Smokers evicted from public parks and hospital forecourts will move to other areas.

The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford has prohibiited smoking outside its main entrance. Smokers have therefore moved to the entrance of a private road opposite the hospital where they puff away under the pleasant shade of some trees and then litter the ground with their fag ends. This mess is not easy to clear up, as the roadway has a gravelly surface.

Who is going to be responsible for clearing up this mess, and others like it?

Jane, Oxford, UK

What's being overlooked here is that flatus is also a health risk, containing toxic sulfides. Let's pass a law such that we are all at constant risk of being fined if we happen to fart. The resulting improvement in health is sure to lift the mood of the nation and offset any piffling restriction on liberty.

Felix, Nottingham,

There is no possible way in which smoking in a park can harm bystanders. If HM Government starts introducing totalitarian dictatorhip it will lose support from reasonable people on the key issue of public health.

Edmund Burke, Kingston upon Thames, England

Oh wow , we are safe from Evil Smoke , but not violent yobs, crack heads , Islamo- Fascists, or morons yapping on mobiles. Another triumph for the liberal relatavists.

John, Burnley,

Councils are supposed to provide public services such as cleaning the street and maintaining car parks. Beyond that we do not wish to hear from them. Professor John Britton is no doubt funded by the public purse and employed to cure people of diseases. He should stick to that or be sacked.

Most people who work in the public sector do so because they do not have the ability to succeed in the private sector ie they are second rate. It is fairly unsurprising that such a bunch of second raters should try to seize the chance to boss around their betters. A little power in the wrong hands etc.. These people should be reminded of their place in the pecking order and put in their place without delay. The thought of my council tax funding these obnoxious, interfering puritans is not a happy one.

Simon, Chatham, Kent

Smoking kills over 100,000 people every year. That's 5X more than car accidents, murder, suicide, alcohol, HIV and ALL other accidents put together.

9 out of 10 cases of lung cancer occurs in smokers. This cancer kills over 90% of its victims within 5 years.

Nicotine is far more addictive than heroin (feel free to ask any ex-addict or substance misuse worker if you can be bothered).

Smoking is the single LARGEST cause of health inequalities in the UK.

Blathering on about liberties, 4x4s etc is pathetic. People are dying, something needs to be done!

Dave, Suffolk,

"Once you can smoke without an effect on others, only then do so. "

Indeedy. As for "liberty" and the much (too often) used "human rights." They're allowed to smoke, aren't they? They're just not allowed to bother others with it. Just like they're allowed to take arsenic to their heart's content but aren't allowed to give it to somebody else.

starling, Lancaster,

All this notice about how much Smoking cost the NHS, when they print these statics why do they not compare them with people who drink causeing injury to other people therefore requireing ambulance, and liver disease to themself.

charlie, marlow,

Even speaking as a non-smoker, I do not agree with the enforcement of the smoking ban. The government treats us like imbeciles - do they really think people will stop smoking? No, they will just revert to smoking in their own homes causing far more damage to the health of children. It is all party politics because, if the state really cared, they would ban cigarettes altogether. So why don't they? Oh, of course, because they make an absolute mint out of smokers in taxation!

Anne, cardiff,

I am a smoker . Personaly I think that this ban is going to far. Eg: in public parks which are open spaces. yes fair enough in enclosed areas and in public Houses but in places such as public parks , then I say thats an infringement on mine and other smokers basic human rights. I along with other people think that the goverment are slowly but surely taking away all our rights, very soon we are going to end up in a police state. What will the next piece of legislation this goverment brings in?

jamie swainston, darlington, england

Hear Hear Les, wise words indeed,this sort of thing could only happen in our PC crazed nation.Making smoking some sort of child abuse well ive never heard so much crap in my life.
Im a smoker but i respect the non-smoker and if there are children around i tend to go outside anyway,the same if im visiting a non-smoking household,what i don't need is some PC mad bigwig sticking his or her noise into my life and my affiairs and add camcorder to that as well.
I mean what ever next,banning the English Flag on St George day!!!!

Simon, Brighton, UK

'Smoking in front of children is now being likened to abuse. Professor John Britton, chairman of the tobacco advisory group at the Royal College of Physicians, said: “If the child is being seriously affected then you would need to establish that for the individual child and take action.”'

