Tonight's the night

Tonight we celebrate the publication of an important new book by Christopher Booker and Richard North. To quote the blurb, "Scared to Death examines the role played by scientists who have consistently misread or manipulated the evidence; by the media and lobbyists who eagerly promote the scare without regard to the facts; and by the politicians and officials who come up with an absurdly disproportionate response, leaving us all to pay a colossal price through the financial cost of misplaced and often completely ill-conceived legislation."

At risk of repeating myself, there are chapters on BSE, the Millennium Bug, bird flu, salmonella in eggs, global warming and passive smoking, to name a few. The book complements perfectly Forest's new Free Society campaign, which is why we decided to organise tonight's party at Boisdale in Belgravia. The event is now fully booked - but check back here tomorrow for a full report.

UN couldn't make it up

An old university friend, who works at the Foreign Office, is unable to come to our party (see below). He writes: "Thanks very much, Forest, but apologies this time as I shall be at the UN in New York looking after your interests, Simon. If it's any consolation, the UN HQ building is defiantly smoke-filled - especially in the eating areas. Good luck on Tuesday."

Scared To Death party fully booked

If you've been checking this blog you could be forgiven for thinking it's been a quiet week. Far from it. I hope to post a bit more over the weekend. In the meantime I am delighted to report that our soiree in London next Tuesday is now fully booked. 

Confirmed guests include MPs, broadcasters, writers, publishers, campaigners, political researchers, lobbyists and journalists from The Times, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Mail on Sunday, Independent on Sunday and Observer, to name a few. I am praying there are a few no-shows because it's going to be quite a squeeze to get all 200 people in! 

Another "problem" concerns the book itself. This afternoon the publishers informed us that copies of Scared To Death by Christopher Booker and Richard North "have been flying off the shelf" and 50 is the max they can let us have before the reprint comes though in early December. The rest of the stock has already been allocated to bookshops, Amazon etc, so my advice is - if you are coming to the party, buy a copy in advance (from Waterstones, Borders etc) and bring it with you to be signed by the authors.

Boisdale - the place to see and be seen

Tickets are being snapped up for our party, on Tuesday November 27, to celebrate the publication of Scared To Death: From BSE to Global Warming by Christopher Booker and Richard North (see HERE). Boisdale, venue for the event, features in this week's Spectator. The magazine reports that:

After a depressing four months in which smokers, in the words of Sallyann, have been made to feel ‘like third-class citizens’, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. The fightback against New Labour’s particularly noxious brand of killjoy illiberalism is being led by the charismatic figure of Ranald Macdonald, elder son of the 24th Captain of Clanranald ...

Macdonald prefers to use the phrase ‘bully state’ to describe the sort of country Britain has become: ‘nanny state sounds too middle-class’. ‘We’ve certainly become a lot less tolerant than we were 30 years ago. I’m afraid there are a lot more unhappy people out there who seem to derive pleasure in telling people what not to do.’

The article also draws attention to Boisdale's new smoker-friendly roof terrace, built at a cost of £40,000. A colleague reports that since it opened two weeks ago he has practically been living there. "They've done us smokers proud," he tells me.

A similar eulogy appeared in the Daily Mail this week:

"Outcast smokers have a new haven at Boisdale in Belgravia - a well-heated, softly-lit roof terrace with cane armchairs and swaying palm trees. Owner Ranald Macdonald (above left) says he aims to create a balmy Caribbean atmosphere, which for the duration of the winter is assisted by eight overhead heaters and Macdonald tartan blankets."

Boisdale, it seems, is the place to see and be seen. You can read the full Spectator article HERE.

Invitation to a special Forest event

I am delighted to announce a very special Forest event (and it's free!). On Tuesday November 27 we will celebrate the publication of Scared To Death (see HERE) by Christopher Booker and Richard North. Christoper co-founded Private Eye and has a column in the Sunday Telegraph. Richard is a political analyst and was formerly a nationally known consultant on public health and food safety.

Venue is Boisdale of Belgravia, close to Victoria Station, central London. The party starts at 7.00pm with free wine and canapes. The authors will sign books and say a few words. After 9.00pm, there will be live jazz and we also be giving away copies of the Forest/Boisdale CD You Can't Do That! (Songs For Swinging Smokers) - the perfect Christmas present!

Readers of this blog are invited to attend. Places are strictly limited so if you want to come RSVP as soon as possible. Telephone Freya Walkley 01223 370156 (office hours) or email events@forestonline.org with your name and full address and we will send you an invitation (top left).

Why you must read Booker's new book

There's a must read article in the Daily Mail today. It's by journalist Christopher Booker and it coincides with the publication of his new book, written with Richard North, called Scared To Death: From BSE to Global Warming - Why Scares Are Costing Us The Earth.

One chapter is dedicated to passive smoking. In today's article, Christopher writes:

For years, despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars on trying to prove that smokers not only harmed themselves but also the health of those around them, the anti-smoking campaigners found the evidence they wanted frustratingly elusive.

