The Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco, FOREST, held a reception with limited spaces and participation at the House of Commons on Wednesday the 7th of February, to resist and delay the adult smoking prohibition proposed by the prime minister Rishi Sunak, one day after opponent of the prime minister’s plan former prime minister and the majority leader Liz Truss launched Popular Conservatism in the House of Commons.
Simon Clark, FOREST’s director and Chairman was a speaker at the reception which was sponsored and introduced by actor Giles Watling MP, who represents Clacton in Essex since 2017, who also used to smoke 3 packets a day, and Giles Watling’s speech was followed by speeches by Baroness Claire Fox of Buckley and communications director of the IEA (Institute of Economic Affairs) Reem Ibrahim. Philip Davies MP was initially planned to sponsor the reception but Philip Davies had been double-booked and cancelled with 8 hours of notice and the event was looking for the sponsor it found on the same day to be Giles Watling.
Guests at the reception came from the Adam Smith Institute, the Taxpayers’ Alliance, the Consumer Choice Centre, Students For Liberty, the London School of Economics (LSE) Hayek Society, and Blue Beyond, a conservative think tank, all of which are expressed opponents of adult smoking prohibition.
The gateway security at the Houses of Parliament barred entry from a large 2 x 2 metre banner of FOREST featuring the caricature of Rishi Sunak carrying a pram as a Victorian nanny as it claimed it ‘could offend some people’. However, the same caricature printed on beer mats and leaflets was admitted into Westminster for the reception.
FOREST issued the following protest declaration during and after the reception held at the Palace of Westminster, which they urge anyone to share to raise awareness on serious issues on civil liberties: In it FOREST refers to the polled majority of 64% that opposes adult smoking prohibition whereby anyone born after 2009 however older they would be would be treated as an underage teenager along with children to be ineligible to purchase tobacco products.
Bring Back Smoking Freedom 