Tag: Forest

Lawmakers Urged to Reject Generational Ban

Image: magicbones
Campaigners are urging British lawmakers to reject plans to ban the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to future generations of adults.
Ahead of the second reading of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill on Nov. 26, the smokers’ rights group Forest says the proposal is “unnecessarily divisive” and is not supported by the majority of the public.
According to a recent poll commissioned by Forest and conducted by Yonder Consulting, 60 percent of respondents said that if people are allowed to drive a car, join the army, purchase alcohol, and vote at 18, they should also be allowed to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products.
Fewer than a third (31 percent) said they should not be allowed to purchase tobacco when legally an adult, while 9 percent said, “don’t know.”

MPs need to think very carefully about the unintended consequences of raising the legal age of sale of tobacco.
Simon Clark, director, Forest
“A generational ban on the sale of tobacco is unnecessarily divisive because it will create a two-tier society in which some adults have different rights to others,” said Forest Director Simon Clark.
“Eventually it will create the absurd situation whereby a 40-year-old can purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products, but someone born a few days later could be denied the same right.
“MPs need to think very carefully about the unintended consequences of raising the legal age of sale of tobacco.
“Denying future generations of adults the right to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products legally won’t stop people smoking.
“Creeping prohibition will simply drive the sale of tobacco underground and into the hands of criminal gangs and illicit traders.”

November 25, 2024
An Outbreak of Sanity

Photos: Stuart Mitchell
Tobacco Reporter joins Forest on the River Thames for its annual Smoke on the Water reception.
By George Gay
It seems there has been an outbreak of sanity at the heart of government in the U.K. In an Oct. 25 story in The Guardian, a Downing Street official was quoted as describing moves to ban tobacco smoking in certain outdoor places as comprising an “unserious policy.” “Nobody really believes smoking outdoors is a major health problem [for nonsmokers],” the official added.
The story was one of several media reports claiming the ban on smoking in certain outdoor places was being dropped from the government’s upcoming Tobacco and Vapes Bill (TVB). But while the change of policy, if that is what it is, is to be welcomed, it raises a couple of questions, one of which asks why the government was faffing about with an unserious policy when there are many serious matters that need fixing.
However, more importantly, in my view, is the question of trust or lack of it that arises from this volte face. I take it that if the government had not come under pressure from a hospitality sector concerned about the possible closures of some of its venues should the outdoor smoking ban be imposed, it would have gone ahead with the ban, justifying it on the grounds of protecting nonsmokers, a justification that “nobody” would have believed was valid. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how, since it was unserious, it would have been anything but a vindictive policy dumped on a largely unorganized but significantly sized minority with little means of defense.
And from here it is but a small step to questioning what of the other information we are fed about tobacco smoking is unserious—unbelievable. It seems obvious, for instance, that the level of harm caused by tobacco consumption is exaggerated. Deaths from other causes are put down to tobacco smoking, all in the best interests of smokers, of course.
The formulation of unserious tobacco policies is based, I imagine, on the idea that smokers are often from impoverished backgrounds—so not well educated and therefore dumb enough to fall for such chicanery. But this is a dumb idea apparently subscribed to by people who have the power to dictate policy but who engage only with a thin slice of the society on which their policies are imposed. In October, I had an opportunity to speak for a while to a smoker who had thought long and hard about her habit and who was aware of all the misinformation and hypocrisy that defines much of the debate that surrounds tobacco. Paula (not her real name) had a riposte for all the normal accusations and slurs aimed at smokers and smoking, but what impressed me most was her reaction to being told from above that she should stop smoking. Before people told her to stop smoking, she said, they should come and ask her why she smoked.
So why did she smoke? It was because she had issues in her life and she found that smoking was the best way to relieve the stress they caused. I got the impression that she thought the government’s best tactic for getting her to stop smoking was to act in respect of the causes of the issues she had. This is unlikely to happen, however, because it is cheap to lecture people and bring in some draconian, perhaps unserious anti-tobacco legislation but more expensive in respect of both effort and money to address some of the issues that cause people to seek refuge in smoking.
I spoke with Paula on the smoking deck of the Elizabethan, a two-deck Mississippi-style paddle steamer that the Freedom Organization for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (Forest) occupied for the evening of Oct. 22 as the venue for its Smoke on the Water reception. Such events, which take place as the Elizabethan paddles gently down and up the River Thames, have traditionally been held in July, but this year’s October schedule was timely because it provided an opportunity to address issues concerning the TVB.
Simon Clark, the director of Forest, in a brief address to the 180 guests aboard the Elizabethan, said he had two main concerns with the TVB. The first was the generational smoking ban that would make it illegal for those born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, to be sold tobacco products. This was a policy first introduced by the previous Conservative government but dropped when the then prime minister called a general election earlier this year and has since been revived by the Labour government that replaced the Conservatives. Clark said he found it weird that the new government should reintroduce a Conservative initiative and bemoaned the fact that the policy, if enacted, would mean future generations of adults would be treated like children.
The other main concern was the Labour initiative that would mean smoking’s being banned outside pubs and other public venues, but this seems as if it is dead in the water, an outcome for which Clark claimed some well-deserved credit in a statement issued after the reception. “As for the timing of the government’s alleged U-turn, can it be coincidence that it was reported just 48 hours after our Smoke on the Water boat party …? We’re (half) joking, but there’s no doubt that events like this (promoted throughout the Westminster village) have their place and, occasionally, some influence.”
This was a good point to make and a cheery one for those of us who tend to think that it is difficult if not impossible to give smokers a voice. The Smoke on the Water guests included members of Parliament, parliamentary aides, think tank staffers, broadcasters and supporters of Forest. The largest group were the parliamentary aides, staffers working for Members of Parliament (MPs) across most of the political spectrum: the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, and Reform U.K. parties.

