SIR - So, the day has arrived, July 1, and the witch hunt now can move into top gear.

From this date the back street mechanic becomes a criminal if he dares to light up a fag as he changes a wheel; just as the greengrocer became a criminal when he continued to sell his goods by the traditional and cultural method of pounds and ounces.

We can't smoke any more - except in unfriendly places designated by our minders; yet we can booze for 24 hours of every day regardless of proven liver scouring among the young people who indulge.

July 1 should be remembered with reverence, as it was the date when hundreds of Bradford lads died for the politicians of the era.

I've no doubt that most of them drew nervously on a fag before the whistles blew and they scrambled to their deaths.

And the fags they enjoyed were probably provided free gratis' by the Rev Studdart Kennedy, an Army Chaplain known to the soldiers as Woodbine Willie.

Why did those who plan our everyday lives choose July 1 as the date for their invasive machinations?

This should only be a date of remembrance for a nation's sacrifice on the battlefields of Flanders, not one to be shared with an act thought by millions to be a black day that heralded an unfair and egotistical imposition.

Frank Dickinson, Nab Wood Crescent, Shipley