Give smokers a break – let us light up outside!

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Smoking areas outside pubs or cafés can feel like a sanctuary: a place to unwind, to breathe tendrils of smoke into the night air, to make new friends. Now, that’s not to say that banning the possibility of passive smoking is a bad thing – Labour wouldn’t have come out in support of Lord Young’s amendment to the Levelling Up Bill which would ban smoking outside of pubs and restaurants if it was – but, importantly, it is a choice. And banning smoking from outdoor hospitality seating areas on pavements outside pubs and restaurants – which is what has been suggested as part of the government’s plan to have a “smoke free society” by 2030 – feels like just another attack on our freedom of choice. Put it this way: when you’re living in heavily polluted places like London banning smokers from outside areas hardly feels like an important first port of call.