Friday, May 16, 2008 Tonight I shall be at the O2 Arena (formerly the Millennium Dome) to see Girls Aloud. I know, I know, I'm far too old for this sort of thing. Actually, it's a freebie. I've been invited (by a company that shall remain nameless) to join them in their private suite ("where a buffet supper and refreshments will be available from 7.00pm").
There are, it seems, some perks working for Forest. This is one of them.
Sunday, January 27, 2008 Fascinating though it has been to read about Jeremy Paxman's problems with his M&S pants, the Telegraph put the matter in perspective with THIS suitably ascerbic profile. That said, I would have preferred the Telegraph to ignore the "story" altogether. Here's why:
I'm all for a bit of banter, a little note of levity, but when there are so many issues that deserve proper debate and investigation, doesn't it strike you as odd that Britain's most famous political interviewer should make the news not for a challenging, one-on-one interview with a leading politician, but because he has chosen (in his own time, presumably) to complain about the condition of his underwear.
A conspiracy theorist might conclude that this was as good a way as any to deflect attention from Gordon Brown's problems - Northern Rock, Peter Hain et al. But I'm not a conspiracy theorist.
On a related issue, I have been giving The Spectator a great deal of thought. You see, I have bought the magazine every week since 1975 when I was still at school. A creature of habit, I like to buy it on a Friday afternoon and head to the nearest coffee shop where I can immerse myself for an hour or two.
But not any more. These days I can read all that's worth reading in five minutes. Each week I should be able to thrill to the sound of knives being sharpened and blades being twisted into the heart of this illiberal, intolerant regime.
Instead, there are some weeks when there is hardly ANY politics in The Spectator. Check it out. Even revered commentators like Matthew Parris do everything they can not to mention politics at all. The Spectator Diary? Vanity publishing at its worst. Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody? Ugh!! Elsewhere, regular columnists fall over themselves to write about the one thing they love more than anything else - themselves. "Me! Me! Me!" their columns shriek. "Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!"
Above its masthead The Spectator currently boasts: CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR. Who on earth gave it this ill-judged title? Did they actually read the magazine or were they seduced by the circulation (the largest in its long and distinguished history) and the glossy advertisements for expensive watches and luxury cars?
I don't want agitprop. I want some semblance of style - elegant articles written with wit and humour - and an eclectic range of subjects including the arts and popular culture. But a political magazine has to have substance otherwise it's an empty vessel devoid of purpose. You can't even say The Spectator is attractive to the eye. The New Statesman - and I never thought I would say this - has improved out of all recognition and visually makes its rival look dull and one-dimensional.
The rot started a decade or so ago and it's got worse and worse. Current editor Matthew D'Ancona seems far more interested in writing about Led Zeppelin and Joy Division. Perhaps he should apply for a job at Q magazine. This week the magazine introduced a "new occasional column on technology and the web". Why? My advice: save yourself £2.95 a week and check out the magazine's far livelier website (HERE). Or buy The Week.
On television Newsnight, our premier current affairs programme, is almost as bad. Reports by political editor Michael Crick often say more about him than the subject he is "investigating". Who does he think he is? Dom Joly? As for our old friend Jeremy Paxman - I'm sorry, Jeremy, you used to enliven my evenings with your forensic grilling of the political elite. Now, like The Spectator, you're just pants.
Friday, January 25, 2008 Talking of smokers welcome (HERE), I spent Wednesday evening at Boisdale, spiritual home of The Free Society. It's a curious thing, but despite the ban there are moments when you feel like an outsider if you DON'T smoke at Boisdale.
I was having dinner in the Macdonald Bar (above) with a group of 10 people. At the end of each course, the smokers would get up and climb the stairs to Boisdale's £40k roof terrace (or "cigar terrace" as it's officially known). After a few minutes the non-smokers would look around, note the empty seats and the sudden hiatus, and join them.
On Wednesday - my fifth or sixth visit since the terrace opened in November - it was colder and a little windier than I had previously experienced, but wrapped up in tartan blankets (so thoughtfully supplied) and allowed to simmer gently under the excellent patio heaters, the terrace was still the place to be.
As a non-smoker, however, I did feel a bit of an interloper, as if I was gatecrashing someone else's party. To enjoy the full experience, and the unspoken sense of camararderie, I really must take up smoking properly - if only at Boisdale.
Friday, December 7, 2007 
Talking of Iain Dale (below), Iain this week revealed on his blog that "Earlier in the summer I was tidying some files at home and a copy of a magazine fell out of a file. It was called The Politico and I published three issues of it while I was running Politico's in 2003. I started re-reading it and began to remember what a brilliant reaction it provoked at the time. It only had three issues because I then closed the shop and the people who produced it moved on to other things."
