What would George Orwell have thought?

Russell Lewis is a former leader writer for the Daily Mail, a former acting general director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, and former director of the Conservative Political Centre. Writing on The Free Society blog about the perceived threat of global warming he says:

Would that George Orwell were alive today. How he would have enjoyed exposing global alarmism, the contempt for ordinary people’s liberties of its sponsors, and the juggernaut of deceit and venal interests which propels it.

Full article HERE. Comments welcome.

Labour's threat to freedom

Indignant because a majority of Labour (and Lib Dem) MPs voted against holding a referendum on the EU constitution Lisbon Treaty, the Daily Mail asks: "What hope for democracy when MPs pledge one thing to get elected - and then do the exact opposite when the voters have given them their trust?"

Funny, I don't remember the Mail complaining when Labour MPs voted to ban smoking in all enclosed public places - despite a clear manifesto commitment to exempt private members clubs and pubs that don't serve food.

They got away with it then because, well, it was only smoking. Suddenly, when the issue is something the Mail cares about, the paper gets on its high horse and starts talking about "democracy" and "trust".

As we keep saying, a free society depends upon people defending issues they themselves may not care for but which are consistent with a tolerant, liberal, democratic society. You can't pick and choose. Ignore "small" freedoms (such as smoking in some public places) and you risk losing more important freedoms.

When Labour MPs cynically ignored one manifesto commitment - with barely a whimper from other political parties or the "liberal" or conservative media - it was predictable, and inevitable, that they would do it again. That's what bullies do, until someone stands up to them and puts a stop to it.

Politically speaking, it's time to give this government - and the bully state it represents - a smack in the mouth. It may be frowned upon today, but my parents' generation was right - it's the only language bullies understand.

Help smokers come in from the cold

Yesterday I met a smoker who - in the words of Ronan Thomas (HERE) - is down but not out. Mark Harris wants to visit 1000 pubs in 90 days. The aim is to highlight the impact the ban is having on many pubs and clubs and on customers who are forced to stand outside if they want to smoke.

As I have said before, anyone can sit at a computer and bang out a few words on the internet. (I'm not knocking it, but it's not enough. If you are going to write, you must also write to MPs, councillors, local and national newspapers etc.) Unlike most people, Mark is prepared to go that extra mile to get his message across. He is passionate about the issue but his aims are moderate and practical.

One thousand pubs in 90 days is an ambitious plan and he needs help - financial, logistical and moral support. I don't know if Forest can help him. Resources are tight and if we support third party initiatives they have to be part of a short, medium or long-term strategy that is well-planned, well-coordinated and has clear, realistic targets.

Mark's project is called Inn The Cold and he has set up a website HERE. Offers of help (including accommodation, local contacts etc) are welcome. For more information email mark.harris@innthecold.com. And watch this space.

Britain's smokers: down but not out

Writing on the Free Society blog today, journalist Ronan Thomas comments:

"Despite the ban, smoking itself is not going to be extinguished in the UK any time soon ... Cigar and cigarette smoking will gain more of a social cachet in a new 'counter-culture' of freedom. Bloody-minded British smokers will seek ever more ingenious ways to evade the rules. Smoking may be down in the UK but it is definitely not out."

Full article HERE.

Glad to be back on a Mac

The Apple Store in Regent Street is a few hundred yards from our London office. On Wednesday I popped in to buy the new MacBook Air. They were sold out. Fortunately John Lewis is just around the corner. I got the last one before they too were out of stock.

When I got home it took two minutes to set up and connect "the world's thinnest laptop" to the internet via our BT Home Hub. Two years ago it took several days - and numerous pleas for technical help from a call centre in India - before I could connect my old PC laptop to the same wi-fi network.

A lot has changed - notably the operating system - in the five years since I last worked on a Mac, but a Mac is still a Mac. And if you're one of those crass, insensitive people who say, "It's still just a computer", you're wrong. That's like saying a BMW 3-series is just a car. It's not. In its class, it's a great car.

