on instructions from their legal department. It seems there are now laws governing what can and can't be printed about tobacco, and it's actually illegal to say anything which might be construed as positive.

He adds:

I was starting to feel numbed by all this by the time we arrived in Perth, our last stop. This was where the bus driver who was to take us from the airport to our hotel announced that no food or drink was allowed on board. Not just no eating or drinking; we were forbidden to have any food or drink in our possession.

The full article will be published on The Free Society blog next week.

Civil partnerships? You're fired!

Iain Dale has posted a rather jolly description of his recent civil partnership HERE. Funnily enough, it was Iain and the subject of gay marriages that led, indirectly, to the only sacking of my career (so far!).

Iain and I worked together a few years ago when we produced The Politico, a quarterly magazine for Iain's bookshop Politico's. At the time I was also editing Freedom Today for the Freedom Association. Encouraged perhaps by my association with Iain (I was keen that the magazine should appeal to a wider audience, including Politico's more libertarian clientele), I commissioned and published an article promoting gay weddings.

Well, one thing led to another and a few months later I was fired. Following articles about sex and recreational drugs and interviews with the likes of Felix Dennis (heavily outweighed, I should add, by "traditional" articles about the EU, the monarchy and Gibraltar), the final indignity for readers of Freedom Today during my two-year editorship was being forced to read an interview with a pretty Cambridge student called Jess Hudson who featured on the cover and was best known for her love of, er, boxing.

For the record, I get on very well with my successor, Simon Richards, and current TFA chairman Roger Helmer is a very different animal to his predecessor. In fact, we will shortly be announcing a joint initiative for this year's Conservative party conference, so watch this space.

No way to tackle our drinking culture

The age for buying alcohol from supermarkets and off-licences in Scotland could rise from 18 to 21, the BBC reports. "Scottish ministers said it was time for radical action in the fight against Scotland's binge drinking culture."

Last year Public Policy Research, the journal of New Labour's favourite think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, declared that it was time to practise "tough love", such as reviewing the minimum drinking age. Britain, it said, should consider making the legal drinking age 21.

On today's Free Society blog, former MSP Brian Monteith takes issue with these no doubt well-meaning prohibitionists when he writes:

As a parent of two boys now in their early twenties let me provide some simple observations. Kids demand football strips with “Carlsberg” or “Guinness” emblazoned across the chest because they want the authentic strip their heroes wear – not some diddy imitation.

The only way to curb the demand is to ban the advertising of alcohol branding on any sports-related clothing – no doubt something that will ultimately come. Did it make my sons want to drink Carlsberg? No, they prefer real ale.

Restrictions on a popular drinks such as alcopops or the practice of drinking outside can result in kids switching to stronger drinks such as cider and imbibing out of sight of anyone – a far more dangerous situation.

Full article HERE.

Is Hamish right to stand?

I see that "rebel landlord" Hamish Howitt wants to stand against David Davis in the Haltemprice and Howden by-election. Hamish, who spoke very eloquently at the Forest reception at last year's Conservative party conference, describes the former shadow home secretary as a "hypocrite" who is "standing up for terrorists while failing to stand up for ordinary working class smokers".

Anyone who knows Davis will confirm that he is the last person to stand up for terrorists. The point, surely, is that anyone detained for 28 (or 42) days without charge has to be considered innocent because there is insufficient evidence with which to charge them. Even when charged they remain innocent until proven guilty (although, if the charges are sufficiently serious, they can rightly be held on remand). That's what this particular debate is all about and it's fundamental to the British way of life.

I like Hamish very much, and I sympathise with the stance he has taken in Blackpool where he runs two smoker-friendly bars. At the very least, however, and before he confirms his candidature, he should seek Davis's view on the smoking ban and find out whether it is something that could be embraced by the latter's civil rights' campaign. What we need, in my view, is a broad civil rights coalition. What we don't need is something reminiscent of the famous scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian:

"We're the People's Front of Judea! The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front."

