MR Fitzgerald's letter (November 5) rightly draws attention to the increasing arrogance of extremism. Some people smoke; others don't.
If pubs and restaurants return to the provision of smoking and non-smoking rooms -- additionally with extractors in the non-smoking areas -- then the democratic right of citizens to choose would be upheld. Yet constant efforts are made to ban all smoking in public places.
Some people want fluoride in their drinking water, others don't. If fluoride supplements were supplied, those who want to could fluoridate their drinking water and those who object to compulsory medication, could avoid it. A reasonable, democratic right to choose would be upheld, yet continual effort is being made to contemptuously ignore this right and medicate all drinking water.
Some people want closer government by Europe; others want less. Without a referendum to discover the people's choice, a British Prime Minister contemptuously signs away much of Britain's right to govern itself.
Democracy does not always disappear dramatically and suddenly, but can insiduously slink away little, by little, by little.
NON-SMOKER,
Prestwich.
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