They decide that you will not smoke!

How odd a heading is this?

Health campaigners say smoke-free generation a matter of political will

Political will? The future of smokers is the business of the political class, not of the smokers. Apparently the will of the smoker – of any age – is irrelevant. According to this mindset, once a smoker you are helpless, and you have no will. Most people want to quit, says the political class, and there lies their justication for pouring health budget money away with very little result.

Sheila Duffy and her cohorts in the health (sic) industry have written to the Scotsman in support of their ambitions. The Commonwealth games must be smokefree. Let's think about cars, and let's be second in the race to plain packaging. (Don't let's fall behind Northern Ireland or Wales.) Can we license tobacco products? We need to help every smoker who wants to quit.

Who are these people? There is nothing wrong in a little health education, but this ratcheting up of proposed legislation is quite ridiculous. Coercion is no substitute for health education.

Wanting to wipe out an industry is not compatible with achievable public health goals. It suggests an obsession with tobacco that is a convenient smokescreen for other environmental health hazards – allowing the authorities to blame people for their own ill health – as well as being an obvious cash cow for pharmaceutical nicotine replacement products.

Smokers have their own political will!