Road Ban Paved With Good Intentions

Because the most deadly thing about standing in the street is secondhand smoke, the UK is considering banning street smoking. No surprise there. But, according to this marginally comprehensible Telegraph article, the street ban's biggest supporters are against the ban on smoking in public places:

The authority is opposed to the smoking ban, but has said it should include pavements because large numbers of drinkers gathering outside to smoke would be potentially noisy, abusive or anti-social.

"It's very easy for the Government to evangelise how this will be good for public health," said a council spokesman. "The reality is it will cause major problems. This is the only sensible solution to the problem besides removing the draconian ban."