Backwoodsman - Thanks for your reply. I suspect Hockney is more bothered about keeping his name visible to the great unwashed than he is about 'rights', however nonsensical that concept may be. I'm a smoker, but I don't feel I have any more right to pollute someone's air than they have a right to clean air in the first place. I wasn't in favour of the ban, it was effectively taking away the freedom (not the right) to smoke in pubs, and to me that was as wrong and as ridiculous as it would be to take away the freedom to drink in pubs. The only tangible end result was that it made one minority group of people happy and pissed off another. For one group to gain at the expense of another's freedom is the thin end of a very unpleasant wedge, in my opinion. I would much prefer to keep my pollutants away from others by choice and through good manners rather than legislation apparently based on highly spurious grounds. The abuse of statistics being bandied about on the subject of the potential harm to others caused by passive smoking is downright laughable to anyone who is not already biased on the subject and actually understands such things. However, I'm perfectly willing to keep my fumes away from anyone who genuinely thinks they will die from them, and more than happy to remove myself to another location.