Health Bill

I support the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, in his protest against Part 1 of this Bill being taken in Grand Committee. A matter of this sort, where individual freedoms and rights are being removed from people who have enjoyed those rights over hundreds of years, is very important. Of course, smokers are the new universal pariahs. Apparently, you do not have to worry about the rights of people who smoke. They have no rights at all. As was pointed out, it is perfectly possible to accommodate both smokers and non-smokers who do not whish to inhale smokers’ tobacco smoke. But that is not the idea. The idea seems to be to use this Bill as a stalking horse to abolish smoking altogether. That is the endgame. If it was not the endgame, as I have already said, it would be perfectly possible in a free society to accommodate both smokers and non-smokers who feel offended if they are in the presence of tobacco smoke. I noticed from the list that the Government wished to get to Amendment No. 50 by this evening. In other words, they wish this part of the Bill to be completed by this evening. Perhaps I am mistaken. Perhaps there was something wrong with my computer yesterday or there has been some sort of mistake, but if they imagine that they will get Part 1 of this Bill completed by this evening, I can assure them that there is no chance of that. Grand Committees seem to be extending in the same way as Standing Committees were extended in the House of Commons. I understood that the idea was to ensure that there would be longer and more considered discussion on the basis of a quiet Committee. Under those circumstances, there was no hurry to get this Bill through. We had plenty of time, apparently. The Government were helping us to discuss things in a quiet, extended manner, to put all the points that we wanted to without being under the constraints of the Whips and the necessity to get the Government’s business through. Therefore, I hope that there is no idea that this Bill will be whipped through in double-quick time, because that would add insult to injury—the injury being, of course, the treatment of smokers and others who wish to smoke together. We are suggesting that what constitutes a home is included in the Bill itself, not left to regulations. The noble Lord, Lord Walton, said that that was all right and that there was no need for this amendment because the Government were going to make regulations. But that is the whole point—the Government are going to make the regulations, not this Committee or Parliament. I seem to remember that government policy at the general election was that there should be exemptions—that private clubs, for example, should be exempted. But suddenly they have changed their mind and now there is a blanket ban on smoking in any covered public place.