I stopped using Macs because I was no longer editing and designing magazines and - crucially - the content management system on the Forest website was not Mac compatible. Thankfully, the CMS on the new site - to be launched next month - is compatible, hence my return to the fold.

Next week I may even treat myself to an iMac so we can make (and edit) videos for the new site. Happy days.

Another victim of the smoking ban

Yesterday, in answer to an SOS from a hard-pressed proprietor, I found myself in Braintree, Essex. Paul Keenan runs a live music bar. The smoking ban has not been good for business. Since September, when it became too cold to sit outside in comfort, trade has fallen dramatically. According to Paul, a business that was doing OK is now losing money every week.

Paul was hoping that warmer weather would entice some customers back. Instead, following complaints from a neighbour about the "noise" from people talking in the two outdoor smoking areas, the council has - in effect - closed them down.

Last week, desperate to attract customers, Paul decided to allow people to smoke in one of two bars. (The other remains smoke free.) A council official has already paid him a visit. A letter will no doubt follow. And after that?

I said to Paul what I have said to others in a similar situation. I can't and won't encourage them to break the law because it's not my money or my business that's at stake if they are prosecuted or, worse, lose their licence. (Personally I think it's irresponsible to egg someone on unless they have taken legal advice and know exactly what they are doing and the possible consequences.)

Some argue that they will go out of business anyway, so what do they have to lose? That, of course, is the real scandal. Thanks in part to the smoking ban, pubs all over the country are closing and politicians seem happy to watch it happen. In some cases it's down to bad management or market forces and the ban is just one of a number of factors. But there's no doubt that the ban is hurting many businesses and there's no need for it when a small amendment to the law (allowing licensed smoking rooms, for example) would make a significant difference.

Anyway, we have agreed to highlight Paul's predicament in the hope that the council will help rather than hinder his business. Don't hold your breath.

No limit on intolerance

Always happy to have the final word, Brian Monteith (above) has this to say about smoking permits in today's Edinburgh Evening News:

If ever anyone had any doubts that once the control freaks that seek to govern our lives will not rest until they completely dictate what we can do, then the idea floated by Julian Le Grand of Health England that to buy tobacco you should need a permit, must surely settle the argument.

Not content with stopping people from smoking socially together in their local pub or club, not content with telling people that they can’t smoke in their stationery car even if they are alone - if it's used as a part time mini-cab - now they want to hound smokers further. 

Let’s face it they want to eat away at smokers’ liberties until they have none.  Next it will be the permit to buy alcohol and eventually the permit to buy meat.  These people know no limit.

Full article, including Brian's thoughts on DNA profiling, HERE.

Update on Friday, February 29, 2008 by Simon Clark

In response to a question from Dr Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, public health minister Dawn Primarolo this week replied, "The introduction of smoking permits is not Government policy". Not yet.

Middle class and militant or just plain stupid?

The Telegraph's Iain Martin may have been a bit sniffy about the Heathrow protesters stealing IWAR's thunder (see below), but it didn't stop the paper from featuring a large photograph of one of the five demonstrators on its front page.

And no wonder! Smartly dressed in a Paisley-print blouse, Tamsin Omond, 23, fits the new-look Telegraph like a glove. A former Westminster School pupil who graduated with a First in English Literature from Trinity College, Cambridge, I predict that Tamsin has a great future - not as a member of the "climate action group" Plane Stupid, but as the Telegraph's new eco worrier. (You read it here first.)

Meanwhile another member of Plane Stupid, Graham Thompson, 34, is described as a "veteran campaigner". I shall be 49 on Sunday. What does that make me??? All I can say is, thank God for all the old codgers supporting the I Want A Referendum campaign. They make a middle-aged man feel just a little younger!

