It's nice to see the Leicester Mercury bring up the issue of the draconian smoking ban after the news that Holland has relaxed it's laws to allow for choice in certain areas.
Landlords here are reasonably asking for our law to be amended on common sense grounds.
Most people in the article think getting smokers off the street is the fairest and best social option - except one person who is more bothered about the smell of his clothes.
He says he never went out before the ban but he always had a choice. Smokers don't. There were always places for smoke phobics to go that smokers wouldn't visit and vice versa. I still don't get why that sort of person - obviously in the minority - has to have it all his own way.
In that article the landlords are talking about the majority of their customers, some of them non-smokers, who also call for choice. In just that article the anti-smoker is outnumbered 3/1 by those who smoke and those who do not.
What was that you saying about "Change you can believe in," Dave - eh? Perhaps I didn't hear you for the loud cry of your bedfellow Cleggy who screamed he was going to tear up the statute book in the name of fairness and civil liberties.