So when the two most comprehensive studies of passive smoking ever carried out each came up with findings that non-smokers living with smokers faced no significantly increased risk of cancer, their antismoking sponsors did all they could to get the reports suppressed.

In a pattern familiar from other scares, the researchers were subjected to a torrent of personal vilification. By the time a wave of smoking bans swept through Europe and America in the early 21st century, the official statistics used to justify them had become not just exaggerated but wholly fictitious.

Full article HERE. Scared To Death is published by Continuum and is available from all good bookshops, price £16.99. Check back later and I will reveal how you can get a copy, personally signed by the authors, with a 20 per cent discount.

Cameron fails to shine on his dinner date

I have just been listening, on Five Live, to David Cameron responding in the House of Commons to the Queen's Speech and he was excellent. Sharp, witty, entertaining and (dare I say it) charismatic - everything that he wasn't at last night's Conservative Way Forward Annual Dinner.

The star of the show was, to put it mildly, disappointing. It didn't help that he arrived late (missing the Forest-sponsored pre-dinner drinks!) and left early. There were 170 or so guests and I can't imagine that he spoke to more than a handful - which is no way to drum up support from the party faithful (or sceptics like myself).

Worse, his after dinner speech (one or two jokes aside) was plain dull. I made some notes but without referring to them I can barely remember a word he said. It was a going through the motions performance devoid of passion or sparkle - and I wasn't alone in thinking so. No surprise, then, that the biggest cheer of the night went not to the leader of the Conservative party but to one of his predecessors - William Hague - who (willingly, it seemed) adopted the role of court jester.

Guests at the Forest table included our own Neil Rafferty (above, centre), our new website manager Georgie Wisen (second left), Ranald Macdonald of Boisdale (partly hidden at the back), Sarah Bland (our new project manager, also hidden), and Simon Richards of the Freedom Association. Simon took the picture!

Smokers are voters, too, Mr Cameron

Tonight, with several of my Forest colleagues, I shall be at the Conservative Way Forward Annual Dinner at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London. Forest is co-sponsoring the pre-dinner drinks reception, where we will be giving away CDs, t-shirts, cigar matches, pocket ashtrays and other campaign tools featuring messages such as 'Enough's Enough' and 'Fight for Choice'.

In addition to David Cameron, after dinner speakers include shadow foreign secretary William Hague and former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Cecil Parkinson. Our message to the Conservative leader and his colleagues is clear and concise and appears in a full page advertisement in the souvenir programme (above).

Scary monsters and super creeps

The Sunday Telegraph today published THIS article by Christopher Booker and Richard North. It's a chapter from their new book, Scared To Death: From BSE to Global Warming - How Scares Are Costing Us The Earth (Continuum, £16.99), published on November 8.

There's also a must read chapter on passive smoking (Smoke and Mirrors: How They Turned ‘Passive Smoking’ Into A Killer) - one of many reasons why Forest has agreed to organise a special event to celebrate the publication of what we think is one of the more important books of the year.

Scared To Death (the party) will take place in London later this month. Details to follow. Watch this space.

Dinner with David Cameron

Forest has negotiated a special 'Friends of Forest' reduced price ticket to attend a timely black tie dinner with David Cameron. Organised by Conservative Way Forward, the CWF Annual Dinner is at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London, on Monday November 5. The price (£100, reduced from £125) includes complimentary wine and a complimentary pre-dinner drinks reception supported by Forest.

I appreciate that, even with the reduced rate, this still isn't cheap. These are interesting times, however, and it is important that groups such as Forest take every opportunity to engage in the political process and support other groups, many of whose members are, by and large, on a similar libertarian wavelength. If more like-minded people can join us at these events, so much the better.

For additional information and to order your tickets online click HERE, or telephone 020 7403 3990 (Monday to Friday 9.00am to 5.30pm). All you have to do is say you are a 'friend of Forest' and you qualify for the reduced price. Over half of all available tickets have been sold and remaining tickets are selling fast – so book now to guarantee your place.

PS. We'll be handing out some promotional items - CDs, t-shirts etc.

Battle of Ideas at the Royal College of Art

Claire Fox (left), director of the Institute of Ideas and a regular panellist on Radio 4's The Moral Maze, has been a friend for many years. We first met at Auberon Waugh's Academy Club (see HERE) shortly after I was appointed director of Forest. Later I tried to win her support by sending her a giant sponge cake that resembled a packet of her favourite Silk Cut. Somehow our friendship survived and over the years she has chaired or spoken at numerous Forest events - most recently our Revolt In Style dinner at The Savoy Hotel in June.

I mention this as the preamble to publicising the latest Battle of Ideas at the Royal College of Art, London, next weekend (October 27-28). Described as a "two-day festival of high level, thought-provoking debate", the Battle of Ideas is Claire's creation. As you would expect, there is a strong libertarian theme - but the emphasis is on intelligent debate so don't go expecting some sort of mindless political rally.

