Patrick Wintour (Extracted from "Cabinet fight over rush to ban smoking in all public places", The Guardian, 24 October 2005)

"The Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, will face a cabinet-level battle today to win support for a ban on smoking in public places, including all private members' clubs, save for sealed rooms. She wants to get agreement today with a view to publishing the bill on Wednesday."

[Ed: The smoking ban is not the only topic that is dividing Blair's Cabinet. Bitter rows are reported over identity cards, secondary education policy, old age pensions and immigration. Furthermore, 10 Downing Street is in full-pitch battle with the judiciary over personal freedoms and the legal profession generally over legal aid. The situation has many close similarities with the demoralisation within the White House. (The West Wing is now termed "Death Row" by junior staff.) Also, both Blair and Bush only succeeded to subsequent terms of office with the power of other personalities behind them. In the case of Blair he only won the last election by having George Brown at his side all through the campaign. Bush only won because he had Cheney's man, Karl Rove, behind him as the arch-manipulator of large voting blocs. Both governments are now cracking up under the strain of the lies that Blair and Bush uttered in 2003 in order to justfiy the invasion of Iraq, now with a government that changed its constitution even as its people were voting on it.]