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Fun, facts and fag-packets at Forest event

By Editor
February 27th, 2015 at 11:21 am | Comments Off on Fun, facts and fag-packets at Forest event | Posted in Personal Freedom, Uncategorized

The Hands Off Our Packs “Stop the Nonsense: Plain Speaking on Plain Packaging” event was held on Tuesday night. What a joy it was.MArk Littlewood southampton FC

All Forest shindigs are must-go-to events as far as we are concerned. They are lively and fun; the speakers are invariably excellent value; the alcohol flows; and the pavements/terraces/balconies are alive with smokers and non-smokers alike celebrating life, the universe and everything else.

This event was no less fun, informative and innovative than we have come to expect. We had intended to write up the event in  more detail, but Dick Puddlecote has pretty much said it all – so just go read his post.

[PS his added note was an eye-rolling moment..

“*An interesting note on David Cameron and his view of plain packs. He came out with a quip during yesterday’s PMQs which went something like this – “Now we are committed to plain paper packaging of cigarettes, it will give more space for the opposition to write their policies on”. Yep, it looks like David Cameron doesn’t have a first clue about the policy he is legislating on! “

Let us just add our salute to Simon Clark (Forest Director) for coming up with such an innovative format (8 or so quick fire speeches- each lasting no more than 2 or 3 minutes).

Hats off to our very own Angela Harbutt who kicked of the formal speeches delivering the plain facts from Australia and ending up with an ask that MPs “consider the facts – not the wishful fiction of state-funded lobby groups and self-serving Whitehall bureaucrats”.

We should also salute Mark Littlewood, formerly of this Parish, and now Director General of the free-market Institute of Economic Affairs. Not only did he deliver a suitably rousing finish to the formal part of the evening, he managed to namecheck (yet again) his much-beloved Southampton Football Club!

Not without merit…(though he rarely needs an excuse in our experience).  He simply pointed out that he had acquired a (very robust and rather snazzy) “SaintsFC cig box” into which he drops his chosen cigarette pack. Given the interest in the room that evening , we suspect many more will be doing likewise (acquiring their own bespoke cig case – not necessarily creating a Saints FC one.)

Forest has promised to put a video of the speeches up on YouTube in the coming days. But here is a close up pic of the much-discussed cig case.

ML cig case

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Angela Harbutt joins the fight against plain packaging on tobacco

By Angela Harbutt
February 6th, 2012 at 4:55 pm | 5 Comments | Posted in Nannying, Nudge Dredd, Personal Freedom

In December 2011 the Secretary of State for Health announced that a public consultation on the plain packaging of tobacco would commence Spring 2012.It will probably not come as a surprise to many of you, and a source of great pride for me, that I am announcing today that I am formally joining the FOREST campaign www.handsoffourpacks.com to fight this insane idea.

As it says in in our mission statement “Liberal Vision exists to promote individual liberty, a free economy and limited government.”   And I have been writing about personal freedom and the nanny state for as long as I have been involved in it (just a selection)….

Enemies of enterprise seek control of tobacco ; The fightback starts here ; Government confirms time travel has been cracked ; Stephen Williams is not a liberal ; battle lines are drawn this is the mother of all fights ; A fat tax is definitively not the answer ; ASH – Abuse of public money must end ; Save our pubs and clubs – join us in Westminster on june 29th ; The mother of all government apologies is just around the corner ; Alcohol poisoning is not an issue for government ; Latest government plans: trivial or just plain wrong ; Chocolate Orange Dave strikes again ; A very unlikely heroine ; Government signals “illicit tobacco welcome here” ; Raising a glass north of the border ; Time to bin ASH before it destroys another part of the economy ; Smoking ban amendment: where were the Lib Dems? ; A big test for David Cameron’s “Big Society mantra”; Can I have my super casino back now?

But there comes a time when you have to stop writing about it and go try doing something about it.

So that is what I am doing. I will post a little later why I think everyone should oppose plain packaging on tobacco. But for now I just wanted to flag up that I am now formally part of the handsoffourpacks campaign and my future blog posts should be considered in that light.

You can now also follow my thoughts or read more about the issue on plain packaging of tobacco at the HandsOffOurPacks website where there is an online petition which I urge you to sign  and ideas about how you can get involved . You can also follow the campaign on twitter and facebook.

More later.

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