Looked at from this point of view, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of Forest and the way it operates under Clark. “The aim of the event was primarily to engage with the new intake of parliamentary staffers because, following Labour’s landslide election victory and the defenestration of so many Conservative MPs who lost their seats, we had lost a large number of contacts from the previous Parliament,” Clark told me after the event but before it was reported that the government seemed to be on the point of dropping the outdoor smoking ban.
“The need to engage with MPs and their staff was particularly urgent given the expectation that the new Labour government will reintroduce the previous government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill before Christmas, and it’s our hope that ministers will, at the very least, reconsider the proposal to extend the smoking ban to outdoor spaces, including beer gardens.”
Otherwise, the aim of the event had been to highlight the impact of the proposed legislation on future generations of adults, and for this reason, Clark had assembled a panel of people in their 20s to briefly describe where they stood: Sam Bidwell, director of the Next Generation Centre at the Adam Smith Institute; Josh Cheshire, national coordinator for Students for Liberty in the U.K.; Jonathan Heywood, a leading young Labour activist; and Reem Ibrahim, acting director of communications at the Institute of Economic Affairs.
I think it would be wrong to give the impression that these young people were representative of young people in general, except in the sense that they were looking to have some fun. And those of them who were smokers weren’t representative of smokers, but they were all representative of those who, like Paula, cherish the right to make their own decisions, including decisions that might affect their health, wise or not in the eyes of others.
One spoke with disdain of a 30-year to 40-year tradition that had imposed on the young “geriatric paternalism,” which, as somebody not far short of being an octogenarian, I can assure the young is what we geriatrics regard as fun. I know it’s sad, but there it is. And another pointed out that with the tide of public opinion going against individual freedoms and the possibility of still more restrictions on tobacco use, smoking was likely to become cool and to be seen as an act of resistance.
But perhaps the most interesting comment came when Clark asked Ibrahim what she would have said to the secretary of state for health, Wes Streeting, had he been at the reception, which elicited the suggestion that he should have a beer and some fun.
In fact, I don’t think he needs any such encouragement. In a 2023 interview in The Guardian, Streeting, who was then shadow health secretary, was quoted as saying, “If I’m going out, I’m a binge drinker—terrible messaging for the shadow health secretary!”
Not wishing to sound even more like a geriatric paternalist, I nevertheless wonder whether that statement goes some way toward explaining why what is being proposed is a generational ban on tobacco smoking and not a generational ban on smoking and drinking alcohol. After all, it is not immediately obvious why drinking should not be targeted. According to the Alcohol Change U.K. website, alcohol consumption is a causal factor in more than 60 medical conditions, including mouth, throat, stomach, liver and breast cancers, high blood pressure, cirrhosis of the liver and depression. Alcohol misuse is the biggest risk factor for death, ill health and disability among 15-year-olds to 49-year-olds in the U.K.
At the start of this piece, I suggested there might have been an outbreak of sanity at the heart of government in the U.K. Now, it seems I have to qualify that suggestion because the budget, delivered on Oct. 30, indicated there had also been an outbreak of cognitive dissonance, at least in respect of the budget’s treatment of tobacco, nicotine and alcohol. Although the government’s aim is purportedly to improve public health and take pressure off the National Health Service, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, treated alcohol with kid gloves. But she announced that vapes, the most successful quit-smoking aid, would be the subject of a significant levy. And while the government claims to be helping the less well-off, it is increasing by eye-watering amounts the taxes on tobacco, one of the few pleasures on offer to that demographic.
This, in part, is what Clark had to say about the budget announcements: “Instead of punishing the low paid, the government should focus on improving the environmental conditions that drive many people to smoke in the first place.” I think that Paula would endorse that.
George Gay is Tobacco Reporter’s European editor, but his territory spans the globe. Based in London, George has covered the tobacco industry since 1982, initially for a U.K.-based publication and since 2004 for Tobacco Reporter. George’s understanding of industry issues, combined with his keen sense of observation and dry wit, have earned him a loyal following among Tobacco Reporter’s readers.

