'The Tobacco Products and Allied Substances (Restriction) Act of 1997 made smoking in any place outside the home a criminal offence punishable by up to six months' imprisonment'.

The above is a quote from the 1994 novel Drop the Dead Donkey 2000, where the writers of the popular television comedy looked forward to a dystopian future at the dawn of the Millennium, where commonsense and moderation had been overwhelmed by a zeal for voguish obsessions.

Now it emerges the Government is planning to make the spoof Tobacco Act a reality, by extending the existing smoking ban to cover outside public spaces as well.

It took a bit longer than the book suggested, but we got there in the end.

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My burning question is which page of the 2024 Labour manifesto did this appear on? I think I may have one missing, because I can't find the stuff about........

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