Matters of fact

Yesterday's "I Want A Referendum" protest is reported HERE in today's Daily Telegraph. It is also commented upon by Iain Martin HERE. As Martin notes, this good humoured, well-mannered event was overshadowed on the day by a small group of anti-Heathrow activists who climbed on the roof of the Parliament buildings (not as difficult as it sounds, actually) before unfurling banners and phoning Sky News on their mobiles. Needless to say this excited the media much more than 2,500 protestors standing in an orderly queue to lobby their MP.

From what I could see, the referendum protest was very well managed. Protestors were given placards, balloons and stickers to identify themselves. At one point the queue ran several hundred yards from St Stephen's Entrance to the Victoria Tower Gardens. Volunteer stewards were on hand to help, advise and reclaim all placards and balloons before people entered the security area and, from there, the House of Commons itself.

On the down side the event was non-party political but that didn't stop a handful of UKIP supporters showing up with UKIP banners. Likewise, there were a few eccentrics with their own, handmade, placards, but nothing to frighten the horses. The biggest problem was the average age of the protesters. Martin writes that they were "of all ages" - which is true - but the overwhelming majority were 60+. (The picture, above left, that appears on the IWAF website this morning is not representative, believe me!)

All this is food for thought if we want to organise our own lobby of Parliament. I am told that information about the event was sent to a mailing list of around 250,000 people. It was widely publicised on numerous political blogs and websites. Despite this the number of "working" men and women who turned up could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

It's a familiar problem. What I don't understand are those who say, "I can't get off work". Surely, if an issue matters so much to you, you will give up a day's holiday to attend a one-off protest? Or am I being naive? Or is it part of a wider malaise? The reality is that most people - especially younger generations - love to whinge and moan, but they are rarely willing to stand up and be counted. 

Yes, often they've got young families to look after, but that's still an excuse. If you really, passionately, believe in something - especially something that is being taken away from you - you will make the effort to protest, in person. If you're not prepared to do that - even once - then it can't really matter to you. Can it?

Walk this way

I shall be popping along to the House of Commons at lunchtime to observe the lobby of Parliament being organised by the I Want A Referendum campaign. We're looking at the possibility of a similar event on July 1, the first anniversary of the smoking ban in England. If we go ahead we will need the active support of everyone who is opposed to the current legislation. It is no longer enough to be a laptop activist. It's time to speak with your feet.

Sign up and fight for your rights

Thanks to Donal Blaney, chief executive of the Young Britons' Foundation, for writing this on his blog today:

Those of us who believe in liberty need to stand up to the bullying of the health fascists - and we need to point out that the government ought to be focussing on more important things.

If you have the time, read The Free Society blog. We need to organise more effectively, including across the political divide as there are many non-tribal Labour, LibDem and unaligned voters who are our natural allies in the fight to preserve our liberties (look at the anti-ID card campaign as an example of how such alliances can be forged).

If we fail to wake up soon, even more liberties will have been taken from us by a government that is bereft of ideas other than in wanting to arrogate more power to the state.

A non-party, non-tribal campaign to protect our liberties is EXACTLY what we had in mind when we launched The Free Society. We are currently working on one or two initiatives and will have more to report shortly.

Read the full blogpost HERE.

If you are new to The Free Society and welcome our aims, register your support HERE.

Joe Jackson - live and exclusive

Tomorrow night, in Cardiff, Joe Jackson starts a four-month tour that will take him across Europe and then on to Israel, Canada, the United States, Australia and South Africa. His only other UK gig - in London on Sunday - is sold out, but there may be more UK concerts in the summer so watch THIS space.

Today, writing exclusively for The Free Society blog, Joe explains why he wrote the song 'Citizen Sane', which appears on his new, critically acclaimed, album Rain:

This song says, more or less, that we're all yearning for some kind of authority to tell us how to be sane citizens in a confusing world; but that the authorities all turn out to be corrupt or dishonest or incompetent. What puzzles some of my interviewers is that I target not just politicians and preachers but doctors, who currently enjoy the kind of unquestioning faith which in other times was commanded by kings, popes, or the KGB.

