madam president people have the right to smoke but i bow to no one in saying that others should not have to breathe in the smoke at the workplace or any establishment that is breathed out by others
personally i hate the stuff just loathe the stuff and i welcome the ban that has been introduced in my country
but i do not think the decision should be taken at european level
i do not think we should be calling for binding legislation to apply to every member state
i am a federalist but i am not a centralist
decisions should be taken at the lowest practical level and in this case that is the member state or indeed the regional government as in scotland the first area of my country to go smoke-free
it is so easy to disregard the principle of subsidiarity when we think we are doing good
in this case i think we are trying to do good but with the lisbon treaty now adopted we should be bending over backwards to respect that principle
