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make our own choices as individuals. Our freedom of speech and expression are closely monitored and policed by terrorist obsessed, paranoid authorities. We are led, like a flock of sheep, to the confines of conformity and political correctness.

Personally, I am in full favour of a ban on fox hunting and would support even tighter restrictions on this issue. I fail to see how such a bloody, violent act of brutality could be deemed as a sport and would like to see more effective enforcement of the law in this case.

Similarly I have no opposition to the introduction of ID cards. While I wholly understand the arguments against and accept it is symbolic of a very real infringement on civil liberties, I actually agree with the government. A universal, compulsory form of identification could be an extremely positive apparatus for crime prevention and resolution. Furthermore, I am of the belief that if you have nothing to hide, there should be no problem with such a declaration.

On the subject of a national smoking ban, however, I am in slight disagreement with the men at Downing Street. As a non-smoker and entirely aware of the implications of both smoking and passive smoking, I commend the tough, no-nonsense approach of prohibition from 2007 onwards. It does strike me though, that an embargo is the removal of the fundamental human right. Fair enough, passive smoking affects the civil liberties of the non-smoker, with potentially grave consequences.

But I think we should all have the choice to smoke or not, whether to remain in a tobacco engulfed environment or go elsewhere and the option not to be labelled. A ban epitomises the instant eradication of these choices and our civil emancipation in an increasingly politically correct atmosphere.

Learn more about this author, Rob Cockerill.
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