Tony Blair's government has just voted to raise (to 18) the minimum age at which British subjects are allowed to smoke, within days of lowering (to 16) the age of consent for homosexual sex. The latter was in response to an inquiry from the European Court of Human Rights, which was threatening to bring suit under a European Union rule that the age of consent must be uniform for couplings both AC and DC. So besides truckling to the Eurocrats and, literally, defining deviancy down, Blair continues to steal a march on the Tories, who were thought till now to have a monopoly on mixing politics with kinky sex. So Blair cements his reputation as the Euro-Clinton, and English boys have to wait two years for that post-prandial smoke.