November 19, 2024
U.K. Announces Cigarette and Vape Tax Hikes

Image: John Gomez
The U.K. government will increase tobacco duties by 2 percent above inflation for the remainder of the current parliamentary session and increase duty by a further 10 percent on roll-your-own tobacco this year, Finance Minister Rachel Reeves announced during the presentation of her budget plans on Oct. 30. From October 2026, the U.K. will also introduce a flat-rate duty on all vaping liquid alongside an additional one-off increase in tobacco duty to maintain the incentive to give up smoking, reports Reuters.
Smokers’ rights activists warned that the plans would backfire.
“Increasing the tax on tobacco above inflation will drive even more smokers to the black market, fueling illicit trade and hurting legitimate retailers,” said Simon Clark, director of FOREST, in a statement.
“It discriminates against consumers from poorer backgrounds for whom smoking may be one of the few pleasures available to them.
“Instead of punishing the low-paid, the government should focus on improving the environmental conditions that drive many people to smoke in the first place.”
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) described the planned duty on e-liquid as a penalty for smokers seeking to transition to less harmful nicotine products.
“Whilst a flat-rate tax versus one graded on different nicotine strengths is favored so as not to deter smokers who rely on higher concentrations of nicotine when they start transitioning over to vapes, the additional cost of £2.64 (including VAT) per 10 ml of e-liquid is a kick in the teeth for former adult smokers who have switched to vaping to quit their habits. It will also be the highest rate in Europe,” said UKVIA Director General John Dunne in a statement.
“Some 3 million adults are former smokers thanks to vaping, which is strongly evidenced as the most effective way to quit conventional cigarettes, saving the NHS [National Health Service] millions of pounds in treating patients with smoking-related conditions. This announcement today deters adult smokers from considering vapes as a method to give up their habits and hits the lowest-paid who go for more price-sensitive e-liquid options, which currently start at 99 pence and will rise to £3.83, representing a shocking rise of 267 percent.
“For a government that places a great focus on the NHS, it is a nonsensical move to put a severe punitive tax level on vaping when the category has done so much to reduce the number of adult smokers requiring medical attention by being a driving force in the decline of smoking rates to record-low levels in recent years.”
October 31, 2024
Campaigners Slam Irish Tax Hike

Image: alexlmx
Campaigners slammed the Irish government’s decision to increase the excise duty on a pack of 20 cigarettes by €1 ($1.11) starting Oct. 2.
The increase, which is double the usual increase of €0.50, will push the cost of a pack of 20 cigarettes in the most popular price category above €18, according to The Journal.
Simon Clark, director of the Freedom Organization for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (Forest), described the decision as “brutal” and said law-abiding smokers were being “discriminated” against.
“Smoking is a legitimate habit,” said Clark. “This brutal hike in the cost of cigarettes will drive more smokers to the black market and fuel illicit trade.
“Law-abiding consumers, many of whom are on low incomes, will be unfairly discriminated against, and some may be forced further into poverty.
“It’s hard to imagine a more punitive or counterproductive measure because the only people who will benefit are criminal gangs and illicit traders.”
In addition to the cigarette tax hike, Ireland plans to introduce a tax on e-cigarettes from the middle of next year. The excise will place a fee on e-liquid at a rate of €0.50 for every milliliter.
The average disposable e-cigarette has 2 mL of e-liquid and costs €8. The introduction of the new tax will increase the cost to €9.23.
Minister for Finance Jack Chambers said it was not possible to introduce the fee this year due to operational and administrative challenges.
Lobby group Respect Vapers has accused politicians of attempting to “raise funds on vapes rather than helping people use vapes to quit smoking.”
The group pointed to a recent report by Healthy Ireland that said 25 percent of smokers who quit had used vapes and other studies that show the number of smokers in Ireland has reduced drastically in recent years.
October 1, 2024
Unfinished Business