Good... Let's start by taking into care the children of all doctors and nurses who smoke because, as they are those most aware of the risks and dangers, they are the most culpable for the harm being done

Avana Beach, London,

Smoking have destroyed the social aspect of Irish life, Smokers no longer frequent pubs result......pubs are closing in rural areas leading to further isolation for rural dwellers who have no other social outlet. as for those who complain re passive smoking ....get a life!

Tom Coughlan, Cork, Ireland

Yet again the 'fantatical' non smoking lobby are at it again.

We all know that smoking will not be banned.
Smokers generate too much money for the Treasury!.

Would the anti smoking lobby explain how if smoking is banned, how would the massive shortfall in revenue be made up???

Julian McAuslan, Bristol, Avon

I work hard, I have never been in trouble, I pay my taxes, I do charity work, I have never asked anything from society. But now I'm made to feel like a social leper because I smoke.
Smokers are just an easy target. Stop picking on those who like a cig and tackle the real social lepers; the drug pushers, the rapists, the murderers, the vandals, the feral scum who are taking over our streets.

Are some of you seriously suggesting we should ban some old chap smoking a pipe in his local park? Pathetic.

Brett, Manchester, UK

I concur with Richard Lewis from London. Something ought to be done about the unneccessary amount of traffic upon our roads. It should'nt be possible to buy a "gas-guzzling" vehicle like a 4x4 or large van unless you have a legitimate commercial reason, e.g. you are a farmer or market trader.
People might moan about public transport but if they were forced to use it then the generated revenue could be used to improve it. I can't believe we lag behind other European nations in this respect anyway, we have more wealth. Our society and the social conscience of the people is a joke, and don't even get me started on supermarkets, carrier bags, plastic bottles & recycling! Smoking? It's almost irrelevant!

Mags, Bradford, West Yorkshire UK

It's an absolute disgrace! But just a further indication of this bully boy nanny state we live in!

They're like the violent 'happy slapping' street thugs we see kicking the hell out of someone as he lies felled on the ground. Not satisfied with having beaten the smoker to the floor, they now wish to kick his head in while he's down.

Who's doing the filming?

Michael Waxman, Manchester,

If anyone had any doubts that this is the beginning of runaway fascism, now is the time to wake up and think again.

Dan, Nearby,

As an x-smoker, to ban it in open air areas is a terrible idea. Public action by those next to the smoker will do more to than a policeman running up to each individual. Smoking is an addiction and should be treated as such, it is more than jsut a bad habit.
gail Canyon Lake, Texas, USA

g saffell, Canyon Lake, Texas

"Making smokers out to be like heroin users is not the way forward."

Exactly.

muji bally, london, england

Stopping smoking in parks is taking it too far. When cars no longer pollute,councils can then moan. This country is full of stupid rules regulations and political correctness. Maybe i'll move to the Netherlands.

Gee, Norwich, U.K.

Excellent!
We need some more like this, to counter the protests and whinging the ban is provoking, some of it organised.

Its OVER - it never was socially acceptable, it always was a foul infringement on the rights of non smokers, the ban is now here, and these ridiculous addicts will a) just have to accept it and b) admit that even more might legitimately be done.

Joe, Manchester,

This is the chap who seems to have built his career on exaggeration, suspect science and a hatred of smoke.
From the another page of the Times ---"Despite evidence to the contrary, Donaldson believes passive smoking kills millions of people; but then his career has been built upon scaring people.
In 2005, for example, he predicted 50,000 Britons would die in an avian flu pandemic, and a death toll of 750,000 was “not impossible”. The total deaths from avian flu worldwide stand at 191, none of them in Britain. "
Thank you Rod Liddle for some balance in these times when social, economic, environmental and community health are as nothing when anti-smokers preach.

Chris, Truro, Cornwall

just another reason to persecute joe public can one tell me why the only two places in england that does not have the ban (houses of parlement, house of commons) were only 40% smoke do not have to play ball with the rules that they make one rule for one.Time to change jobs were can i get a application form to be a M.P

gary, walsall,

Stewart McCoy, Manchester, Totally agree its about common sense. How you can say a cigarette in a Park is worse than traffic fumes is beyond me. Living in London just blow your nose and its black and thats from bein gin a Totally cigarette free area all day.

Most people agree the law as it stands is good.

Kevin, cambridge - what next people who have B.O. should be fined? Or people who've just eaten a curry?

