[Pablo Honey]

On the 26th of March 2006, the Scottish Executive put into force a ban on smoking in all enclosed public spaces, pubs and resteraunts included, train stations, bus stops, everywhere. I have yet to hear of anyone being arrested or fined yet, but that's not my point. All the pubs have heated outdoor smoking areas now.

I hear old men on the bus saying, 'It's like a police state, them controlling us. We have a right to smoke.'

Do you think this is true? Do you think the Executive had the right to stop from smoking, which is a right in a free country, even if the ban was for our own good? We're all adults, we know the consequences of lighting up, it's hard to miss the SMOKING KILLS sign on every packet of cigarettes. Some say it's just the say of some busybody fanatic anit-smokers, who are in a vast minority; others say it's just our government trying to show off to the English.

They could've had smoking areas, to prevent passive smoking. But they went the whole way; smoking has been banned on the buses for years, to prevent non-smokers from being harmed.

There's also the question of alcohol; they'd never dare to restrict the consumption of that to people's own homes. It claims many more lives, costs both the NHS and the police a lot more time and money, and degrades society in a way that smoking never could.

So, any thoughts? Did they have the right to ban it? Should they be concentrating more on controlling alcohol consumption? Are we, as the old men say, walking into a police state?