At the time of writing, the tobacco industry will be desperately crafting its strategy to try to wreck the historic ban on tobacco advertising and promotion to which health ministers of the European Union (EU) countries agreed last November. The referral of the agreed directive to the European Parliament opened up the historic, if imperfect, directive to perils from two different groupings of members of parliament, which have directly opposite aims.

Those genuinely committed to public health want to strengthen it to remove anomalies such as the temporary reprieve for tobacco funding of Formula 1 (F1) motor sport. This concession was made to bring on board the United Kingdom, which got itself into a lamentable mess by apparently pledging help to F1 bosses, possibly in recognition of electoral support. On the …