The arguments have begun already.

Minutes after the House of Commons voted for a total ban on smoking in pubs, critics are railing against the nanny state.

It’s an easy jibe. Freedom is an intoxicating brew. But it’s a misleading term. How can you compare freedom of speech, for example, with the right to threaten fellow drinkers and bar workers with cancer?

I remember a time when you could smoke on British Railways. The smoking carriages were half empty while people were standing in the smoke-free carriages. If you arrived as a train was about to leave you had an ugly choice: stand or risk your health (never mind the need to wash all your clothes afterwards).

Before you dismiss me as a stooge of the nanny state, I have a confession. I associate a fun night out with the heady brew of tobacco smoke and the whiff of beer. But I still support a ban!