I envy the Blues Brothers their half-pack of cigarettes. As I type, I’m on a Virgin train – and they are entirely smoke-free. Apparently it’s in the interests of my comfort and convenience. Well I don’t feel comforted and convenienced. I’m badly in need of calmness after a disasterous start to a week away from work* and even more in need of inspiration about deal with the poor quality of the photos I’m to use in a Fairtrade booklet**

Fair enough, I understand that smokers are a minority. Even more, I understand that non-believers may not want to partake of communion with Nicotiana. So it may well be right to put us in a ghetto. Also, why should we smokers share our costly manna with you? But to effectively forbid us to exist? Nope, that’s wrong. It seems the nanny state rides high – but the nanny is a martinet in a starched pinafore.

Three slight mitigating factors: Virgin provide powerpoints for laptops and cellphones. Their stops at stations are long enough to smoke half a cigarette on the platform. Their trains are very clean.

*mislaid keys caused me to miss the train I intended to take – so I’m running 4 hours late.

**I took them, so it’s not surprising the composition is poor. However the blurriness is worthy of a Damian Hurst award for utter crapness. I think my camera has finally gone to meet its digital maker. However, for a cheap-and-cheerful point-and-press, it did very well.