Terry, London,

Does no-one find it repugnant that our Government is happy to collect £10 billion per year from smokers whilst, at the same time, endorsing intolerance and dislike of them? Passive smoking being such a danger that it justifies riding roughshod over prperty rights and the right of adults to make decisions for themselves, a responsible government would outlaw tobacco products immediately. There is, in fact , no danger in ETS. Not one study has provided reasonable evidence. In my opinion, a far greater danger is posed by the Government giving free rein to single issue interest groups which pursue their agenda with fanatical zeal and scant regaard for the truth.

JJ Stewart, Stockton, North Yorks

Banning smoking in outdoor public areas by councils or hospitals is very definitely a step too far. The government legislation on smoking goes too far as regards pubs which do not serve food - as for protecting children, are they supposed to be in pubs or workplaces?
The government is breaking up communities, denying the civil rights of elderly people who have worked and paid taxes all their lives, who fought in WW2 so that Britain did not become a facist state. Having kicked them out of the pubs, it even stoops so low as to prevent elderly people meeting and enjoying a cigarette in a public park.
The argument regarding passive smoking is scientifically flawed and totally unprovable, yet because of this thousands of elderly people are to be condemned to a life of social isolation.
We expect to be denied treatment from the NHS soon, because of our smoking, but I would not stay in a hospital that insist I can't pop outside for a smoke. I will probably live longer without MRSA anyway.

Joyce H, Bradford, England

As an x-smoker, to ban it in open air areas is a terrible idea. Public action by those next to the smoker will do more to than a policeman running up to each individual. Smoking is an addiction and should be treated as such, it is more than just a bad habit.

g saffell, Canyon Lake, Texas

"Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, has also signalled the start of a wider campaign to make smoking socially unacceptable."

Sorry, but I think the 'wider campaign' has been going on for quite a while which has resulted in this ban. I don't have objections to 2nd hand smokers who dislike smoke or to health professionals taking a stance - however, I think there is a group of thought, quite distinct to those honest anti-smoking people, who seem to be forever nannying and fooerever wanting to tell other people what they should and shouldn't do.

nick, brighton, UK,

I am dazed at the notion that "drug addicted" addicts (smokers) are being *persecuted* because they cannot indugle their heath damaging, air polluting, old sock smelling addiction any place they like.

Hey, SELFISH SMOKERS....take your filthy, stinking habit and your persecution mania outside.

Betty Fowler, Putney, London,

So, the Government has finally followed the suggestions on smoking which were handed out by Manchester Quakers over 200 years ago! In 1691 Hardshaw Monthly Meeting concluded: "It being discoursed that the common excess of smoking tobacco is inconsistent with our holy profession, this meeting adviseth that such as have occasion to make use of it do take it privately, neither in their labour or employment, nor by the highways, nor in alehouses nor elsewhere too publicly. (Taken from Quaker Faith & Practice "Moderation and Abstinence" 20.37)

Ian Collington, Hove, UK

I was born in 1942, the middle of World War II, my father was in the RAFand my mother worked in a munitions factory. Everybody smoked due to the stress, this meant I was affected by passive smoking, unfortuneately I grew up breathing dirty air.
I was a sickly child, often with a mysterious chesty condition.
No one realised what passive smoking was and the damage it was doing, I'm sure my parents would have kept me away from that second hand smoke had they been aware.
This resulted in me missing 25% of my early years schooling, prior to taking the eleven plus exams, which somehow I manage to pass and I attended a boys grammar school.
I came to realise recently as I approach becoming an OAP, that my chesty condition has reawakened, and I blame parental passive smoking. Had I not missed so much basic learning, I also believe that I would have achieved better exam results and higher educational qualifications.
Do NOT let your children grow up in a house full of passive smoke.

ALAN CHAPMAN, BINGLEY, WEST YORKSHIRE - UK.

Excelllant idea.... if the smoking ban had been instituded 50 years ago I would not now be coughing gasping and reaching for the nebuliser several times a day.........I might even have had the chance to live a bit longer........

Pincher, tonbridge, england

Anti-smokers base their opposition on health grounds, pro-smokers on liberty grounds. Surely, the latter are flawed for they cannot prevent their exhaled smoke from going up my or my children's nostrils. Once you can smoke without an effect on others, only then do so. As for health reasons there is sufficient correlational indication to frankly state - cigarettes are bad for your health.

