[jambutty]

The smoking ban applies to all enclosed PUBLIC spaces or rather it will do when it comes into force. Your home isn’t a public space Less – it is a private residence unless you turn it into one by allowing anyone in during normal hours without invitation.

So you can smoke away to your heart’s content without fear of the anti-smoking police knocking on your door. At least for now.

However it does raise the question of what if a tradesman calls to make a repair to some appliance or other or lay a carpet or decorate a room? What if the doctor or someone from Social Services or the Council calls? That effectively turns your home into a work place for those callers and work places come under the smoking ban. So strictly speaking not only will you not be able to smoke in your own house whilst the tradesman/woman is working but you must also ensure a smoke free atmosphere before s/he arrives.

How long will it be before some newly graduated university twit with a degree in some obscure subject gets a job with the local council and puts forward the idea that tenants of the council should not smoke in their own homes. This already happens in some privately rented accommodation. The prospective tenant must declare whether they smoke or not and if they do the landlord will not take them on as tenants.

Big Brother is closer than most people dare to imagine.

My only worry apart from how to spend what this government laughingly calls a pension is if I end up in an old folks home will I be banned from smoking because at 85 or whatever it will be bad for my health?