Smokers are not just being left out in the cold but along the pavement, over the road and round the corner in a clampdown on outside smoking.
In October, the cancer specialist Lord Darzi of Denham recommended banning smoking in parks in a report commissioned by Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, who eventually dismissed the idea as “bossy”.
However, pubs, café chains and private members’ clubs are increasingly enforcing bans outside their businesses after customer complaints.
“The effect of the smoking ban, which has proved to be very popular, is that now people have to go outside and that causes problems and a lot of congestion around pubs,” said Amanda Sandford of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), the campaigning public health charity.
“Even