There's barely a fag end in the ashtrays of the huge Wetherspoon pub in Cambridge. A handful of well-scrubbed students in rented tuxedos and tent-sized dresses sip gin and tonics before a college ball, a few office workers down lagers, but no one smokes a cigarette - of any kind.
Three hundred yards away, down butt-less streets past smoke-free bars, there is little evidence that central Cambridge inhales much more than car fumes. There are a few filters in the doorway of the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, a couple of discarded rollups by the bicycles at King's College, and a Benson pack in the gutter outside the history and philosophy of science department. But that's about it.
Central Cambridge, it would seem, should have no problems becoming Britain's first 'smoke-free' city. Yesterday the local NHS, not waiting for central government to hand out new targets, said that it intended all restaurants, pubs, bars, workplaces and clubs, as well as the myriad university buildings, to voluntarily ban smoking within five years.
"It has been agreed with the local authority, but we won't be imposing bans", said Sue Smith, a spokeswoman for Cambridge primary care trust. "Our priority will be workplaces, to get them to introduce smoke-free policies. We want to provide an environment where no one is involuntarily exposed to second-hand smoke. We aspire to get to where Dublin is now, but the city must decide for itself."
Manchester and Birmingham are adopting similar policies, but it is thought that relatively affluent Cambridge, with a population of highly educated university people, stands a good chance of success.
But the city and the NHS may meet opposition. According to Yuli, a Japanese economics student drinking - and smoking - in the Eagle, certain groups will be hard to crack. "A lot of philosophers smoke. It's the done thing after a lecture. Philosophy is that kind of subject."
She says that Cambridge, like her, could turn to Plato rather than the NHS for help in quitting. "Plato said that all vice was irrational, so if you are rational you won't do bad things. I don't believe you can be rational and do something that clearly damages you." She admits to not being entirely rational.
But her friend, Lucas, a London University history student, says that rationality has nothing to do with it. He believes students will always smoke because it is a social disease linked to pleasure and stress. He needs a cigarette to work out how to crash the St John's College ball (in a punt and over a couple of wall his considered choice).
But Tom, a Lib Dem economist striding past King's with cigarette in fist on his way to the Peterhouse College political society dinner, thinks Cambridge will have little problem quitting. "Everyone is far too nice to smoke here. They're all so damn middle class and prim and proper here. Mummy and Daddy really wouldn't like them to start, so they don't," he says. "This is confirmed by a gang of eight students from Christ's, none of whom have ever smoked. "We had a kind of vote in college to ban it. No one opposed it," says one.
The city does have a serious smoking problem, however. The latest figures from the General Household Survey suggest that nationwide at least 26% of people smoke regularly and that women are now smoking more and younger. Cambridge, says the city's primary health care trust, is pretty average - and that means smoking is by far the biggest cause of preventable death."Our job is to help smokers quit," says Ms Smith, who accepts that there is a link between smoking and poverty.
The prospect of a ban worries Catherine Dixon, landlady of Champion of the Thames pub, where many regulars smoke. She has been watching developments in Ireland and the lengths some bars are going to keep their smokers, such as taking out windows or parking buses outside.
A ban would not achieve much, would be hypocritical and just increase illiberality, says Lawrence, a barman. "People will always find a way to smoke if they really want. What about the pollution in the streets? We can barely breathe in Cambridge in the summer," he says.
But for hardcore smokers, the NHS will have to tackle the Ship Inn on the Arbury estate in one of Cambridge's poorest areas. "Everyone smokes here. Banning smoking may break the habit of having a cigarette with your beer. But it won't make you quit," says one man who sells cheap cigarettes from Portugal but does not offer his name.
"It'd kill us if we had a ban here. We would never go out," says Julie, a heavy smoker who would like to quit but does not want a ban. "What I've noticed is that smokers stick together. They also seem to enjoy life a lot more. Probably the risk."
"Wouldn't it be great to live in a world where nobody smoked?" says Powis, whose girlfriend died of cancer.
"But we do smoke, and we should have the freedom to. The solution is to have lots more pubs that have no smoking policies. Then people can have a choice, rather than be told what to do!"
Cambridge has two smoke-free pubs, both of which report good business. Customers at The Cambridge Blue, which also fines people if their mobile phones ring, says it avoids lager louts. "People become polite and attractive when they stop smoking", says Michael, a flute player. "A smoking ban would work just like the seatbelt one. A few addicts would complain but it would quickly become normal."
At which point his friend, George, dashes into the street and lights up.
