Smoking ban: On balance, this illiberal measure deserves to fail

Editorial: The end is worthy, and the means are gradual, but that does not justify a ban

We believe it to be wrong in principle that adults should be prevented by law from engaging in activities that are not harmful to others (AP)

The Independent is supportive of the aim of Rishi Sunak’s policy of a gradual ban on the sale of tobacco. If young people can be dissuaded from ever taking up smoking, they and their wider society will be better off.

The government’s plan to raise the age at which people are permitted to buy cigarettes by one year every year – so that those approaching 18, the current minimum age, will never reach it – is ingenious. It means that tobacco will eventually be banned, at around the turn of the next century, without existing smokers being criminalised.

And yet, in the end, we come down against it. We believe it to be wrong in principle that adults should be prevented by law from engaging in activities that are not harmful to others. Given that the direct harms to non-smokers have been minimised by legislation against smoking in enclosed public spaces, the defenders of the legislation are driven to argue that smoking imposes costs on the country as a whole through the National Health Service.