Baldric...Smokers are far from a dying breed. As fast as the tobacco companies can kill them off, they are recruiting new smokers, almost all of them children.
Its not often that TTT and I agree but we appear to be singing from the same hymn sheet here. If we didn't have the laws on smoking we have now, every cafe, and Pub in the country would stink of cigarette smoke and all the tables would be covered in a fine film of fag ash, not to mention all the over flowing ash trays. It only takes one smoker to muck it up for everybody. I don't remember any smoker "stepping outside" to have a fag before the smoking in public places came into force. They just stayed in the Pub and blew smoke over everybody else.
On the question of children in cars, we also had to enact legislation that forced so-called caring adults into making sure that their kids are in safety seats or used seat belts. If that law hadn't been enacted, there would be 10,000's or more children at risk. Perhaps its the same stupid adults that this new law, if passed, will be aimed at, as the ones that are now forced to make sure that their kids are strapped in properly ?
I am old enough to remember when Barbara Castle brought in the breathalyzer in 1967. We heard the same libertarian whinges and moans back then. People complained that it was their right to drink 5 pints and then drive home. Nobody would dream of arguing against that now, but they did back then. The moaners need to realise that you don't give freedom to one set of people, by taking it away from other people.