IN the latest in a long line of rants over the freedom of smokers to enjoy their habit, the artist David Hockney turned his fury on York Station, where he bemoaned the fact there was nowhere for elderly citizens such as himself to take a seat and light up.

During a recent radio interview, Hockney complained that when he uses the station he is forced to light up outside, exposed to the elements, and not on the platform.

The Bridlington-based artist is well documented in his support for the rights of the much-maligned smoker and it doesn’t take much to ignite his passions.

Unlike the talented Mr Hockney, I am not a smoker. However, and very much in common with him, it takes very little to provoke my anger over what I see to be the loss of a freedom so easily given up by the British public.

A couple of weeks ago I was having a late-night drink in a North Yorkshire establishment owned by an acquaintance. Once last orders had been called and the last of the punters had turned out into the night, the doors were locked behind them and those lucky few of us at the bar were able to light up a cigarette.

When the smoke started to fill the air, a transformation came over the place. It was no longer somewhere to go for a drink. It was a pub – a proper pub.

While I didn’t indulge myself, I didn’t mind that handful of people around me doing so. We were a group of like-minded people having a laugh, a smoke and bothering nobody but ourselves. But if we had done it during opening hours, my friends would have been breaking the law – even though nobody present objected to what is a legal activity.

Which brings me to my big question – and I challenge any of you to come up with a reasonable response.

The smoking ban prevents people from lighting up in enclosed public areas; that’s fine as far as I’m concerned when it comes to shopping centres, railway stations etc.

But say I wanted to start up a commercial venture. Let’s call my business The Smoking Room – it would be something along the lines of a tobacconists crossed with a gentlemen’s club. You could browse the wide range of tobacco products, consult the knowledgeable staff, then retire to a lounge area to mix with like-minded fellows and smoke yourself silly.

I can’t do this because it’s against the law, but why? Who is it bothering? Everybody present would be there to smoke.

Why can’t establishments such as pubs and my Smoking Room apply for a licence exempting them from the ban? You would have to declare you were a smoking establishment and people who work there or go in there would have to be aware of that.

Some of the money from the licence charge could go to the NHS to educate people about the ills of smoking or helping them to quit.

It’s all about informed choices – not having our freedoms taken away from us. Because that’s exactly what it is – we have given up a freedom so easily.

And if you are one of those people who says it’s nice to get home on a night and not have your clothes smelling of smoke, here’s a tip for you – put them in the washing machine. Who puts the same clothes on after a night out anyway?

Don’t let it be a case of “First they came for the smokers, and I did nothing, because I was not a smoker.”

Because next it will be beer, wine, cream cakes and white bread, and what a dull place the world will be.