Rod Liddle on the smoking ban EDM

Here I am being interviewed by Rod Liddle for the Sunday Times - well, the new online version - which I wrote about HERE on Thursday.

The video also features interviews with Brian Binley MP, whose EDM calling for a review of the smoking ban sparked some debate this week, and Stephen Williams, the dull but worthy Lib Dem MP who recently tabled his own EDM "to recognize the success of this year's St Paul's Carnival in Bristol, which he attended alongside thousands of Bristolians".

Rod's video is seven minutes long but it fairly races along. To view it however you have to register and then pay a subscription. I opted for the 24 hour pass which costs £1.

Having negotiated Rupert Murdoch's paywall (an initiative I rather applaud) you'll find the video HERE. It's worth doing if only to add your own comment.

Coming to a Nanny Town near you

Here's a glimpse of what you can expect at the Cross Kings pub in London on Wednesday. (See previous posts HERE and HERE.)

Dan Donovan is one half of King Kool who are headlining an evening of "grunge-driven rock 'n' roll" in support of the Save Our Pubs and Clubs campaign.

Following a visit to the Cross Kings earlier this month, Dan described the intimate downstairs bar where King Kool will be playing as a "rock 'n' roll dungeon".

See for yourself. I'll be there (somewhere).

Note: the track on the video is called 'Nanny Town' and, yes, it's about the nanny state.

TPA highlights cost of Big Government

The Taxpayers Alliance has today announced its first nationwide cinema advertisement - the first, they claim, by a UK campaign group for ten years.

The advert promotes a new book, Ten Years On: Britain Without the European Union, which took 22,000 orders in its first week.

Chief executive Matthew Elliott says: "This advert focuses light heartedly on the very real costs of the EU, and features a number of brief scenes exploring different ways that the EU rips all of us off."

The advert can be viewed online HERE. Copies of Ten Years On are available HERE.

Another day another video

We were going to release this video in a week or two but it's already live on YouTube so ... here it is. It was filmed at Forest's 30th anniversary bash at Boisdale two weeks ago and features Ranald Macdonald, MD of Boisdale, and a surprise guest. (Well, it was a surprise to us.)

The song on the soundtrack is "I'm Going Outside" with lyrics by screenwriter Alan Plater (Z Cars, Softly Softly etc). The song was recorded exclusively for the Forest/Boisdale CD "You Can't Do That! Songs For Swinging Smokers" and performed by the Boisdale Blue Rhythm Band.

Feel free to post the video on your blog or website (if you have one). Click on the image above or HERE.

Update on Thursday, July 9, 2009 by Simon Clark

The Forest video is currently featured on Conservative Home's PlayPolitical.com - "the best issue ad videos on the web". It reads:

Smoking ban is a symbol of attack on our liberties'. That's what Forest (voice and friend of the smoker) wants you to believe.

You can comment. Click HERE.

YouTube (if you want to)

Peter Snowdon, father of Chris Snowdon - author of Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: A History of Anti-smoking - has posted a short video of our recent event at Boisdale on YouTube. To view it click HERE. (The music is from the Forest/Boisdale CD You Can't Do That! Songs For Swinging Smokers.)

There's also a video of the short but humorous speech Chris gave on the night. Click HERE.

Tags: Westminster, SW1, brandy and cigars, faux-liberal front group

Save Our Pubs & Clubs - the video

This morning, the second anniversary of the public smoking ban in England, the Save Our Pubs and Clubs campaign has released its first video. Filmed at the launch of the campaign in Westminster last week, it features Antony Worrall Thompson, Greg Knight MP, Mark Littlewood (Progressive Vision), Simon Esnard of the Butchers Arms in Luton, and me.

Over the next few days the video will appear on the following blogs, Iain Dale's Diary, Guido Fawkes, Devil's Kitchen and Dizzy Thinks. We will also be sending a copy of the video, on DVD, to MPs, MEPs and other decision-makers.

To view the video on YouTube, double-click on the image above. If you want to put the video on your own website or blog, the embedded code is available on YouTube.

See also:
Antony Worral Thompson leads campaign to overturn smoking ban (Daily Telegraph)
Forest re-ignites calls for smoking ban reform (The Publican)
Slow death of the great British pub (Daily Express)

Update on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 by Simon Clark

Liberal Vision has a link to the video HERE. The first person who has commented doesn't sound very liberal at all!

Update on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 by Simon Clark

Old Holborn has blogged it HERE. And Dick Puddlecote HERE.

Say no to the nanny state

Today we are launching our first viral marketing campaign. For more information and to sign the petition against further punitive controls on tobacco, please click HERE - and pass it on.

Forest - the movie

When I wrote "Final word on the Forest party" (below), what I meant was ... oh, never mind. Click HERE and watch the video on Friction TV.

PS. An earlier Forest video, recorded at our Revolt In Style dinner at The Savoy last summer, has been viewed 18,172 times. It features Antony Worrall Thompson, among others, and you can view it HERE.

Forest goes digital, online

Earlier today I signed a contract that allows Forest to advertise and broadcast videos on an internet TV channel where we will join organisations such as 18 Doughty Street, the Labour and Conservative parties, the TUC, and the wonderfully named Camcorder Guerillas.

Produced by Ten Alps (co-founded by Bob Geldof), Public TV currently has 15 dedicated channels offering "public service, public sector and government videos online". Forest has agreed a 12-month deal that will give us hyperlinked banners on the Government and Politics channels. Banners (and buttons) will promote our campaigns (including The Free Society) and link to the new Forest website or the latest Forest video.

By dipping our toes into the world of digital online television, the aim is to consolidate our relatively high media and political profile and promote our work to a wider audience. The next step is to make our first video. Watch this space.

Fox attacks "prostitution of science"

Claire Fox (left), director of the Institute of Ideas, former publisher of Living Marxism, and a regular speaker at Forest events (including our recent Savoy dinner), has launched a fierce attack on the smoking ban on Friction TV:

"Smoking is a private habit, yet it has been turned into a massive public issue. The government try and emotionally blackmail me by telling me that my habits seriously affect others. This is a prostitution of science. This is an attack on a free society and the government should butt out of my life."

Click HERE for the full two-minute video.

Launched in March, Friction TV attracted 250,000 unique visitors in its first three months and is said to be outpacing YouTube. Forest has two videos on the site. The first, with 11,309 plays, is still one of the most watched; the second, recorded at The Savoy, has been played 5,804 times since it was uploaded on June 26. Click HERE and HERE.

Fact and Friction

I was invited, a few months ago, to record a short video for Friction TV, a "virtual speakers' corner" designed to encourage online video debates. The three-minute video, recorded in haste in the cigar bar at Boisdale, is currently the second most played video on Friction TV, with 9542 plays, just behind 'Stag stabbed to death on sanctuary' (9777).

Martin Dockrell of ASH, whose own video was recorded on the same day, lags way, way behind with 958 plays. I'm not sure what it proves but in the current climate I'll accept any 'victory', moral or otherwise.

Encouraged by this 'success' we are currently redeveloping the Forest website and will relaunch it in the autumn with - among other things - its own video library. The revised site will mark the launch of a three-year campaign that will take us up to the government's proposed three-year review of the public smoking ban in 2010.

Meanwhile there are currently eleven smoking ban-related videos on Friction TV. To see the full list click HERE and key the word 'smoking' into the Search bar.

Tony Blair: taking liberties?

I was invited to attend an advance screening of Taking Liberties (the movie) in London tonight. Sadly I can't go but in view of Tony Blair's announcement today I thought you'd like to see the trailer. The film goes on national release on June 8th.