A bit of a drag

Much though we value the liberty of the individual, it would be futile to mount a last-gasp defence of the right to smoke in public when a motion to ban the activity has just been passed by a majority of 200 in the House of Commons. While it says little for the Prime Minister’s remaining powers of persuasion that he has been forced by his backbenchers to go beyond the partial smoking ban promised in last year’s Labour manifesto, it would be perverse of us, who have long championed the supremacy of Parliament over Mr Blair’s toadying ministers, to protest against the result of what was a free vote.

Neither can it be said, unlike those other great issues of conscience, hunting and hanging, that MPs have overridden the wishes of the public. We could attack Roy Castle’s widow for whipping up a frenzy of emotion by insisting that the fatal lung cancer contracted by her husband, a non-smoker, was caused by passive smoking — dismissing the reality that there are plenty of other potent triggers for lung cancer, from diesel fumes to radon gas, on top of underlying genetic causes.