Britain uses the Irish experience to stub out case against smoking ban

READING the British newspapers this week gives one a real sense of déjà vu.

'Cigarette snoopers to enforce ban How they plan to catch you,' ran the Daily Telegraph front page on Tuesday. 'Smoking to be banned in all places of work by end of 2008,' proclaimed the London Times headline yesterday.

Squeezed between trivia about a TV prankster squirting water at Tom Cruise and reports about Tony Blair's tough stance at last weekend's EU summit, the British media is trying to conduct a debate about the introduction of a smoking ban, and the debate there is taking almost exactly the same turns and twists that it did here two years ago.