Is sharing cake in the office really like passive smoking?

‘If nobody brought in cakes into the office, I would not eat cakes in the day, but because people do bring cakes in, I eat them.’

Who is this co-worker from hell? Who is this whining, snivelling infant demanding that the rest of the world forfeits small pleasures because she has no self-control?

It is none other than the head of the Food Standards Agency, Susan Jebb, who is in the Times today comparing cakes to passive smoking.

The full quote reads:

‘We all like to think we’re rational, intelligent, educated people who make informed choices the whole time and we undervalue the impact of the environment… If nobody brought in cakes into the office, I would not eat cakes in the day, but because people do bring cakes in, I eat them. Now, OK, I have made a choice, but people were making a choice to go into a smoky pub.’

Even I never imagined that a workplace smoking ban would evolve into a workplace cupcake ban

Indeed they were, Susan, before people like you took that choice away so even a pub that put up a sign saying ‘SMOKERS ONLY’ on the door and employed no one but smokers would still be forbidden from opening.