With just a couple of weeks to go before my freedom of choice and action as a smoker becomes seriously curtailed, the whining has begun.

There was a small snippet on BBC News 24 today, detailing the work that is currently being undertaken in pubs up and down the length of England. Costing landlords many thousands of pounds, garden areas are being created to protect us new-age lepers from the elements, outdoor heating and lighting is being installed and new furniture is being distributed.

But like a toddler who has been denied an ice-cream, already the voice of the meddling ‘do-gooders’ with their PC handbooks and twisted knickers are already raised in a tantrum of shouts of “It’s not fair! We wont want to sit outside with all these smokers”.

Well tough shit. It’s not what landlords wanted – it’s not what smokers wanted and if the public at large had been offered a proper debate between an outside leper colony or properly ventilated smoking rooms it quite possibly isn’t what would have happened. But you kept up the attack, went on and on, continued to bring out biased and unsupported research until you had your meddling way with the arrival of a bankrupt government who have had a field day restricting everyones freedom and liberty. And now you’ve got to live with it.

So – if you don’t like the smoke in the garden, stay inside. To quote one of your own campaigning slogans – used to appease the notion that you were actually calling for a curtailment of my freedom of choice – it’s for your own good. And remember – you have that choice. Thanks to you, a whole section of our society no longer has.