THE TOBACCO Smoking (Public Places and Workplaces) Bill is unnecessary – and it will surprise me if the health minister Lord Warner does not agree with me. After all, in answer to a Written Question on March 10, he said: “The government has no plans to ban smoking in public places. We have consistently said that smoke-free public places are the ideal…we do not think a universal ban on smoking in all public places is justified while we can make fast and substantial progress in partnership with industry.”

I shall indeed be surprised if the minister’s view has changed. After all, tobacco products may legally be retailed to any person over the age of 16. The state has long been quite prepared to tax them highly, reaping for the Exchequer as much as almost £10 billion a year. The sponsor of the bill, Lord Faulkner, should also remind himself that to smoke is not an illegal act.

As for the bill itself, Clause 5 regulation 1(h) decrees, “regulating the design, nature and provision of ashtrays and fixed facilities for the disposal of tobacco products at the entrances to or within public places”.

Really, that is too absurd. Either that provision should be re-written or eliminated. The term “public space” is defined as meaning a space to which the public or section of the public has access, on payment, or otherwise, as of right or by virtue of express or implied permission.

Smoking is already prohibited in most public buildings, and on public transport. It is confined to designated areas in places that belong to everyone and no one – in particular enclosed shopping centres, airports and theatres. That leaves the hospitality sector. Those are largely private places, in which owners and operators have the freedom to determine smoking policy. It is in their best interests to have regard for the demands and preferences of their customers and for their duties with regard to the health, safety and welfare of their employees. The greater provision of non-smoking areas in such places is progressively being achieved.

However, it says on page two, paragraph 5(e) of the bill that regulations may be made, “Setting maximum permitted exposure levels or durations of exposure to tobacco smoke”.

The bill does not say how long those exposure levels should last. I am thinking of the barman in the smoking area of a pub. What about those people working long hours in nightclubs and casinos? Perhaps they do not count as public places, and the sponsors of this bill will say “hard cheese” to those persons. As regards passive smoking, frankly, I find the voluminous arguments, both for and against, inconclusive.

I was interested to read the exemptions listed in the bill, which recognize that regardless of physical health, smoking can be important to some people, and that without the crutch of tobacco they could suffer depression and other mental difficulties. Furthermore, I wonder whether any exercise has been under-taken comparing the effects of passive smoking on the health of members of the non-smoking public with the effects of noxious fumes from motor cars, and so on, on the health of that same public.

Much has been made recently of the government’s worries about obesity. Not surprisingly, I share those worries, since I put on two stone when I gave up smoking. As the French say, I find myself asking: “Am I, now fat and smokeless, more of a worry to my GP than when I was lighter, happier, and smoking?” In general, are the illnesses caused by obesity providing more work for doctors and a sicker population than the possible results of smoking? I wonder if the people of Ireland would go as quietly as they have done over a tobacco ban if their government decided, in the interests of their people’s health, to put a total ban on butter and french fries. Of course butter and French fries don’t give you cancer, but obesity can lead to cancer. I am old-fashioned enough still to believe in freedom of choice. I hope that this bill will not pass.

Perhaps I should finish by highlighting the earliest recorded case of a man giving up smoking, cited by The Sunday Telegraph. The report stated that it occurred on April 5, 1679, “when Johan Katsu, Sheriff of Turku, Finland, wrote in his diary, ‘I quit smoking tobacco’. He died one month later”.