In England, we're coming up to the first anniversary of smoking being banned "in public spaces".
But of course that's a convenient lie. What is more public than streets and pavements? And while a year ago it was posssible to walk through a town with barely the need for a couple of sidesteps to avoid cigarette smoke, now it is virtually impossible without risking one's life in front of oncoming traffic.
Maybe it's not the same everywhere - but Brighton seems to be permanently hazed in a cloud of nicotene. Pubs' tables spread across the pavement. Men and women emerge from the back of their offices to exercise their Magna Carta rights to puff in the face of passers by. Parties sit outside cafes expecting to be served - although the legislation was mean to protect bar and catering staff from smoke in the first place. The railway station is virtually impossible to enter without encountering the smokers surrounding the entrance like a posse of ticket touts.
I don't know anything about the science of passive smoking - maybe the only effect is to make my eyes water occasionally. Or maybe not. To me, it feels like a dog peeing on my shoes a couple of dozen times a day. And yet, no one, no one all - in blogging, in politics, in journalism, ever seems to mention it.
Now, I know it's hard to give up smoking (heavens, I'm trying to give up dope-and-fagsat the moment; although I almost always smoked in private, or at least in solitude) And I've been tolerant of the smoking of friends and lovers. If you want to smoke, smoke - and face the health consequencies - you probably pay enough tobacco tax to finance the hospital care when and if it becomes necessary. Just don't involve innocent strangers.
In Germany, I believe, there are special rooms where you can inhale and exhale to your heart's content (or otherwise). I'm all for this. Places like the old public conveniences - with the escaping nicoten recirculated for a secondary high - and a cancer clinic attached.
But until this happens, don't get up my nose. And don't repeat the perfidious nonsense that smoking is not allowed in public.
