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meeson · Site Admin Joined: 26 Feb 2007 Posts: 615

Last-ditch push for smoke ban exemptions
25 June, 2007

Pro-smoking group FOREST to make a stand at event tonight

Pro-smoking group FOREST will tonight make a last-ditch stand against the smoking ban in England by calling for exemptions for pubs and private clubs.

The group will urge the government to allow designated smoking rooms in some pubs and allow private clubs to devise a policy in line with their member’s wishes at a dinner for celebrities and MPs at the Savoy Hotel in London.

Simon Clark, director of FOREST, will tell around 400 guests, including MPs and peers: “We have lost the battle but we haven't lost the war. The smoking ban is out of all proportion to the risk from second-hand smoke.”

The event - Revolt In Style: A Freedom Dinner – will be hosted by TV chef and restaurateur Antony Worrall Thompson.

Guest speakers include publisher and broadcaster Andrew Neil, Claire Fox, director of the Institute of Ideas, and Ranald Macdonald, managing director of Boisdale Restaurants and Bars.

Claire Fox, a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze, said: "It is a sign of our small-minded times when the most exciting new idea to come out of politics is banning smoking. These new modern puritans demonise our behaviour and preach illiberalism.”