THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Jeremy Irons has said that smokers deserve to be protected like disabled people and children, during a scathing attack on New York's crackdown on lighting up in public.
The veteran British actor has become one of the most high profile critics of efforts by Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York, to improve public health by banning smoking in city-owned open spaces.
Earlier this year, Mr Bloomberg – himself a reformed ex-smoker – pushed through a law making it illegal to light up in 1,700 parks, public squares and beaches, including Central Park and Times Square.
The ban, which carries a £31 fine, came eight years after Mr Bloomberg prohibited smoking in all of the city's bars and restaurants. A similar ban was imposed in Britain four years later.
Mr Irons, who was in New York to guest-star in an episode of Law & Order, a television series, described the measures as "ludicrous and a terrible bullying of a minority that cannot speak back."
Smokers should be protected like "handicapped people and children", he told an interviewer for New York magazine [sic], who said the 62-year-old's teeth were "a testament to a life of indulgences." » | Jon Swaine, New York | Monday, April 04, 2011
AFP: 'Home-grown' rebellion fights New York smoking ban » | Sebastian Smith, AFP | Wednesday, March 23, 2011
