As a parent I welcome the government’s efforts to keep cigarettes out of my children’s hands.

While I’m not sure Labour’s start to life as leaders is bathed in glory, I’m glad to see them continue Rishi Sunak’s pledge to create a smoke free generation.

That said - I’m equally pleased to watch them row back on a proposed pub garden smoking ban - clearly having realised it could be another nail in the coffin for an already-struggling hospitality industry.

Ministers are however said to be considering plans to make it illegal to smoke in other public places such as children's playgrounds or outside schools and hospitals.

Even as a non-smoker I don’t support this.

The main focus of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill is to ultimately make it illegal for anyone currently aged 15 or under to ever buy cigarettes in the UK.

But it shouldn’t make criminals of current smokers in the process.

There will always be many a vice in life from smoking to alcohol, gambling or even junk food and plenty of others in between.

And as quickly as you clamp down on one, another will inevitably crop up in its place. Look at the space vapes now occupy alongside cigarettes.

But for as long as smoking remain legal - how can you possibly punish adults for lighting-up in an (outdoor) public place?

I have never walked out of the school gates through a haze of smoke in a scene reminiscent of the opening moments of Stars in Their Eyes.

Like most parents I’m prone to many a long day in parks and playgrounds and secondhand smoke at the swings has never been on my list of concerns.

The discarded vapes and laughing gas cannisters on the other hand - or the unhealthy amounts of dogs mess and vandalised-yet-unrepaired play equipment - now those things bother me.

It’s also the case that perhaps the greatest risk to my children’s health right now is social media, not smoke, and I see very little action there.

Neither have I ever had to slalom the smokers to get in the doors of our local hospital or medical centre.

There of course might be hygiene concerns with NHS staff smoking in uniform but that’s one for their employer - it doesn't warrant a ban for the rest of Joe Public.

Rather like punishment for littering it’s also almost impossible to properly enforce and risks creating nothing but space for over-zealous enforcement officers.

Government interference at its worst.

Do we really need cash-strapped hospitals slapping patients and visitors with smoking ASBOs because there’s the chance to make a much-needed bob or two?

Not to mention that hospital environments can be stressful places.

We don’t need cigarette wardens hiding behind litter bins ready to pounce when some poor traumatised soul opens their fag packet.

And is that ultimately going to make the UK’s six million smokers quit?

We know cigarette use has already fallen over the last 50 years from about half the population in the 1970s to around 12% today and numbers are still dropping.

Tobacco is probably already on its way out and other problems warrant government attention.