Apparently the smoking age might rise to 18. I’m not going to say that’s a bad idea, regardless of issues of personal liberty, but then I’m 26 and don’t smoke. However, there were a couple of things that struck me…

Campaigners argue bringing the law on cigarettes into line with that on alcohol would reduce under-age smokers.

Of course it wouldn’t. It might reduce the number of under-16s smoking, but by definition under-age would mean under-18s after the change and I imagine there will be more under-18s smoking then than there are under-16s smoking now, if only because there are two more years’ worth of teenagers to factor in.

A poll conducted last year for the BBC found that four out of five people backed lifting the legal age to 18.

Of the 1,010 adults surveyed, 55% said the minimum age should go up to 21.

“Hello, I’m doing a poll. Are you over the age of X?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think privilege Y should only be available to those over the age of X?”
“Yes, yes I do.”
“Gosh, what a surprising result. I must write that up immediately.”

Via MediaWatchWatch comes the news from The Independent (update: link now pay-to-view) that Woolworths and Sainsbury’s have withdrawn from sale our old friend Jerry Springer: The Opera on DVD due to "customer concerns".

Sainsbury has admitted it received just 10 complaints.

Tim was written to both expressing his disappointment. Time for a seasonal, free speech boycott of Woolies and Sainsbury’s? A pledge, perhaps? Or a nice sidebar button?

Either way, I won’t be shopping at either for the rest of 2005. That’ll learn ’em.

Via Thinking Aloud, theguardian’s best geek novels since 1932. I won’t be highlighting those I’ve read because that would be, um, one.

I’m not a grinch, a party-pooper or a spoilsport. But please let someone on Space Cadets have sufficient nous to spot very quickly that it’s a con and expose it for the mean-spirited, unfunny, egregious show it will be. Because despite being mean-spirited, unfunny and egregious, its worst crime is providing another vehicle for Johnny Vaughan to be on TV.

At the end of the first episode, someone should reveal to him that it’s a big practical joke. Of course they didn’t spend £5m on such a stupid idea, and of course they didn’t employ him to front it.

And then everyone laughs in his face.