Subjects include arts & culture, health & well-being, liberty & law, lifestyle & society and much, much more. Full details, including ticket prices, HERE. Warmly recommended.

Retail therapy

To the Grosvenor House Hotel in London for the 2007 Retail Industry Awards sponsored by Mars, Seafish, GlaxoSmithKline, Cadbury Trebor Bassett, and others too numerous to mention. I am here as a guest of one of the companies (none of the aforementioned) and from the moment we sit down in the Great Room (Europe's largest ballroom), we are bombarded by a wall of noise from Blayz, a high energy string quartet. After dinner - and a brief interlude that includes an unexplained appearance by a pair of Laurel and Hardy lookalikes - it's time for the awards, compered by Frankie Boyle, star of BBC2's Mock The Week.

As an impartial observer it's hard to get excited by categories such as Supermarket Store Manager of the Year, Multiple Convenience Community Retailer of the Year, Independent Training Initiative of the Year, Global Convenience Format of the Year, and Independent Company Owned Forecourt Retailer of the Year, but I do my best, whooping and hollering as representatives from Morrisons, Sainsbury, Asda, Spar and M&S make their way to the stage to receive their awards.

Eventually, we're allowed a 15-minute "comfort break". For many guests that means a smoking break which is why, had you been driving down Park Lane at approximately ten o'clock, you would have seen scores of people, in evening dress, lighting up outside. Welcome to Blair's Brown's Britain.

The Sun? We love it.

Labour party conference, Bournemouth
Spent the day handing out invitations for tomorrow's 'Politics and Prohibition' event. Our small team included three conference virgins - Samantha, Luke and Kim - who were surprised by some of the (less than positive) comments directed at them by some delegates. We did warn them in advance!

The Sun took the honours for today's best conference stunt. The paper hired an open-top double-decker bus (left), covered it in images of Gordon Brown waving two fingers (at the British electorate), then blasted out  'Jerusalem', 'Rule Britannia' etc for two hours as the bus drove slowly, and repeatedly, past the conference centre. Simple but effective. They made their point and brought a smile to many people's faces.

Conference calls

The 2007 party conference season is in full swing. This week the LibDems are in Brighton, the circus then moves on to Bournemouth for the Labour conference, and the following week the Tories are in Blackpool.

Like many people, I have a love-hate relationship with party conferences. Drab hotel rooms (the best have been snapped up months if not years in advance), too many boring meetings, and - these days - one security check after another. No wonder so many MPs make their excuses and find something better to do.

On the other hand .... party conferences can be quite fun socially and if you organise a successful event it's a great feeling (tinged with relief). In 2005, at the Labour conference in Brighton, we had one of our best days ever (which I have already described HERE).

Last year, at the Conservative conference in Bournemouth, we went one better and organised what was - by common consent - the best fringe event of the year. We hired an events company, booked the ballroom at the Royal Bath Hotel, and staged a Prohibition-era reception with a live jazz band and mock police raid (above). Four hundred guests made it an evening to remember and hotel staff had to turn people away for reasons of "health 'n' safety"!!

This year we are organising two rather more modest events (receptions), one in Bournemouth, the other in Blackpool. The challenge, as you might expect, has been to find smoker-friendly venues. In practise, that means a room where people have direct access to a pleasant outdoor area where they can light up and still feel part of the event. 

In Bournemouth we have booked the main lounge of the Royal Bath Hotel which has direct access to the garden which overlooks the sea. Into the mix we are throwing a jazz pianist, a song and dance act, more balloons than you can throw a stick at - and a barbecue.

Why? Well, it's all very well having a message, but you have to an audience for that message - and we're up against stiff competition. In the adjacent room, at exactly the same time as our event, Andrew Rawnsley of the Observer is interviewing Foreign Secretary David Miliband. A few yards down the corridor Alastair Campbell will be talking about the Blair years (and flogging copies of his book). And that's in just one hotel!

According to the conference brochure, the Forest/Free Society reception is competing for guests with at least 30 other events. Wish us luck!

Conference calls

Holding my credit card in one hand, and my nose in the other, I have just applied to attend a two-day conference in Edinburgh that should indicate very clearly (as if we don't already know) where the war on tobacco is heading.

'Towards a Smokefree Society' is a major international event that promises to "bring together researchers, policy makers and practitioners with the overall purpose of mobilising further effective action on smokefree legislation".

The programme is extensive. As part of the application process you have to decide in advance which workshops you want to attend. I was spoilt for choice! Eventually I plumped for sessions on 'International Tobacco Control Studies', 'Developing EU Policy for Smokefree Environments', 'SHS Exposure & Respiratory Health', 'Smokefree Legislation & Health and Economic Trends', 'Smoking in the Home' and - my favourite - 'Using the Media'.

I also applied to attend the conference dinner and ceilidh. (I couldn't resist.) Venue is the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC, above) and it all kicks off on September 10. Full details HERE.