[West Ender]

Nearly every pub licensee I know smokes!

This law is farcical, not to say that it's riding roughshod over human rights. The government has not yet made tobacco an illegal substance and, due to the amount of revenue it generates, they are unlikely to do so. They are, therefore, placing a ban on a legal activity.

Without commenting on the effects of "passive" smoking, a subject I believe is vastly overstated, I find the accepted medical stance that "too many people die/use up NHS Resources through smoking-related illness" nonsensical. Are we to understand that all non-smokers are presumed disease-free? I haven't noticed an absence of death amongst the non-smoking population.

The logical, fair and reasonable solution would have been a law which enforced non-smoking areas in all licenced establishments. I speak as a former smoker who gave up for purely economic reasons.