The primary motivation behind the ban on smoking, which was introduced in July 2007, was the desire to protect bar staff and the like from the pernicious effects of their customers' carcinogenic habits. Only legislative naysayers considered the effect on the nation's children, and only then to warn that parents unable to smoke elsewhere would puff away more heartily than ever at home.

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Tales From The Water Cooler

GP surgeries across the country are having to postpone flu jabs for patients because of a shortage of vaccine. Crucell, the global pharmaceutical company based in the Netherlands, said it had stopped all supplies because of "an unexpected test result".

Children are twice as likely to develop allergic diseases including asthma if a parent of the same sex is a sufferer, new research suggests.

Laura Trott opened her bid for her second 2012 cycling medal with the sort of zeal that has made her the apparent heir of Queen Victoria Pendleton.

Patients will be able to compare the performance of their local family doctors and nearby hospitals on a single website, under plans to bring the NHS into the information age.

Philip Jenkinson was a film archivist and journalist who presented the television show Late Night Line-Up, in which he played viewers' requests for clips from old movies. He was particularly fond of the wildly imaginative musical routines staged by Busby Berkeley in films such as 42nd Street, Dames and Footlight Parade, and brought the breathtaking work of Berkeley (whom he insisted on pronouncing "Barkley") to a new generation. He conducted an acclaimed series of talks for the British Film Institute, where he served for a period as governor, on the history of the musical, as well as interviewing for television such legendary figures as Ramon Novarro, John Ford and Gloria Swanson. In 1977 his fame was such that he was one of seven BBC frontmen who performed "There is Nothing Like a Dame", dressed in sailor suits, on The Morecambe & Wise Show.

For decades women have been cajoled to breastfeed their babies with slogans such as "breast is best." Now researchers have criticised the approach, saying it is "idealistic" and "sets parents up to fail", and that greater recognition of the multiple demands new parents face would reap greater dividends.

Two days down and a dozen in the bag. It is as stark as that; finish in the top two and inside the required time and a place at the home Games is the reward. There is no more crushing championships in which to win a bronze – then endure the medal ceremony – than these Olympics trials and the unifying emotion of all the qualifiers, be it Rebecca Adlington, with her two Olympic golds, or 17-year-old Craig Benson, who grabbed his place in the 100m breaststroke by three-hundredths of a second, was simple: relief.

The record companies in Los Angeles and Hollywood in the 1960s found Billy Strange a useful musician for a session. He could sing, play guitar, arrange and conduct and he would do whatever was asked of him very effectively. The drawback was him telling others if he thought they were wrong, leading to the industry joke, "Have you seen the Billy Strange doll? You wind it up and it takes over the session."

New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, has died in eastern Syria after slipping into the country to report on the uprising against its president.

India and the European Union have agreed to speed up negotiations for a long-anticipated free trade pact, aiming to seal an deal later this year that would nearly double their trade with each other.

It's the twenty-first anniversary of Philip Ridley's The Pitchfork Disney, the play that is often credited as being the started point of the 1990s "In-Yer-Face" school of writing.