I AGREE with Rod Liddle (We drink, proles binge, Comment, last week) about the government’s contradictory approach to drinking and smoking.

I drink very rarely, but smoke 20 to 30 cigarettes a day. I could be in the company of a heavy drinker all night but not get drunk, then leave the pub or bar and walk down the street and get knocked down by a drunken driver. Innocent people are attacked and even murdered every day by people drinking excessively. Recently the BMA said they were concerned about the number of doctors becoming dependant on alcohol and drugs.

Do you think I am within my rights to ask any member of the medical profession who may give me treatment to fill in a form requesting information about their drinking habits? I would think that most people would rather see a doctor who smokes 80 a day than a doctor who has a drink problem.

Stanley Brahams
Leeds

A BIT OF PUFF: I have just turned 80 and started smoking seriously when I was 14. It didn’t stunt my growth, I was a good sportsman and enjoyed my fags. During the war I served in the navy, and they gave us 200 per week. I stopped smoking 25 years ago. Why? I looked at all the idiots puffing their heads off and thought “What fools”.

I started drinking seriously when I was 15. Just beer, but once I reached the age of 21 they gave us a tot of rum every day, albeit in a 2:1 ratio with water until I became a very junior petty officer, when I was deemed responsible enough to take it neat. I stopped drinking a month ago. Why? I looked round the bar at the golf club and at my local and thought “What fools”.

So the pubs can stay open 24/7 for me. It’s taken me a long time to learn the lesson.

Austin Holroyd
Almondbury, Huddersfield

ASHTRAYS AND ASBOS: Does Liddle think that going out with the sole intention of getting drunk and being at least a nuisance, and possibly a threat, to the general public is acceptable? He appears to be saying that smoking is as bad as drinking — and so it may be for the health of the individual concerned, but I have never yet heard of a group of smokers rushing their way through 60 in an evening and going on to wreck windows and bloody a few noses as a result.

Dennis Farrell
West Cheshunt, Hertfordshire