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Health Bill

The noble Lord, Lord Skidelsky, was a very good teacher but I think that his logic is failing him on this particular point. No one who is promoting the Bill is proposing to outlaw the smoking of tobacco. Indeed, the countries which have banned the smoking of tobacco in public and enclosed places have not banned it in the open air. I cannot see why it is regarded as an infringement of liberty for me to expect that when I go into a bar, restaurant or place of work I should expect to have clean air there and, at the same time, expect that smokers should go out into the open to smoke, where their smoke does not cause discomfort or harm to the people around them. A balance can be struck there, and all the countries which are going down this route—we, happily, are now going down the same route—have found it to be a perfectly acceptable balance.