Get a life and stop interfering in ours!

This letter is prompted by the headline in your September 28 edition, "Smokers targeted in new highway code".

It saddens me greatly when the government of a long-established democracy chooses to waste its time on trifling issues such as this, especially given the fact that we are faced with agendas that dramatically affect every one of us and severely threaten the whole concept of democracy – illegal immigration, lack of committed policing, inadequate healthcare and an under-funded education system.

I suppose what saddens me most is the fact that I have to share this planet with people who are incapable of prioritising issues. Surely this ability epitomises intelligence and organisational skills, abilities which I consider to be of paramount importance when I am deciding how I should cast my vote.

To return to the subject of whether or not people should be allowed to smoke in their own cars, I totally and utterly dispute that this is a safety issue. If safety were the only consideration, and it is deemed unwise to remove one's hand from the steering wheel while driving, why do we not make it compulsory for everyone to drive an automatic car (as I do)?

The reason is that the ill-informed do not stop to think of the costs involved for everyone to do this.

The do-gooders of this world are incapable of considering the long-term repercussions of their childish suggestions. They have no ability to foresee the dramatic impact that their silly ideas can have on the market economy.

It would decimate our car industry (such as it is) and many people would be thrown out of a job. It would impoverish virtually every family in the land to change to an automatic car but, logically, this is what must happen if we are to adhere to all the restrictions that are now being proposed.

What will be next, I ask myself? Shall we be prohibited from giving someone a lift in case they prove to be a distraction? Shall we be unable to transport our much-loved pets to the vet and, worst of all, will it be made illegal to drive our cars while we have our children/grandchildren on board?

God forbid that we should ever allow these petty little jobsworths to take over our lives any more than they already have. They should get a life and stop trying to live everyone else's lives for them.

Kath Abbiss, Foxes Ridge, Cradley Heath.