Chris, Radlett, UK

What a lot of Dictators we are breeding in this country, I always thought it was just Bliar and his cronies, so as we know the law does not apply in the House of Commons but it does to the Nation.

M H Dix, Dawlish, UK

So, the Government has finally followed the suggestions on smoking which were handed out by Manchester Quakers over 200 years ago! In 1691 Hardshaw Monthly Meeting concluded: "It being discoursed that the common excess of smoking tobacco is inconsistent with our holy profession, this meeting adviseth that such as have occasion to make use of it do take it privately, neither in their labour or employment, nor by the highways, nor in alehouses nor elsewhere too publicly. (Taken from Quaker Faith & Practice "Moderation and Abstinence" 20.37)

Ian Collington, Hove, UK

No one is "fanatical" about health, but it has admittedly required a near-fanatical campaign to get just a MODERATE policy established when BAD-health fanatics (ie addicted smokers) are so fanatically insistent on smoking. Who, exactly, is getting flustered and irate now? - not non smokers, who will now calmly enjoy clean air in public spaces.

Joe, Manchester,

This is another step forward. Why should smokers be allowed to inflict their disgusting secondhand smoke on the rest of us? My next door neighbours smoke in their garden and I can see their cigarette smoke drifting past my window, (not to mention being forced to inhale it if I'm unfortunate enough to be in my garden at the time.) In my opinion smokers should only be allowed to smoke in their own homes, preferably with the windows closed.

Anne Smith, Amersham, UK

And when the £4bn or so annual tax grab from cigarettes eventually dries up will we all be prepared to pay another penny or so on income tax to make up the difference?

A Smoker and loving it, Aberdeenshire,

Anti social behaviour and health of kids

try targeting drinking.

I dont want to fight the world or beat the misses up if i have one to many fags.


33,000. drink related deaths each year and on the rise.

tony , warrington, cheshire

Smoking is coming to an end what a relief the final cigarette butt is about to be extinguished once and for all. I guess smokers will have to find another "hobby"... Why should other people have to tolerate others smoke. My boss smokes and when she comes back into the office her clothes wreak of it and then we have to sniff it in for the next ten minutes or so!

Kevin, cambridge,

As far as I know, all schools and early childhood centres here are, like my mine, smoke-free zones. Of course. What else should they be? Come on England-- you've bitten the bullet-- now finish the job.

Neville S-Jones, New Plymouth, New Zealand

stopping people from smoking in an open public space is a step too far i think. Too much too soon. Trying to force smoking to be anti-social is not a positive way to deal with the thousands of people that are addicted to smoking. Most smokers want to give up and will do in time!
Forcing cold turkey and "victimising" people will surely serve to stress out smokers whilst they are doing their best to give up! this won't help the situation.
Sure, smoking in playgrounds and children's spaces should be avoided any way, and many smokers are infact sensible adults, who consider their actions and don't want children to be subjected to smoking!
Making smokers out to be like heroin users is not the way forward.

Stewart McCoy, Manchester,

These health fanatics are going way over the top. They are quite unreasonable. Soon, there will be nowhere left where people will be able to smoke.

If they really want to do something good for the health of the nation, they should target air pollution and the pollution caused by vehicles belching out exhaust. When I walk down main street and have to breathe in the polluted air, I do myself more damage than I do by smoking 20 cigarettes!

Richard Lewis, London, UK

I would like to see the evidence of 'passive' smoking and its supposed harmful effects on health.

Years of research carried out on 250 000 people by the American institute of cancer found no link. A major study carried out be the World Health Organisation which was conveniently 'swept under the carpet' also concluded no evidence of a link.

Where is the evidence please?

Robin, LONDON, u.k.

The ban has only just come into effect and already councils are trying to take their powers further, Sir Liam Donaldson wants to raise the prices ( I wonder if he realises that the majority of smokers are ordinary workers) and Prof John Britton wishes to make all smokers into child-abusers! These people need to get a life of their own instead of interfering in other peoples lives, life without risk is not a life but a mere existence.

Les, Southport, England

Why do these dogooders want people to live longer?

N.Riley, Runcorn,

why not just ban them all together! Oh silly me the tax of course!!

paddy, inverness, aberdeenshire