Celebrating choice

Forest marks its 40th anniversary.

By George Gay

The 180 guests who in June attended the 40th birthday gala dinner for the U.K.’s Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (Forest) included a “pathetic” number of smokers, according to a speaker who had called for a show of hands. But like a lot of observations, while true, this one had the potential to mislead.

As Simon Clark, director of Forest since 1999, told guests, Forest has always promoted choice not smoking. “Forty years on, we are more convinced than ever that advocating freedom of choice and personal responsibility is a cause worth fighting for,” he said.

The guest list was said to include Members of Parliament, Parliamentary researchers and friends of Forest, many of whom would probably, like Clark, describe themselves as libertarians. And this need come as no surprise since, again, as Clark said, smokers must be one of the most vilified minorities in the country. It would have been a fruitless task to try to defend the interests of this “denormalized” group in isolation; so, over the years, Clark has reached out to the community of libertarians; and they, according to the accolades he rightfully received at the event, has been taken to their hearts.

The dinner, which was held at Boisdale, Canary Wharf, London, a traditional Scottish restaurant with a cigar terrace, was a celebration, and a flavor of the mood and direction of play, at least among a vocal minority, can be gauged from the fact that mentions of Margaret Thatcher and Boris Johnson were greeted with applause. Though, it has to be said that mention of Liverpool Football Club’s 1979 league win seemed to encourage slightly more applause.

There was much talk of the “nanny state” and even of the “tyranny” thereof, which seemed a little over the top given that the U.K. is still a democracy, though one standing on shaky ground at the moment partly due to the threat posed by the aforementioned Johnson and his supporters. To talk of tyranny in connection with, for instance, moves to require manufacturers to reformulate sugary drinks seems simply silly given that you can always add extra sugar to your drink if you feel the need—think Bex powder and cola. And to apply the word tyranny to goings-on in relation to tobacco comes perilously close to taking us back to the discredited tobacco wars.

Indeed, there was talk of battles lost and wars still winnable. But Forest’s most successful campaign, we were told, was against standardized packaging, which it lost after a double U-turn by a government led at that time by Johnson’s pal, David Cameron (“referendum Dave”), so it’s probably time to move on. And in that respect, Forest says it is now supporting the interests of those who choose to use products less harmful than combustible cigarettes while vowing to never abandon smokers.

Forest’s unstinting commitment to libertarianism was on display from the start of the event with an invitation that said the dress code was “as you like”—though, timings, I noticed, were set. But listening to the speakers, I couldn’t help wondering whether we weren’t all libertarians with different ideas about what people should be allowed to take liberties with and how far those liberties should be indulged. To question my own libertarian tendencies, I reflected on the dress code by asking myself whether I would vote in favor of changing the law so that people would be allowed to go about their normal business naked—surely, a basic human right that even semi-detached libertarians should support. But I have to admit that I was left exposed. There seems not to be even a vestige of a libertarian in me because I would vote against such a change in the law. I hasten to add, though, that I would do so on aesthetic rather than moral grounds. You see, I have an aversion to being confronted with tattoos that have been ballooned out of focus by the consumption of sugary drinks.