Photos courtesy of FOREST
Despite changing attitudes, FOREST still has an important role to play, says Director Simon Clark.
By George Gay
Simon Clark readily admits that some people, even some people operating within the tobacco/nicotine industry, see the Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (FOREST), of which he is the director, as something of a dinosaur. Indeed, he feels it is part of his job to counter this idea by letting it be known that FOREST is fighting for timeless principles—those of freedom of choice and personal responsibility.
Not only are these principles timeless, in fact; they are universal in the sense that they apply to all consumer products, not only tobacco in its smoked form, as the name of the organization suggests. For the past 45 years, while not promoting the consumption or use of any product, FOREST has defended the rights of adult consumers, properly informed, to enjoy, without being harassed by excessive regulation, any product that may be sold legally in the U.K.
But what is of course most impressive is that FOREST, almost uniquely, has been willing to stand up publicly for the rights of cigarette smokers, who, though still amounting to more than 6 million people, have been treated like outcasts by much of polite society—like people of the wrong class, people considered to be without agency, without the mental capacity to make the “right” choices for themselves.
And, regrettably, it is not only the public health community that has tried to “denormalize” cigarette smokers in this way. In recent years, so too have large swathes of the tobacco/nicotine industry—those who would sell cigarette smokers alternative lower-risk nicotine products, some of them while still selling cigarettes. Many of these companies and organizations have acquiesced in the face of claims that smoking is a “problem” that must be solved rather than a legal activity that provides enjoyment, in various ways, to those who indulge in it.

The Slippery Slope
Clark, a nonsmoker, should not be seen as a dinosaur, however, because he and FOREST have long supported the idea of offering cigarette smokers alternative lower-risk products, but the emphasis is on “offering.” He views with dismay verging on disdain the way that some in the tobacco/nicotine industry are willing to throw cigarette smokers under the bus by supporting government efforts to eradicate cigarette smoking and, indeed, tobacco consumption in all forms. And he has a point. Shortly after I met up with Clark in London in July, an email dropped into my inbox with news from the U.K. Vaping Industry Association, toward the end of which was this sentence: “Furthermore, the vaping industry is all about [my emphasis] achieving a smoke-free Britain, and we look forward to working with the new government’s initiatives that support this, as long as it doesn’t damage the vast potential of vaping as our best hope for getting there.’”
Hmm, you really must be careful what you wish for, and Clark has a salutary message for tobacco/nicotine companies and organizations that align closely with public health, including Philip Morris International, which, while selling combustible cigarettes, are calling for their eradication. He is convinced that once those public health organizations that are now trying to eradicate tobacco smoking do so to their satisfaction, they will go after nicotine consumption using the successful playbook they have honed in respect of cigarette smoking. And, in part, those offering the main forms of alternative products are laying the groundwork for their own demise. By trying to promote their products as therapeutic devices whose only purpose is to provide a way for smokers to quit combustible cigarettes, they are setting a time limit on these products’ useful lifespans. And by supporting the government’s efforts to meet its 2030 target (in England—other nations within the U.K. have their own targets) of ending tobacco smoking, they are further limiting those lifespans.
Perhaps it might be as well if those attempting to wipe out cigarette smoking revisit their dinosaur imagery. When the dinosaurs were wiped out in the great extinction event of more than 60 million years ago, about three-quarters of all animal species went with them—for the same reasons. Surely, the time has come when it is necessary for those promoting vaping and other tobacco-smoking alternatives to say that they are so confident about the safety of their products that they see no reason why nonsmokers should not consume them.

