Why the car-with-children smoking ban will make Scotland a laughing stock

Scotland should have a criminal justice system that we're proud of. We don't want to be the laughing stock of the world. That means we need to have laws that are worthwhile having and not go down the road of 'bloat', where every pet belief is turned into an unworkable law.

Protecting children from cigarette smoke is a worthwhile aim. However if a parent or older sibling smokes in the living room of their own home while children are present, how can Scotland as a nation police that behaviour? Quite simply, it can't. Currently, there is no simple way of monitoring everything that takes place behind closed doors.

But because cars have windows, there is now a myth taking hold that that somehow allows us to monitor every activity that takes place inside a car. This is nonsense. However, the fear that you could be spotted might change people's behaviour. Certainly, this happened with the law requiring car occupants to wear a seat belt.

Most drivers keep their windscreens clean so that they can see out - which also allows police the ability to see the driver. It's a lot more difficult to see into the back of a car, or to see if a child is present given that they are much smaller than the car seats in front of them. So the seat-belt law is a workable law. Crucially in that case, the drive for the law came from the evidence that wearing a seat belt helped to preserve your life in collisions. Most people want to reduce their risk of death while driving and are happy to wear a seat belt.

The case for not smoking in cars when children are present is less clear cut. First of all, cars are not airtight. That means pollution from the roads seeps inside the car, causing all car occupants harm, not just to the children present. Is the negative effect of this pollution greater or lesser than that from cigarette smoke? I do not believe the answer is clear cut.

Childhood obesity is also a growing epidemic. Should the eating of sweets or the consumption of sugary drinks by adults also be banned when children are present in their car? This may lead to copy-cat behaviour, making obesity even worse.

What if the adult farts and lets out a whiff of bad gas, the child frantically waving their hands in front of their nose to dispell the smell? Should the adult be arrested? You might think comparing smoking to farting rather immature but both share something in common: sometimes, you just can't stop either. Smoking is an addiction. If you can't stop yourself from lighting up, should you be punished by the courts?

Banning smoking in pubs was easy because people could still pop out to the door and have a smoke, then pop back in to the pub. If this ban goes ahead, there'll be lines of cars stopping off on the hard shoulder just to satisfy their cravings.

What if they keep driving but open the window? Is that better or worse for the child? Does more cigarette smoke escape than pollutants seep in?

And what does a police officer do when they see a car passing them by where the driver is smoking and they see some object in the back seat but the windows are a bit steamed up? Are they to chase after the driver, pull them over only to discover the object on the back seat was a large rucksack? Just because cars have windows, there's no guarantee that you can see through them.

We are already dealing with concerns over the use of stop-and-search and consented search of children. Will such a law be abused to stop smoker's cars and check what's on their back seats? "Sorry sir, I though you were carrying a child. However, now I've stopped you, can you open your bags for me?"

I'm sure there are many Christian groups who would like to ban homosexuals from having erections. Thankfully, men don't wear boxers or jeans with windows in them or such a ban would probably already be in place. Just because a window allows you to theoretically see inside, it does not mean you should abuse that window to impose your own ideology on those with windows.

If I lived in a greenhouse, would more laws apply to me than to those who lived in brick houses? If it is legal to smoke in your own home over the top of your own child, then it should be legal to do so in your own car. If smoking is so bad, then ban it completely or also have a similar ban if children are present in houses.

Houses have windows - why don't we ban curtains so police can snoop on all of us, all of the time? Because it's a ridiculous concept. At some point, the state has to recognise the free will of the individual and recognise that the state has no right to intervene in certain areas. We can't criminalise being human just because we have windows.

The largest cause of childhood deaths in the UK is from injury, generally from road-traffic accidents. There is no evidence that smoking causes car accidents (indeed, nicotine boosts reaction speeds so smoking may help you to more quickly avoid a developing accident). Other leading causes of UK child deaths is infant mortality due to congenital defects (i.e. being born with something wrong, like a heart defect) and, sadly, suicide.

This proposed smoking ban won't save a single life but will give our citizens a criminal record for simply being addicted to nicotine. It is an unworkable law that makes the possession of windows an infringement of your civil liberties.

As a non-smoker, I strongly object to Scotland's criminal justice system being the laughing stock of the world.