Smoking hot memo from David Hockney to Health Minister: Keep your mean, dreary views out of my life

I don't suppose Andrew Lansley has noticed, but the last by-election was won by a smoker – one George Galloway – who was perfectly happy lighting up in front of the cameras. 


That is something a Tory or Labour politician or Nick Clegg would never have the courage to do. Or, perhaps, be allowed to do.

The anti-tobacco professionals have gone far too far in a country that prides itself on freedoms. 


Denying cigarette companies the right  to decorate their cigarette packets is a draconian measure of which Stalin’s censorship police would have been proud. 


It suggests that the Government thinks it can control our thoughts and our desires.              More Read