I READ your article about the cost of smoking to Southampton (Daily Echo, March 25) and sorry but you asked for opinions so here I go.

I am so fed up with people moaning about smokers. Yes I am one, I know it is damaging to my health (maybe), I may get run over by a bus, who knows?

I don’t drink so I am not going to kill someone while I’m driving. The tax paid by people who smoke is huge, so I have probably equipped a whole ward with this.

I do not drop my cigarette butts on the streets or out of my car window. But I drive by bottles of booze on the roads every day. I never go to the doctors as I am never ill, unlike people who go for the slightest sniffle or cough.

The trouble with today’s economy is partly because of the lack of tax where smokers are giving up.

My father and grandfather fought in horrific wars for freedom. This is no longer a free country. We are all told what to do and when.

If you don’t give up smoking you will not be treated – what kind of country are we turning into? Don’t do this, don’t tell your kids off, so now they run riot. Not allowed to smoke in your own car is the latest.

If someone wants to buy me a car or house then they can tell me what I can or cannot do.

Give smokers a break.

E ELLIOTT, address supplied.