Fight the ban: fight for choice
Launched in May 2004, when the threat of a comprehensive public smoking ban in the UK became clear, our Fight the Ban: Fight for Choice campaign saw Forest engage is an unprecedented level of lobbying. For the first time, in addition to our regular media work, we placed a series of display advertisements in both the national and local press. Forest ads also appeared in the hospitality trade press, political weeklies such as The Spectator, New Statesman and The Week, and specialist titles such as The House Magazine and Blake's Parliamentary Yearbook.
We commissioned, from Populus (pollster to The Times since 2003), a series of public opinion polls, each one highlighting the fact that a clear majority of people were opposed to a comprehensive ban; we published and distributed hard-hitting essays, articles and other reports; organised media-friendly events in London and at party conferences; submitted evidence in response to public consultations; submitted evidence to national and local government committees; and gave written and oral evidence to Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly committees.
Harrassment of cross-Channel shoppers
In 1999 Forest started getting calls
from people whose goods had been seized by Customs on their return from
perfectly legitimate shopping trips. Many callers complained about the
treatment they had received from officials and the 2000/2001 Annual
Report from the Customs and Excise Adjudicator confirmed that
complaints against Customs and Excise had increased by 45% to just
under 3,000. Likewise, there was a 10% increase in the cases that were
upheld. What was emerging was a culture of fear among ordinary
cross-Channel shoppers that anything above the ridiculously small
'guideline' of 800 cigarettes or 1kg of rolling tobacco might be
subject to seizure.
Our campaign to highlight and stop the harassment of ordinary
cross-Channel shoppers was launched in November 1999 when we were
contacted by Garry Mullen, a 60-a-day smoker from whom officials in
Dover had seized 5,000 cigarettes. After taking legal advice (and
checking that the cigarettes were indeed for his own personal use), we
agreed to underwrite the cost of a solicitor and a barrister so he
could contest an application by Customs to destroy his cigarettes. In
April 2000, supported by Forest, Garry Mullen went to court - and won.
Not that you would have known about it. At this point the media was
largely indifferent to the fate of cross-Channel shoppers. Even the
news, in September 2000, that another smoker - Derek Denovellis - had
successfully contested the seizure of 20,000 cigarettes at Luton
airport in April that year, went largely unreported.
Meanwhile the calls continued to flood in to the Forest office and in
January 2001 we were contacted by two Midlands-based coach operators
who complained that their businesses were being put at risk by the
heavy-handed tactics employed - on the Government's behalf - by
Customs. We gave their story, exclusively, to the Daily Telegraph which ran a full page feature (plus leader) in February 2001. Thereafter the Telegraph adopted the plight of cross-Channel shoppers as part of its "A Free Country?" campaign.
Finally waking up to what was going on, other sections of the media began to highlight individual cases and even condemn what was going on.
A further boost was the involvement of the European Commission's
internal market commissioner Frits Bolkenstein who threatened to
prosecute the UK Government for breaking EU rules. Meanwhile, in August 2002, ttravel operator Hoverspeed sought a judicial review on the
legality of some of Customs more dubious practices.
The result of all this pressure was that on October 29, 2002, the
Government finally forced announced that the burden of proof no longer
lies with the traveller and that the guidelines would be increased,
with immediate effect, to a more realistic level: 3200 cigarettes, 200
cigars, 400 cigarillos and 3kg of smoking tobacco.