There is an opportunity, here, to make a point about the smoking ban and the war on tobacco, but I'm not convinced that standing against David Davis is the best way to do it. It could turn the by-election into the very farce that Gordon Brown, Labour and the media are predicting. If that happens, the only people who will benefit are the government.

Above (at the 2007 Conservative party conference): yours truly, Roger Helmer MEP, Hamish Howitt and former MSP Brian Monteith

If you smoke, vote

Further to the UKIP post below, I have been meaning to comment on the slogan "Can't smoke, won't vote" which has appeared on some message boards. I have no problem with people not voting, if that's their choice, and I am vehemently against compulsory voting, but on the smoking issue I couldn't disagree more. That is why - when the next general election comes around - Forest will launch a campaign with the very clear message, "If you smoke, vote".

In fact, when the the Crewe and Nantwich by-election was called last month, we (briefly) considered putting forward a candidate to publicise our Amend The Smoking Ban initiative. The aim, had we gone ahead, was modest to say the least. Our candidate would almost certainly lose his deposit, but if he attracted even a few hundred votes from disgruntled Labour supporters unwilling to vote Conservative, it might - in a close election - have been the difference between Labour winning or losing the seat.

In the event we thought better of it, Labour lost the plot, the Tories won by a landslide, and the only single-issue candidate (Paul Thorogood, representing Cut Tax on Diesel and Petrol) received a meagre 118 votes, 0.28 per cent of those who voted.

Smokers can make a difference, but you must vote and you must vote tactically. In contrast, not voting smacks of indifference, which is the last thing smokers (and libertarians) can afford right now.

Ireland: democracy in action

It seems the Irish have rejected the Treaty of Lisbon. Oh, to be in a Dublin bar tonight! I am tempted to jump in the car, drive to Stansted and catch the first available flight.

But first, a word of warning. Defeat in Ireland should put a stop to the treaty, which needs to be ratified by all 27 member states, but the EU doesn't work like that. The BBC is reporting that European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso is calling  for other states to continue their ratification processes and said "a solution should be sought". I bet he is.

Let's remind ourselves how the Lisbon Treaty came about. It was drawn up because voters in France and the Netherlands rejected the draft European constitution in 2005. Even the BBC admits that the treaty is remarkably similar to the original constitution and "contains many of the changes the constitution attempted to introduce". See HERE.

The BBC is also reporting that "The British government is expected to continue ratifying the EU Treaty despite its rejection by Irish voters." Perhaps David Davis should include this issue in his civil rights campaign. We were promised a referendum. We should get a referendum. (For more information see the excellent I Want A Refendum campaign website.)

Which reminds me ... we were promised exemptions to the smoking ban (in the 2005 Labour party manifesto). We should get exemptions to the smoking ban. Never let them forget it.

Why UKIP is not the answer

On June 24 Forest will host a party to mark the first anniversary of the public smoking ban in England. A confirmed guest is Nigel Farage (left), leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party. This isn't the first Forest event Nigel has attended. He's energetic, charismatic, and a thoroughly likeable bloke. When he was elected leader in 2006 it was the best thing that could have happened to UKIP. But I still wouldn't vote for them, even though I am a eurosceptic and I welcome the party's opposition to the smoking ban.

Like it or not, UKIP is not a serious force in British politics and neither my vote (nor yours) is going to change that. The party has one MP (who was elected as a Tory before he defected) and after the next election the number will almost certainly be a big fat zero (again). The party has little or no influence at national level and I can't see this changing - in my lifetime, at least.

To put UKIP in perspective, the LibDems have 63 MPs and unless we have a hung parliament (a very rare event in modern British politics) or we change to proportional representation (which I am strongly against), they too can only dream of having a significant impact on government policy.

Even if UKIP had the same number of MPs as the DUP (nine) and could influence a close House of Commons vote in the way that the unionists did this week (ie by doing a secret deal with an under pressure government), do you honestly think they would seek amendments to the smoking ban above all other considerations?

