Unusually for me, I had to do quite a bit of driving around London today (I’m usually a walker, cyclist or bus user). So I listened to a lot of radio, where topic one was unquestionably the call in The Lancet for an outright ban on smoking.
I’d love it if such a ban could be realistic (those online political tests mark me as a left libertarian, but there are certain areas where I am very dirigiste). But as Jeremy Vine estimated on BBC Radio 2, enforcement would probably require enlisting 30% of the population into the police force.
Still, as a person from The Lancet said on Radio 4 this morning, there have been 20 deaths in the last five years attributable to people driving and talking on their mobile phone. As of last Monday, such behaviour is now against the law. This year in Britain, 110,000 people will die from smoking (1,000 from the effects of second-hand smoke). You do the maths.