In his typically forthright manner, he adds:

Even with the best of intentions, the health and safety brigade are often wrong, and only look at life from one angle - an angle which is increasingly mean-spirited, promoting paranoia, intolerance, and illusory concepts like 'zero risk'. This is not the road to sane citizenship.

To buy or read about the album click HERE. To read the full article, click HERE. Comments welcome.

Time to pester the politicians

Just catching up on recent news stories and I see that Liverpool Council is at it again. Not content with having led the race to ban smoking in all public places, the Lib Dem-controlled authority now wants to ban McDonalds Happy Meals as well. Or does it?

What the report in the Mail on Sunday actually said is, "Members of Liverpool City Council's Childhood Obesity Scrutiny Group want a bye-law that would forbid the sale of fast food accompanied by toys", which is slightly different.

Nevertheless, toys or no toys, what's it got to do with the council? Lib Dem councillor Paul Twigger talks about "Pester Power" as if no-one has ever heard of the word "no". As for describing McDonalds as "cash-hungry vultures" - what a cheek. No-one is forced to eat there.

My kids - who get taken to McDonald's once or twice a month - still consider it a treat. I'm not such a fan. Nevertheless, when I'm on the road, far from home, feeling every so slightly peckish, I'm more than happy to see those gleaming golden arches.

If anyone needs pestering it's politicians with their insatiable appetite for interfering in other people's lives. Full story HERE.

Tonight on Five Live ...

Barnsley, it was reported yesterday, could become the first town in Britain to ban smoking outside pubs and cafes. See HERE.

The issue will be discussed tonight on Five Live's Stephen Nolan Show around 11.00pm. Guests include Councillor Roy Miller, head of Barnsley's environment committee, publican Paul McNicholas, chairman of the local Pubwatch scheme - and me.

No doubt they will be inviting comments from listeners so pick up the phone and call 0500 909 693.

Where's the harm in legalising snus?

An interesting debate is brewing about the future of snus. Snus is a form of smokeless tobacco that has been popular in Sweden for, oh, yonks. When the country became the 15th member of the EU in 1995 it managed to negotiate an exemption from a law banning the sale of snus within the EU, and that remains the situation today.

What has changed is that some members of the anti-smoking industry have started to champion snus as part of a harm reduction initiative. A recent issue of the British Medical Journal (February 16) featured a "head-to-head" debate between John Britton, professor of epidemiology at City Hospital, Nottingham, and Alexander (Sandy) Macara, president of the National Heart Forum and a former chairman of the British Medical Association.

Britton is a familiar figure in the smoking debate. If pushed, I would describe him as a hardliner. (It was he, for example, who famously declared there is "no debate" about the threat of passive smoking.) Nevertheless, it is Prof Britton who wants the ban on snus to be lifted. You can read the full article HERE.

Another advocate of smokeless tobacco is Clive Bates, the former director of ASH. Writing on his blog, Bacon Butty, in September 2007, Bates didn't mince his words when he declared that:

If you want to say something absolutely jaw-dropping in its idiocy, then you need to cloak it in lots of fake sophistication. And this is what ASH Scotland has done with its new position paper on smokeless tobacco. No less than 266 references are used to support the truly stupid idea that smokeless tobacco, which can substitute for cigarettes and is far less hazardous, should be banned.

He went on to add:

The thing I find most troubling about this sort of posturing is what it means at an individual level. In effect, these remote health planners are saying to a person who smokes cigarettes that they should not have access to a much less risky alternative. Where did the acquire the authority and the bare-faced arrogance to do that? How did they become so sure of themselves that they feel qualified to restrict the harm reduction options available to someone struggling with addiction? So on those estates in Glasgow, where smoking prevalence can be as high as 70%, ASH Scotland says 'no' to lower risk alternatives. You must quit. And if you don't quit - well, you might as well die.

Strong stuff, well worth reading. See HERE.

And for a brief history of snus, read THIS.