I must declare an interest. "The people who produced it" were me and my then Forest colleague Jo Gaffikin (above left). We conceived and sold the idea to Iain, designed it in an afternoon on my Apple Mac, and for the best part of a year had an absolute blast producing what was intended to be a quarterly publication promoting the niche political books market.
The Politico was an eclectic mix of interviews (Tony Benn, David Davis, John Bercow, Jeremy Paxman, Sandy Toksvig), feature articles and reviews, most of them written by MPs, historians and journalists, including some of the country's top political commentators. Iain had an impressive list of contacts and the fact that Politicos published as well as sold books opened many a door that may otherwise have remained shut.
Unfortunately, no-one (and I mean no-one) made a penny from the project. It was given away free - to bookshop customers and at party conferences - so there was no income other than a bit of advertising revenue that enabled us to cover our printing costs.
After three issues, far from "moving on to other things", Jo and I decided that we couldn't continue working for nothing so we jacked it in. Iain has now announced that he intends to launch a new magazine next year. Funding is in place, he tells us. I wish it well. Magazine publishing is a brutal business.
PS. Jo is now communications manager at the Design Museum in London where (among other things) she writes an exhibition blog. We keep in touch and I was delighted to see her at last week's event at Boisdale, proof that there is life after Forest - and The Politico!
Sunday, October 7, 2007 
When I got back from the Conservative conference in Blackpool last week I discovered a fault with my home phone line. After I received a text from BT saying the problem wouldn't be fixed until October 17th (!), I rang the company and was told that thieves had raided the local exchange and stolen miles of copper cable. (See story HERE.)
Without a phone link I have been unable to send emails, access the Internet etc from home. It's amazing the impact this has had. Yesterday I found it so frustrating that I drove 20 miles to our office in Cambridge so I could spend some time catching up.
On the other hand it was quite liberating. The problem with taking your work home with you - as I do - is that you never really switch off. There is some inescapable force that draws me to my computer, whether it be six o'clock in the morning or eleven at night. Other people make a cup of tea or go to the loo during the TV ad breaks. I check my emails or surf the Internet for work-related news and gossip. It drives my family mad. Denied access to this ocean of information temporarily forced me to compartmentalise my day. Work. Home.
Anyway, the good (or bad) news is that BT has fixed the problem (ten days ahead of schedule!). Needless to say I'm back in the old routine, but it has made me think.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007 
Just back from Scotland, where I have been revisiting old haunts. From the age of 10 I lived in a place called Wormit, which overlooks Dundee from the far (southern) end of the Tay rail bridge, above.
From Wormit I travelled to school in St Andrews, 12 miles away, and every year we find time to drop by, making an additional detour to Anstruther, the Fife fishing village that is home to the best fish and chip shop in Scotland.
On Saturday my wife and I were guests at Neil Rafferty's wedding near Stirling. (Neil is Forest's Scottish spokesman. Prior to that he worked for the Sunday Times and the Press Association in Scotland. From his home in the Borders he recently launched the Daily Mash, Scotland's first "satirical news website".)
Neil and Amy opted for a humanist wedding in a converted barn next to her parents' house (a traditional old farmhouse). Afterwards we moved outside to the garden for several glasses of champagne, and then we had dinner (followed by a reel or two) inside a large marquee.
I understand that there was a (brief) heatwave in the south of England. In Scotland it was very much cooler (and all the better for that). Thankfully the rain held off for most of the day, the locals (many of whom had helped organise the wedding) were very friendly, and altogether it was a rather splendid occasion.
Saturday, July 28, 2007 
In the last six months I have seriously considered buying a 4x4, a patio heater and a plasma TV.
Now I am told that all three are symbols of "environmentally destructive consumerism".
Help!
Sunday, May 20, 2007 
A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had been to Wembley for one of the new stadium's warm up matches. Thanks to a bizarre ban on cameras I had to smuggle mine in under my jumper. Writing in today's Sunday Times, following yesterday's Cup Final, reporter John Aizlewood comments on the seemingly endless list of prohibited items:
"Only terrorists and pyromaniacs could argue with explosives and fireworks, but those Trading Standards Swat teams might wonder why flags and air horns were on sale outside, but banned inside. And outlawing fans' cameras is a childish and venal step too far."
Footballs, too, are banned. At this rate it will be easier, and quicker, to list the things we ARE allowed to take in.