Looking Ahead
I met up with Clark because I was interested to know if, in this, FOREST’s 45th anniversary year, he believed that the organization would be around to celebrate 50 years. “I’m more hopeful now than I was a few years ago that we will get to our 50th,” he said. “I wouldn’t keep FOREST going just for the sheer hell of it. I genuinely think we still have a part to play in the political process.”
But he is cautious, saying he takes one year at a time, partly because he doesn’t take FOREST’s funding for granted. Philip Morris, never a major source of funding, made its last donation to FOREST in 1997, two years before Clark became FOREST’s director, while BAT, the first company to support the organization, pulled its funding three years or four years ago. That leaves Imperial and Japan Tobacco, the two major tobacco companies on the U.K market.
Perhaps the split with BAT was inevitable. While Clark says he understands the political and business reasons behind the shift in focus toward lower-risk products, I think the company’s latest claim to be creating a better tomorrow by building a smokeless world would be a little paternalistic and get stuck in the craw of this lifelong libertarian. The trouble here is that by claiming to be able to create a better tomorrow, BAT seems to be saying that everybody must sign up to the same idea of what constitutes a better tomorrow, riding roughshod over Clark and FOREST’s cherished principle of freedom of choice.
This is not to say that Clark is trying to bite the hand that feeds FOREST or that used to feed it. This is part of what he had to say at a gala dinner marking FOREST’s 40th anniversary, sentiments that he stands by today. “Finally, I’d like to thank the tobacco companies who have supported FOREST for 40 years. We don’t take the companies’ support for granted, and we know that society’s relationship with smoking has changed and will continue to change, and we also know that the companies are changing and moving toward safer nicotine products, as indeed they should.
“FOREST’s focus is also evolving to embrace and support risk reduction products, but as long as there are adults who choose to smoke, enjoy smoking and don’t want to quit, we will never abandon them because it’s our belief that choice and personal responsibility are paramount.”

Work Remains
FOREST is not making a big thing of its 45th anniversary because it believes there is so much going on regarding tobacco smoking regulations that a celebration would have been self-indulgent. Even at its annual lunch, held at the Boisdale restaurant in London in May, which would have provided a suitable vehicle for a celebration, Clark demurred, instead using the occasion to carry forward its campaign to Beat the Ban—the generational ban on selling tobacco products, which, at that time, was making its way through parliament with cross-party support.
As it turned out, an election was called, and the tobacco and vapes bill that included the ban was abandoned. But that, of course, is not the end of the matter. The new government has committed to resurrecting the bill, though what form it will take is not clear.
And there is more to come. All tobacco issues in England are likely to be geared around 2030, when smoking is due to have been eradicated from the country—or, rather, in line with the strange way of such matters, is due to be reduced to about 5 percent from the current 13 percent. Clark expects that efforts will be made to reduce the number of outlets allowed to sell cigarettes, and he predicts that pressure will be applied to ban smoking in more outdoor areas, including beaches, which is ironic given that for many people, beaches have become no-go areas due to the illegal but wholesale dumping of untreated sewage into our seas and waterways. He also believes that the generational tobacco sales ban will collapse under the weight of its own absurdities but rather than be abandoned will form the basis for public health, having itself upset the generational balance and harmony, to call for the generational playing field to be leveled up by banning the sale of cigarettes to everybody. Politically, this sort of strategy is called “Building on failure.”

Education Instead of Coercion
To be clear, though, Clark has no problem with falling smoking rates; as he says, societies change, but he is concerned that the apparently arbitrary 2030 target date is going to be the springboard for more draconian regulations as the government sees that it has no chance of meeting it. He believes the government’s role should extend no further than educating people about the dangers of certain activities, including smoking, though he emphasizes that education should not include propaganda and fearmongering. Once governments start to exaggerate health risks, they lose their audience, he says. And he has no truck with the use of punitive rates of taxation, which amount to attempts at social engineering and in part lead to the government’s losing control of the market to illicit operators at the expense of the retail sector.
One of Clark’s big concerns is that governments are, in this way, increasingly interfering in all manner of people’s lifestyle choices by attacking those choices rather than their likely causes. Noting that smokers are more prevalent in deprived areas, governments have chosen to double down on anti-tobacco activities in those areas rather than taking the more difficult route of attacking the cause of the deprivation.
While such things make him angry, so that at times he can come across as quite cross, he also tends to see the funny side of things. With a twinkle in his eye, he told me it was interesting how many senior politicians whose periods in power were going pear-shaped would choose an easy target, such as smoking, to bolster their flagging legacies. Theresa May, as prime minister, had hit on the 2030 target date, seemingly without much evidence to support the relevance of that year, and Rishi Sunak, as prime minister, had lifted the generational tobacco sales ban from an opposition idea.
Finally, it would be amiss not to mention the word enjoyment, which is very much part of the FOREST name and credo but can get overlooked because the organization is continually fighting fires. Clark said that one of the things he was most proud of during his time as director of FOREST was his commissioning eight years ago of a study by the Centre for Substance Use Research in Glasgow, Scotland, into the attitudes of about 600 confirmed smokers: people who smoked and didn’t want to quit. “The pleasure of smoking: The views of confirmed smokers” found that more than 90 percent of respondents smoked because they enjoyed it and derived pleasure from smoking. Just over half said they were probably addicted to smoking but didn’t care because the pleasure outweighed the addiction.
The results of the study did not receive a great deal of media attention, probably because it goes against the received idea that smoking is a disgusting habit that most smokers wish they had never started and would not start given their time again. But one of the things that I take away from the study is Clark’s courage in commissioning it in the face of such received ideas. And partly because of his courage in standing up for what many think is a lost cause, smokers can be thankful that this “dinosaur” hopes he will be in charge as FOREST approaches its 50th anniversary. “I still enjoy my job,” he said. “I still think I have something to offer. I still get a kick out of it. And I still think we have a role to play.”
George Gay is Tobacco Reporter’s European editor, but his territory spans the globe. Based in London, George has covered the tobacco industry since 1982, initially for a U.K.-based publication and since 2004 for Tobacco Reporter. George’s understanding of industry issues, combined with his keen sense of observation and dry wit, have earned him a loyal following among Tobacco Reporter’s readers.

