Where there's smoke

Cigarette sellers in Paris, unlikely to be
smoked out any time soon.
Photograph: Franck Perevel/APHere is something that cigarettes can tell you about the political health of a nation.

For a while now, countries and sometimes cities have been introducing smoking bans in restaurants and bars. The arguments usually centre on the dangers of passive smoking, but since 1) a majority of people do not smoke and 2) smokers, even in New York and Spain, seem happy to comply, the bans get steadily more widespread.

Except, for now, in France. The land of the Gauloise has decided people can keep puffing away with their Pernod with the withdrawal of a proposal for a total ban.