Thursday, May 3, 2007 
When I launched this blog a few weeks ago and named it Taking Liberties I had no idea that a film of the same name was about to be released. Taking Liberties - the movie - is a Michael Moore-style documentary which focuses on the erosion of civil liberties and the increase of surveillance under Labour. The director Chris Atkins said this week that he wanted to expose "the Orwellian state" that now threatens Britain as a result of Mr Blair's policies.
The film argues that civil liberties have been seriously eroded under Tony Blair. It is said to tackle some of the most contentious decisions taken by Blair's government, including war in Iraq, its approach to the US military camp Guantanamo Bay, identity cards and limitations on public protests. According to Atkins, "It is a call to arms from the people - you've had enough of our freedom and we want it back. We've deliberately held off for the month of Blair's departure," he said. "But when Blair walks out of the door of Downing Street we're not going to suddenly get civil liberties back. We take a good, hard look at Mr Brown as well."
Monday, April 9, 2007 
It's two weeks since we launched this blog and I'd like to thank those who have taken the time and trouble to post a comment. Compared to the Forest website, which attracts almost 3,000 visitors a day, traffic has been relatively slow but I am sure that will improve, especially when the blog is combined with The Free Society website when it goes live next month.
In the meantime I am delighted that, to date, almost every comment has been thoughtful and considered. What we are trying to do is create a lively forum that will develop into a platform for those with libertarian beliefs who find themselves disenfranchised or unrepresented in the current political climate. At the same time we want to encourage serious debate (and a few laughs) so feel free to take issue with me or your fellow posters.
This is a long-term project. I hope that, in time, we can create an extended family with 'relatives' and friends throughout the UK and beyond. If you care to comment on any of the issues raised here, please do so. The sooner we can spark intelligent debate, the sooner people will sit up, take notice, and enable The Free Society to achieve its objectives.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007 
On the Forest website we play a little game. We list the people most often quoted by the media in the smoking debate and rate them according to whether we would want to invite them to dinner. Today we received the following email, written in response to our description of Ian Willmore, former spokesman for ASH (and before that Friends of the Earth) who now works for the London Fire Brigade:
When I read your comments I could scarcely believe that I was reading about the same man. Was this Ian Willmore, the [former] media coordinator at Friends of the Earth, who made a point of taking the voluntary press staff out for a decent lunch because they were giving their time to a charity who, frankly, did not much appreciate them; the man who played piano for the FOE staff dos purely to entertain; the guy who was quite prepared to be the subject of his own humour as well as making amusing comments about others; the person who was always larger than life and quite prepared to go his own way, despite the hostility of other more 'po-faced' individuals in the organisations that he joined?
I have been to lunch with him. He is an amusing companion who can talk on a wide variety of subjects, a consumate individualist in a world full of conventionalists and has a wonderful, light sense of humour that [sic] manages to laugh at others while still poking fun at himself. Ian Willmore is a man of great passion and he throws himself into those causes for which he works with a zeal few could match; so do all people who are effectively fighting for a cause, and there are few causes so worth fighting as one that damages not only the health of those who participate in it but also those who are unfortunate enough to stand near them. Yet it is to be noted that he does not stoop to personal attacks and character assassination, and that, in itself, makes him a far more likeable person than the wretch who wrote this article.
Ian, if you read this, I think you've just got yourself another date.
Monday, March 26, 2007 Welcome to Taking Liberties, an oasis for those who believe in less not more government intrusion into our daily lives. Taking Liberties is sub-titled 'The Free Society blog'. For those who missed our launch party last year, The Free Society is an offshoot of Forest, the smokers' lobby group. Founded in 1979 by a former Battle of Britain fighter pilot, Forest defends those who choose to smoke tobacco and don't expect to be vilified for consuming a legal product that generates billions of pounds for the Treasury.
The Free Society will take that campaign one stage further. We will demonstrate that attempts to ostracise smokers are part of a much bigger picture in which politicians, campaigners and public officials are slowly eroding our civil liberties with laws and regulations that are out of all proportion to the problems they seek to tackle. Today tobacco, tomorrow food and drink. And motoring. Free speech, too, is under threat, with politicians and scientists telling us there is "no debate" about passive smoking or global warming when, clearly, there is.
There are two reasons for naming the blog Taking Liberties. First, I am genuinely concerned that freedoms we have taken for granted are slowly being taken from us without proper debate. Second, I want to make this blog as entertaining as possible and if that means taking liberties in a more colloquial sense, so be it. Feedback is positively encouraged so feel free to comment on anything that appears here. It's going to be an interesting journey so welcome aboard and enjoy the ride.