October 1, 2024
Campaigners Vow to Fight Outdoor Ban

Photo: gzorgz
A leaked plan to drastically extend smoking restrictions in Britain to outdoor spaces has sparked outrage among activists and some politicians.
According to The Sun, ministers have been “plotting” to make beer gardens, outdoor restaurants and other open-air spaces smokefree. The proposed restrictions exempt private homes, along with large open spaces such as parks or streets.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “It’ll be the end of pubs.”
“Imposing nanny state regulation like this on pubs and restaurants would not only be wrong but economically damaging,” said Former Home Secretary Priti Patel.
“These are small businesses, run by hardworking people, that provide jobs up and down the country.”
Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ rights group Forest vowed to fight any attempt to extend smoking bans to outdoor areas.
“Smoking bans must be evidence based and there is no evidence that smoking in the open air is a significant threat to the health of nonsmokers,” he said.
“The indoor smoking ban did enormous damage to the pub industry. Extending the ban to beer gardens could force many more pubs to close.”
Accusing the ruling Labour party of using “bully state” tactics to force adults to quit smoking, Clark said, “If it’s true that the government intends to extend the smoking ban to a raft of outdoor areas, Britain will no longer be a nanny state.
“We will have crossed a line and become a bully state in which people are punished for the terrible crime of lighting a cigarette outside a pub or in a park.”
August 29, 2024
Food for Thought

(Photos: Stuart Mitchell)
“You couldn’t make it up.” That was how Simon Clark, the director of the Freedom Organization for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (Forest), summed up the way in which the U.K. government had, in October last year, renegued on earlier assurances and announced a generational ban on tobacco sales.
Clark was speaking as co-host of a Beat the Ban lunch held at the Boisdale Restaurant in London on May 21. The proposed ban, currently being pushed through parliament, would make it illegal in the U.K. to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009.
Clark pointed out that this would mean a person of a certain age would be able to buy tobacco while another person, one year, or, in some cases, just one day younger, would not be able to do so legally. Eventually, a person 70 years of age would not be able to buy tobacco legally.
Forest is opposed to the proposed ban for several reasons, but mainly because it believes the ban would infantilize young adults and increasingly older adults, driving some of them towards the black market and criminal gangs, while doing nothing to stop sales of tobacco products to children, which are already illegal.
What was extraordinary, Clark said, was that while, in April 2023, the government had made it clear it did not intend to raise the minimum age for the sale of tobacco, in October, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, announced plans for the generational ban.
“In our view, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill is a desperate attempt by a desperate prime minister to leave a legacy—any legacy—however unconservative, before the next general election [due to be held this year or, at the latest, January 2025],” said Clark.
Clark was scathing, too, about the way the bill is being “steamrollered” through parliament. Following a short public consultation before Christmas, the government had announced it would not consider any submissions from groups with links to the tobacco industry, which, for instance, included Forest and even retailers. “To the best of my knowledge, that has never happened before,” he added.
After its second reading, the bill entered its committee stage, when 17 MPs were appointed to the Committee, 16 of whom had voted for the bill and the other of whom was known to support it. And when it came to inviting people to give oral evidence to the Committee, witnesses were almost exclusively supporters of the bill.
“Not only has the process been absolutely scandalous, the bill as it stands is illiberal, unenforceable, and has significant unintended consequences,” said Clark. “It will drive the legitimate sale of cigarettes and tobacco underground,” he added, before calling on those so minded to write to their MPs in protest,
Clark’s co-host, Ranald Macdonald, the founder and MD of the Boisdale restaurants, was unable to attend the lunch but sent a message of support along with a special pleading for the smokers of fine cigars.
And the 60 lunch guests, who included MPs, parliamentary researchers, think tank staff, retailers, tobacco industry representatives and journalists, heard from a string of speakers representing or simply speaking up for retailers, young adults and a variety of tobacco products, including pipe tobacco and snuff that will also be covered by the bill should it go through. —George Gay
Editors’s note:
Hours after this story had been submitted, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that a general election would be held on July 4, meaning that parliament was due to be dissolved on May 30 and leaving too little time for the tobacco and vapes bill to complete its passage through parliament. This is unlikely to be the end of the matter, however, because the policy underpinning the bill had cross-party support and could well arise like the phoenix in the future.
George Gay is Tobacco Reporter’s European editor, but his territory spans the globe. Based in London, George has covered the tobacco industry since 1982, initially for a U.K.-based publication and since 2004 for Tobacco Reporter. George’s understanding of industry issues, combined with his keen sense of observation and dry wit, have earned him a loyal following among Tobacco Reporter’s readers.

