SO THE Government thinks plain packaging for cigarettes is the answer to adolescents taking up smoking. How I wish it were that simple.

It is certainly not a habit to be recommended and I agree that youngsters need to be discouraged from smoking. But I don’t believe plain packets will achieve its aim.

The danger is it will open the flood gates for counterfeit cigarettes which have totally uncontrolled content and can be even more dangerous to health.

We still live, just about, in a free society where people have the right to make their own choices and I do not want to see our freedoms further eroded. What next, plain bottles for booze and brown paper bags for sweets?

Jane Collins, prospective UKIP MEP for Yorkshire & North Lincs, Newport, New Brough.