Punished for offering a choice on smoking

Hamish Howitt, of Blackpool in the U.K, owns two bars. In one of them, the Happy Scots Bar, he forbids smoking. The other bar, Del Boy's, caters to smokers. Because he offers his customers a choice, Howitt has been fined £1,950 and told to pay £2,000 costs -- he even faces potential jail time. British law, as with the law in so many U.S. jurisdictions, doesn't permit freedom of choice on tobacco -- smoking in many privately owned establishments is simply banned.

As Howitt told the BBC:

"I'm not telling people how to live. You cannot make us all compulsory joggers and orange juice drinkers.

"It's not the judges I am defying - it's the government.

"I'm giving choice. One of my bars has non-smoking staff serving you and you are not allowed to smoke.

"The other bar is served by smokers. It's so simple and it's called choice, and this government has denied us choice."

Howitt shows more commitment to his cause than do most bar owners ticked off by smoking bans that tell them how to run their businesses and often drive away customers. He's founded a registered political party, UK-FAGS, devoted to protecting freedom of choice (complete with a catchy and profane theme song) and has voiced his willingness in press interviews to go to jail if necessary.

By himself, Howitt's crusade is probably doomed. Government officials will be more than happy to crush one businessman as an example to others who chafe under rules that violate their property rights and their customers' right to choose establishments that cater to their tastes.

But if there were more Howitts in Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere, all of them willing to tell government officials to go to hell ... that might well change matters for the better.

Until then, smokers will probably have to content themselves by patronizing those establishments that quietly flout the smoking ban.