flanerie.org

Britain's lawmakers are voting on a smoking ban today. Smoking will not be banned of course, but it will be banned inside public places such as offices, shops, restaurants and bars.

There may or may not be exemptions for bars that don't serve food, and private members clubs.

I am not sure whether I support such a ban or not. Personally I would like smoking to be banned in all buildings and open spaces that I am ever likely to use. But much though I would like to mould the country around my own preferences, reality means accepting a majority view and also balancing personal liberty with public health.

I tend to err on the side of liberty but there are occasional episodes that turn me into an authoritarian, wanting to ban cigarettes completely. Like the colleague whose daughter smoked throughout pregnancy and when the baby was a few days overdue joked that the it didn't want to be born as it was addicted to nicotine.

But then people as vile as that will happily harm children some other way if cigarettes are denied them.

For two years I worked in a smoking office. It wasn't just an office that allowed smoking, it was an office where management chain-smoked. The office stank, the people stank; by lunchtime the smoke formed layers; there was ash on the every surface. And funnily enough the company had a really bad sickness record. Go figure.

Ultimately, with only a third of people smoking, and half of them wishing they could quit, a smoking ban is doing a lot of people a favour, so let's haul ass and get it in place.