I was on Fubar Radio this morning.
I was talking to presenter Mark Dolan about outdoor smoking bans and he began by saying, "I'm a libertarian, but …"
Well, I knew what was coming, but it was worse than that.
The reason Mark supports smoking bans is because he's an ex-smoker and seeing people smoke tempts him to relapse so it's better (for him) if we banish smoking completely.
Another self-styled libertarian who not so secretly enjoys smoking bans is Alexandra Swann, the former national deputy chairman of Conservative Future who defected to Ukip and then resigned her membership of that party because of their "anti-immigration rhetoric" (as if this was something new!!).
Alexandra is also a columnist for Breitbart News where her "libertarian" views on smoking were clearly a surprise to editor James Delingpole who admonished her (on Twitter) before curiously deleting his tweet.
Anyway, it's good to know that libertarianism (or liberalism, as I call it) is in such safe hands:
Bristol smoking ban. As a libertarian I have to hate it and yes it's joyless & illiberal but secretly, if I lived there, I would enjoy it.
— Alexandra Swann (@AlexandralSwann) February 2, 2015