‘People think there's a choice between smoking and immortality, but we've all got to die of something.’ Tom Stoppard

The acclaimed playwright who has died, aged 88, was an inveterate smoker, which is why I invited him to the annual Forest lunch at Boisdale in 2022. (Spoiler: he didn’t come.)

When we quoted Daily Mail columnist Tom Utley in the latest Forest newsletter, little did we know he was days from retirement.

His final column, published today, means we have lost one of the few smoker-friendly voices that still exist in the mainstream media.

Last week, at a lunch at the House of Lords, I sat opposite The Rt Hon The Lord McLoughlin. The name was familiar so I asked him if he was the former Conservative MP for Derbyshire Dales. He was.

Impressively, given the size of the largely rural constituency, he was able to describe the tiny hamlet where my parents lived, noting the narrow lane that leads up to the old Norman church.

For many years, Alun Gwyn Jones was a career soldier. After he left the army in 1961 he joined The Times as defence correspondent.

Three years later he was summoned to see Harold Wilson, the new Labour prime minister, and much to everyone’s surprise, including his own, he departed the meeting having been made a life peer and a minister at the Foreign Office, despite the fact that he was neither a socialist nor, prior to his appointment, a member of the Labour Party.

I was a guest on Last Orders, the Spiked podcast, last week.

Hosted by Tom Slater, editor of the online magazine Spiked, and the IEA’s Chris Snowdon, each episode addresses three topical issues, usually from a libertarian perspective.

Tobacco magazine in Hungary has published the second of a two-part interview I did last month.

Not sure why they used this photo. Was it something I said?!

I don’t want to appear facetious, but this is the sort of thing that amuses me.

According to the UK Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2025, part of the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index, ‘the UK is ranked 17th globally out of 100 countries, based on evidence captured between April 2023 and March 2025'. Gratifyingly, Forest is mentioned several times.

A friend messaged me this morning, ‘Time to resurrect the Media Monitoring Unit?’

I won’t repeat my reply, but it’s not a bad idea. My media monitoring days may be over, but it could be a job for someone else.