Welcome to the brand new Forest website.

Forest first went online in 1998 but it was five years before we launched our first professionally designed website. Overnight it changed the way we operated.

Before that we used to spend many hours on the phone speaking to researchers, journalists and members of the public. This in turn was followed by many more hours photocopying and distributing, by fax or by post, relevant documents, news releases and so on. Suddenly we were able to upload most of the information online and direct people to the website where they could find much of what they wanted to know.

Web design has moved on since 2003 and despite a facelift in 2007 the Forest website was showing its age. As well as being bigger and more user-friendly, the new site features links to Forest's Twitter page, our Friends of Forest Facebook group, and our YouTube channel. We don't have a dedicated Forest blog (not yet anyway) but you can comment on our headline news stories and you are very welcome to join the conversation on my own blog, Taking Liberties.

Some of the copy will be familiar to older visitors – our recommended reading, for example, hasn't changed much – but the new site will be updated far more often (I promise!). 

What's changed since Forest went online?

As we entered the new millennium the war on tobacco stepped up a gear and sadly the United Kingdom and Ireland have been leading the way (in Europe, at least). Tobacco advertising and sponsorship, a target for tobacco control throughout the Nineties, was finally outlawed in Britain in 2002. Campaigners then looked for what they call the "next logical step". Encouraged by Ireland (where smoking in the workplace was banned in 2004), Scotland prohibited smoking in enclosed public places in 2006 and England, Wales and Northern Ireland quickly followed suit. 

Since July 2007 smoking has been banned in all workplaces including every pub, club and bar throughout the United Kingdom. Worse, government has been outrageously restrictive about the regulations on outdoor smoking shelters, making it almost impossible to smoke in a warm, comfortable environment all year round.

Meanwhile smokers have been bombarded with the increasingly strident message that their habit is "seriously harming" those around them. According to some estimates, never substantiated with actual evidence, 11,000 non-smokers were said to die in Britain every year as a result of "passive smoking" (exposure to other people's tobacco smoke). 

On top of that consumers have had to endure countless anti-smoking campaigns, costing millions of pounds of public money, with pejorative slogans such as 'If you smoke you stink'. How nice that government should actively target a significant minority of the population for personal abuse when they've done nothing wrong other than purchase a legal product that raises billions of pounds in revenue.

Despite that, smokers now face another guilt trip – the accusation that it costs the NHS huge sums of money treating "smoking-related diseases". Leaving aside the fact that most "smoking-related diseases" are multifactorial, consumers contribute a whopping £10 billion a year in tobacco duty and VAT. This figure far exceeds the alleged cost of treating "smoking-related diseases" which was estimated a few years ago to be £1.5b but has risen dramatically in recent years to £2.5b and now £5.5b. Yeah, right.

Worse, in some respects, was the manner in which government either ignored official research (the Office for National Statistics, for example, found that a clear majority of adults – almost two thirds – were opposed to a comprehensive smoking ban before it was implemented) or has manipulated public consultations using taxpayers' money to fund tobacco control groups who then lobbied government in support of its own policy. It's like a scene from Yes, Minister - except that no-one is laughing.

The good news, or so we thought, was that the new coalition government couldn't possibly be any worse than its predecessor. The Lib Dems may have been the first political party to support a public smoking ban but, together with the Conservatives, they opposed Labour's tobacco display ban when in opposition. And together David Cameron and Nick Clegg seemed to be making the right noises about "personal responsibility" and "individual freedom".

Why should you support Forest in 2011?

Well, far from pursuing a more liberal tobacco control policy based on education and personal responsibility, the coalition government has decided to implement the very policy the two parties opposed under Labour. On March 9, 2011 (No Smoking Day in Britain), Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced that the ban on the display of tobacco in shops would go ahead. He also made it known that he would consider a ban on tobacco branding (aka plain packaging).

There are also signs that the tobacco control movement in Britain wants to ban smoking in the open air, places that pose no threat (even if you believe the propaganda about "passive smoking"). That means hospital grounds, public parks and beaches. But first they want to ban smoking in private vehicles. The aim, quite simply, is to "denormalise" smoking, a term that owes more to George Orwell’s 1984 than a rational public health policy in 2011, and we need YOUR support to fight this threat.

In case you're wondering, we haven't given up contesting the smoking ban. In 2009 we launched a campaign – Save Our Pubs & Clubs: Amend The Smoking Ban – that has attracted support from MPs, publicans and, most recently, the Working Mens' Clubs & Institute Union (CIU). We campaign not for a wholesale reversal of the ban but for an amendment that would bring Britain into line with most European countries where smoking is still allowed in many licensed premises or, as in France, comfortable outdoor smoking rooms that provide far better protection from bad weather.

Another Forest initiative, The Free Society, is fighting Big Government on a broad front that includes tobacco, alcohol and food and is part of a wider libertarian network that includes some world famous names such as the Adam Smith Institute and the Institute for Economic Affairs. The Free Society co-hosts events with other liberal-minded groups including the Institute of Economic Affairs, Adam Smith Institute, Democracy Institute, Manifesto Club, Liberal Vision and Privacy International, and we invite you to join us. (Watch this space for news of forthcoming events.)

If this is your first visit, or you are returning after a long absence, I hope this will encourage you to register your support and join us in defending those who choose to smoke and consume tobacco. With your support we can do so much more.

Simon Clark
Director, Forest 
March 28, 2011