I was saddened that Sir Sydney Chapman used his casting vote as chairman of the House of Commons accommodation and works committee to allow smoking in the new Parliamentary extension, Portcullis House.

Surely MPs who insist on smoking in their offices could be fitted into older offices in the main Palace of Westminster? Generally they will be less healthy and would not have so far to walk to the division lobbies.

I pity their poor staff who will have to become passive smokers. Apart from cannabis I know of no other drug habit where other people are forced to ingest the substance involved or exclude themselves from the area.

I don't want to go over to the extreme anti-smoking policies in some parts of the United States. That said, smoking is anti-social. As someone who is affected by passive smoking, but not as greatly as asthmatics and those with lung conditions, I am puzzled that smokers try to win compensation for the consequences of their addiction, while the true victims of this nasty habit are never considered. They are often excluded from many social occasions, while some non-smokers who work in smoky environments pay the ultimate price, like the late Roy Castle.

David Nowell

Vice-chairman, Chipping

Barnet Liberal Democrats