The UK Government is currently consulting on plans to ban the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults.

Other nicotine products being threatened with prohibition include disposable vapes and some e-cigarette flavours.

Closing date for the consultation is Wednesday 6th December

To respond to the consultation online please visit this link – Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping. 

We don't ask very often but it is essential that you make your views known to government and, just as important, your MP. You can write to your MP via this website (Say No to Prohibition).

WATCH: Nanny State of the Nation

Thanks to everyone who joined us for last week's 'Nanny State of the Nation' event at Old Queen Street Cafe in Westminster, or watched it live online.

The event was organised in response to Rishi Sunak's plan for a ban on the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults in the UK.

It also marked the publication of 'Freedom: Up In Smoke?', the latest in a series of Letters on Liberty published by the Academy of Ideas.

A video of the discussion is now available on our YouTube channel, here. Chaired by Ella Whelan (Academy of Ideas), speakers were Baroness Fox, Reem Ibrahim (Institute of Economic Affairs), Henry Hill (ConservativeHome), and Simon Clark (Forest).

After the discussion we also filmed a handful of soundbites with our speakers and members of the audience including Olivia Lever (Blue Beyond), Conor Holohan and Benjamin Elks (TaxPayers alliance), and retailer Nick Pindoria. The short five-minute video can be viewed here.

We are currently posting some of the individual soundbites on social media. If you are on social media please repost. The clip featuring Baroness Fox has been viewed 54,000 times in just 24 hours. She told us:

"Over a period of time the British state will ban a 25-year-old, a 35-year-old, a 45-year-old, from smoking and treat them as if they're 14 and need the state to protect them. It's mad."

Watch it here.

Photos of the event can also be viewed here.

Prohibition 2.0: The Future of UK Tobacco Policy

Another event that will explore the future of UK tobacco policy takes place at the Institute of Economic Affairs on Wednesday 29th November.

Chaired by Reem Ibrahim (IEA communications officer), panelists include: Christopher Snowdon, IEA head of Lifestyle Economics), Madeline Grant (assistant comment editor and parliamentary sketchwriter at the Telegraph), Paul North (director of Volteface), and Craig Whittaker MP (Member of Parliament for Calder Valley).

Venue is the IEA, 2 Lord North Street, Westminster, London, SW1P 3LB. The discussion starts at 18:00 and will be preceded by drinks from 17:30. Spaces are limited and will be given on a first-come-first-serve basis. For full details, including how to book a ticket, visit the IEA website here.

And finally, some good news ...

As you may have read, the incoming centre right government in New Zealand plans to repeal the previous Labour government's legislation that included a ban on the sale of tobacco to future generations of adults.

This is the same policy that Rishi Sunak chose to adopt for the UK and although Downing Street is insisting the prime minister is committed to it, we think there's a chance to change his mind ... but we do need YOUR help, so please respond to the government consultation and write to your MP. 

Press Association – England’s smoking phase-out ‘unchanged’ as New Zealand ‘will repeal law’