The Independent June 28 - http://comment.independent.co.uk/letters/article1114434.ece

Freedom of choice for smokers

Sir: Why does Thomas Sutcliffe presume that freedom of choice for those who choose to smoke and those who prefer a smoke-free environment are mutually exclusive (20 June)? Designated smoking rooms, an option rejected by the House of Lords on Monday, offer a solution that few could object to. Unfortunately anti-smokers aren't interested in choice. Their intolerant, illiberal goal is to make it as difficult as possible for people to smoke, and to hell with the consequences for personal choice and individual responsibility.

Sutcliffe adds that "When two freedoms collide head-on like this we generally resort to democracy, not the same thing as liberty." He neglects to mention that the BMRB poll he uses to demonstrate public "support" for a total smoking ban was commissioned by ASH and Cancer Research UK. Other polls, including surveys carried out by the Office for National Statistics, suggest that a substantial majority are opposed to a ban on smoking in all licensed premises.

But even if every poll showed majority support for a ban, it still wouldn't justify a ban on smoking in every pub, club and bar in the country. As musician Joe Jackson recently put it, "Smokers are now the only minority whose minority status is quoted as justification for abuse."

SIMON CLARK

DIRECTOR, FOREST, CAMBRIDGE