May 22, 2024
Defending Liberty

Photo: Wieslaw
The U.K.’s proposed generational tobacco products sales ban was variously described as nuts, insane, ludicrous, mad, illiberal, impractical and petty minded by speakers at a House of Commons reception on Feb. 7.
The reception, which was lively, going on boisterous at times, was hosted by the Conservative MP Giles Watling on behalf of the Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Tobacco (Forest), whose director, Simon Clark, told the gathering of about 50 invited people the purpose of the event was to bring together a broad coalition of groups to show the breadth of opposition to the ban: the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Taxpayers’ Alliance, the Adam Smith Institute, the Consumer Choice Centre, Students for Liberty and the LSE Hayek Society.
Watling, a non-smoker but at one time a 60-Marlboro-a-day man, described the proposed ban as insane and said it was not good for the Conservative Party. There were better things that it should be doing than this piece of legislation.
The idea that there were more important things for the government to be doing was taken up forcefully by Baroness (Claire) Fox of Buckley, who sits in the second chamber, the House of Lords, as a non-affiliated life peer. After outlining some of the huge and urgent domestic and international issues facing the government, she said she found it unbelievable that the prime minister had dedicated precious legislative time and energy on the most ludicrous anti-smoking law.
Clark, who organised the event, said that, in his view, smoking was a bellwether for liberty and that the war on smoking should be of concern to anybody who cared about individual freedoms. Freedom was all about supporting things that you yourself might not like, he added, before describing how a Forest banner showing a cartoon depiction of the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, pushing a pram under the heading, “Say No to Nanny,” had been confiscated by parliamentary security on the grounds that it might be offensive to some people.
The generational tobacco sales ban as it is currently proposed would make it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, which, Clark said, would lead to the ludicrous situation where, for instance, at some point these products could be sold legally to a person of 30 but not to a person of 29.
This would seem to put retailers in an invidious position and, given the U.K.’s dislike of identity cards, might perhaps sink the proposed ban if it were focused on any other product. But there was a sense that the ban would be difficult to stop. Fox made the point that the government might find it difficult to extricate itself from the proposed ban, even if it wanted to, because it was the one thing around which all the political parties had united.—George Gay
February 8, 2024
United Kingdom to Ban Disposable Vapes

Photo: Mikhail Reshetnikov
The U.K. will ban disposable e-cigarettes, the government announced today.
According to the government, disposable vapes have been a key driver behind the rise in youth vaping, with the proportion of 11 to 17-year-old vapers using disposables increasing almost ninefold in the last two years.   
As part of the package, the government will also acquire new powers to regulate vape flavors, e-cigarette packaging and product presentation in stores to ensure that they don’t appeal to underage users. Additionally, the government will bring in new fines for shops in England and Wales that sell vapes illegally to children. Vaping alternatives, such as nicotine pouches, will also be outlawed for underage consumers.
In its announcement of the new measures, the government also reiterated its commitment to a generational tobacco ban. To help implement the new rules, government agencies such as the Border Force, Revenue and Customs and Trading Standers will receive £30 million ($38.1 million) in new funding a year.
 “As prime minister I have an obligation to do what I think is the right thing for our country in the long term. That is why I am taking bold action to ban disposable vapes—which have driven the rise in youth vaping—and bring forward new powers to restrict vape flavors, introduce plain packaging and change how vapes are displayed in shops,” said ,” said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
“Alongside our commitment to stop children who turn 15 this year or younger from ever legally being sold cigarettes, these changes will leave a lasting legacy by protecting our children’s health for the long term.”

