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=FOREST ANNUAL LUNCH, 13TH MAY 2025=

The annual Forest lunch at Boisdale of Belgravia in London was attended by 80 guests including MPs, peers, journalists, parliamentary researchers, think tank staffers, and friends of Forest.

Drinks on the terrace were followed by lunch and speeches in the main restaurant. Many guests then returned to the terrace where a substantial number remained, smoking and drinking, until the early evening.

Special thanks to our host, Ranald Macdonald, MD of Boisdale Restaurants, and guest speaker Claire Fox, aka Baroness Fox of Buckley and a member of the House of Lords.

Claire (above) talked about the Tobacco and Vapes Bill which is currently progressing through parliament and threatens to ban the sale of tobacco to all future generations of adults.

Responding to Ranald's plea for cigars to be given an exemption from the generational ban, Forest director Simon Clark (above) told guests:

"Ranald is right to defend the unique nature of the cigar and point out the difference between cigarettes and cigars. However, Forest has never discriminated between different types of tobacco product.

"We believe this is a more general issue concerning freedom of choice and personal responsibility, and if you make an informed choice to smoke cigarettes, knowing the health risks, that’s a matter for you, not the government."

Sir Philip Davies, the former MP for Shipley (above), was presented with our prestigious (!) Voices of Freedom award for consistently voting against anti-smoking legislation despite being a non-smoker and having a general dislike of smoking!

Finally, former prime minister Rishi Sunak was awarded the title Nanny-in-Chief for having initiated the generational tobacco ban in the last parliament.

Sunak just beat Sir Keir Starmer to the award which was judged by Chris Snowdon (above), founder and editor of the Nanny State Index ([link removed]) , the latest edition of which was published (by coincidence) this week.

Photos: Gary Williams Photography
Instagram: garywilliams.photography

To view the full gallery of photos click here ([link removed]) or on the image below.

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