Bismarck famously suggested that those fond of laws and sausages should not watch either of them being made. We have just been watching a law being made in Britain to ban smoking in places that also serve food. Mick Hume (Times) tells us that the Department of Health document

proposes a legal definition, not only of "smoke" and "smoking", but also of "enclosed", "roof" and "wall", and specifies that those countless non-smoking signs must all be "at least 280mm by 200mm".

Public buildings, workplaces, football grounds, pubs and bus stops are to be adorned with shop-a-smoker telephone hotlines, so that people can inform on transgressors and call upon the army of inspectors to enforce the law. As for food, it all depends on the type of food.

Drinking/smoking pubs are to be given a list of ready-made bar snacks that they are permitted to sell, and inspectors will crack down on unlicensed snacks. There is even a proposal to ban smoking within one metre of the bar in smoking pubs. The document admits that "there is no evidence that this would provide any health benefits."

I imagine that white lines will be painted on the floor, so that people can use their mobile phones to inform on any smoker who mistakenly crosses one of them. Watching this law being made has quite put me off sauages…