Just when you think that the EU cannot get any worse, the bureaucrats at the Commission have come up with this – a proposal that the EU’s member ’states’ (a term one uses with ever-decreasing confidence these days) should ban smoking in films and, it appears, fashion shoots in magazines. An individual with the extremely important title of ‘Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner’ claims to be worried that “movie characters smoking onscreen often look cool and glamorous”. Well, yes, they do, but so what? In any event, why stop there? Movies often feature ‘cool and glamorous’ murderers, thieves, and con men. Are those to be banned too?