While action to prevent youth access to vaping is critical, this move smacks more of a desperate attempt by the government to sacrifice vapers for votes ahead of the upcoming general election.
John Dunne, director-general, UKVIA
Public health officials welcomed the government’s decision. “We’re delighted that the Westminster government has heard our calls and is rightly prioritizing the health and well-being of our children and the planet,” said Mike McKean, vice president for policy at the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health. “Bold action was always needed to curb youth vaping and banning disposables is a meaningful step in the right direction. I’m also extremely pleased to see further much needed restrictions on flavors, packaging and marketing of vapes.”
Representatives of the vape industry, by contrast, were dismayed, pointing to significant role disposable vapes have played in bringing the U.K.’s smoking rates down to a record low.
“While action to prevent youth access to vaping is critical, this move smacks more of a desperate attempt by the government to sacrifice vapers for votes ahead of the upcoming general election,” said John Dunne, director general of the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), in a statement.
“If the government thinks banning disposables will help protect young people, they are completely misguided. This counterproductive legislation will sooner put children at greater risk by turbo-charging the black market and, in turn, making it easier for them to access illicit and noncompliant vapes.”
Pointing to recent research from University College London, the UKVIA said the answer to youth vaping doesn’t lie in counterproductive bans and restrictions, but rather in effective and proactive enforcement of the law which states that it is illegal for vapes to be sold to minors.

We can’t have a two-tier society in which some adults are permitted to buy tobacco and others are denied the same opportunity.
Simon Clark, director, Forest
The government’s continued commitment to a generational tobacco ban, meanwhile, prompted a strong response from smokers’ rights activists, who said the plan infantilizes adults.
A new poll for the smokers’ lobby group Forest found that almost two thirds (64 percent) of adults in Britain say that when people are 18 and legally an adult, they should be allowed to purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products.
“As soon as you are legally an adult you should be treated like one and allowed to buy tobacco, if that’s your choice,” said Simon Clark, director of Forest.
“We can’t have a two-tier society in which some adults are permitted to buy tobacco and others are denied the same opportunity.”
Urging Downing Street to step back from the policy, he added: “Law-abiding retailers will have the difficult job of enforcing this absurd policy that also drives a stake into the heart of traditional Conservative values such as freedom of choice and personal responsibility.”

January 29, 2024
Poll: Adults Should be Allowed to Buy Tobacco

Image: auremar
Almost three-fifths of people in Britain say that when people are 18 and legally an adult, they should be allowed to purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products, a new poll conducted on behalf of the smokers’ lobby group Forest has found.
Conducted by Yonder Consulting, the survey found that 58 percent of respondents think that if a person can vote, drive a car, buy alcohol or possess a credit card at 18, they should also be allowed to purchase tobacco.
Fewer than a third (32 percent) said they should not be allowed to purchase tobacco products when they are legally an adult at 18, while 10 percent said, “don’t know.”
Excluding “don’t knows,” almost two-thirds (65 percent) think that when people are 18 and legally an adult they should be allowed to purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products.
The poll comes on the final day for submissions to the government consultation on banning the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults born after 2008.
The consultation ends Dec. 6 and Forest is urging the government not to introduce a generational ban on the sale of tobacco but to follow the example of the new center-right government in New Zealand which has announced that it will repeal a similar generational sales ban introduced by that country’s previous Labour government.

Banning the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults is gesture politics by a prime minister who has run out of ideas and is desperate to leave a legacy.
Simon Clark, director, Forest
“As soon as you are legally an adult you should be treated like one and allowed to buy tobacco, if that’s your choice,” said Simon Clark, director of Forest.
“We can’t have a two-tier society in which some adults are permitted to buy cigarettes, and others are denied the same opportunity.
“Banning the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults is gesture politics by a prime minister who has run out of ideas and is desperate to leave a legacy.
“It ignores the consequences for law-abiding retailers, who will have to enforce this absurd policy, and drives a stake into the heart of traditional Conservative values such as freedom of choice and personal responsibility.”
The government consultation has also invited responses to proposals for further regulations on vaping products. Forest is urging the government to not ban disposable vapes, make vapes subject to excise duty, or restrict the promotion and display of vapes in shops.
According to Clark, vaping has been a free-market success story. “Millions of smokers who want to quit have done so by switching voluntarily to e-cigarettes and other reduced risk products, including heated tobacco and nicotine pouches,” he said.
“The issue of children vaping should be addressed not by imposing further restrictions on vapes but by enforcing existing age restrictions and punishing retailers who sell vapes illegally to children.”
December 5, 2023