If - like me - you want exemptions to the ban, a vote for UKIP is a wasted vote unless (and this is highly unlikely) the UKIP candidate is running a close second in a marginal seat where the sitting MP is an avowed anti-smoker who voted for the smoking ban. A protest vote for a UKIP candidate who limps home third or fourth is not going to change anything.

Rightly or wrongly, most people (including political commentators) see UKIP as a single issue party and that issue is not tobacco control. (I know some prominent UKIP supporters and they are not social libertarians, believe me.)

The ONLY way the smoking ban is ever going to amended is by lobbying Labour and Conservative MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates in the hope that, eventually, the message will get through to those in power or close to power. UKIP is not in power and never will be.

Nigel Farage will receive a very warm welcome when he joins us at Boisdale on June 24. But if I had the brass neck, the one question I would put to him and to Nick Clegg, another right of centre politician (who will NOT be at the party) is this: "If you really want to make a difference, wouldn't you be better joining the Conservatives?"

Hats off to David Davis

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has today resigned not only his shadow cabinet post but also as a member of Parliament in order fight a by-election in his own constituency.
 
He'll win, of course (so there's no great risk involved), but what a fantastic stunt and what an embarrassment it will be for Gordon Brown and the Labour party. Absolutely priceless! DeHavilland, the political information service, reports that:

Speaking on the steps of the House of Commons a few moments ago Mr Davis explained that he wished fight the ensuing by-election as a referendum against the 'slow strangulation of British freedoms'.
 
The shadow Home Secretary argued that the Commons, in accepting controversial proposals for 42-day detention, had failed the UK. The Government could use the Parliament Act to force the Bill through the Lords, Mr Davis warned, although he maintained that the legal basis for this was uncertain as the measure had not appeared in Labour's 2005 manifesto.
 
The Government had presided over the 'insidious, surreptitious and relentless erosion of our freedoms', Mr Davis claimed, highlighting the development of ID cards, a DNA database, and an assault on jury trials.
 
Britain was becoming a 'database state', the shadow Home Secretary asserted, criticising powers to clamp down on peaceful protest and 'hate laws' which silenced honest debate.

Although the smoking ban and threats of further tobacco controls will not be at the forefront of Davis's (re-election) campaign (it may not even get a mention), I urge everyone reading this blog to write to him about the impact of the smoking ban on you, personally.

David Davis is one of politics' good guys. I interviewed him a few years back and he impressed me enormously. In my view, he is one of the few politicians in Britain who actually listens. He's not as slick as David Cameron but with David Davis you know exactly what he stands for - decency, honesty, integrity (I say that with my fingers well and truly crossed!) - and what he believes in.

Politics just got really, really interesting again.

Update on Thursday, June 12, 2008 by Simon Clark

Listening to news reports, it seems there is a 50:50 chance that Labour will decide not to contest the Haltemprice and Howden by-election. Tactically, one can understand it. Why give Davis (and the Conservatives, assuming Cameron throws his weight behind his former leadership rival) the oxygen of publicity? On the other hand, if Labour really believe the 42-day terror detention limit is justified, surely they should have the guts to defend the policy and ask the electorate to support it. Not for the first time, Brown has the opportunity to demonstrate that he has a spine. Will he take it or will fear of a humiliating defeat prove decisive? More important, if the main political parties decide to fight only those seats they think they can win, we may as well tear up our first past the post system and introduce proportional representation now. Is that what Labour want?

Update on Thursday, June 12, 2008 by Simon Clark

I have just watched Nick Robinson, the BBC's political editor, on the Six O'Clock News. The way I heard it, he seemed to be suggesting that a by-election on this issue is the last thing David Cameron would have wanted. Davis, Robinson seemed to suggest, must be "bonkers". It will be interesting if the BBC continues to spin the story this way on the Ten O'Clock News and Newsnight. They just don't get it, do they? Civil liberties deserve to be properly debated in this country. For years the mainstream political parties have paid lip service to the issue, which is why so many of us feel disenfranchised from the political system. (And no, UKIP is not the answer to our problems, so PLEASE don't come on this blog and suggest that it is.)