Smoking bans

The House of Lords defeats a proposal to exempt private clubs from a smoking ban:

The ban on smoking in public places is due to begin next year and will cover pubs, clubs and enclosed work places. Peers also rejected calls for pubs and restaurants serving food to be exempt from the ban....

The Lords accepted a plan to allow smoking on theatre stages and film sets "on the basis of artistic integrity" where it was needed in the script. Health Minister Lord Warner said the new laws could also give ministers powers to ban smoking in sporting stadiums, bus shelters and the entrances to public buildings and work places.

He said these were examples of non-enclosed public places where there was "a risk of harm from second-hand smoke". But there were no plans to prevent people from smoking in their own home, he told peers.

This all sounds like an example of New Labour's least appealing characteristic, its puritanism. But it happens to be right, and to avoid the obvious absurdity of banning smoking as a theatrical prop. This is my argument for a ban on smoking in public places, in which category I would include all pubs and clubs.