Flag of inconvenience

Is there no haven, however inaccessible, where smokers can light up without being harassed?

The government of one the world’s most remote islands and Britain’s second oldest oversees territory (after Bermuda) is going ‘smoke-free’.

With effect from tomorrow St Helena Government (SHG) will become a ‘Smoke-Free Government’.

The decision to ban staff and members of the public from smoking on any government site, including car parks and terraces, is baffling to say the least.

The island - a volcanic outpost in the South Atlantic Ocean - is so windy its new airport has been dubbed “one of the most dangerous” in the world.

Light up and there's every chance that the tiny whiff of smoke you've just exhaled will be halfway to Africa before you’ve taken your next puff.

Despite this the SHG insists that "second-hand smoke ... is a health risk in outdoor areas as well as indoors."

I can't be sure but I suspect that our own Government may be behind the new policy. After all, if you want to benefit from the UK’s international aid budget, going 'smoke free' is now de rigueur.

That airport didn't fund itself and the SHG may have calculated that banning smoking on all government property was a small price to pay.

Either way, anyone who thinks that living on a rock in the middle of the ocean is one way to beat the prohibitionists, think again.

Where there's a Union Flag flying there's no escape.