Many years ago, in a comic some of you might remember called 2000AD, there was a strip called Judge Dredd, about a ferocious cop who lived in Mega-City One, a city ruled by repressive police.

Everything about 1970s Britain was exaggerated to a ludicrous extent: there was 80% unemployment, an obesity problem, a craze for making yourself look ugly with piercings and tattoos. But the frightening thing is that many of its predictions are coming true.

Take the government's recent attack on smokers. In Mega-City One, smoking in public places or on the street was strictly forbidden. If you smoked, you had to take your filthy habit to the Smokatorium - a giant, stinking dome, which was sure to put you off.

I was reminded of the Smokatorium and anti-pleasure policies in general when I appeared on a radio programme the other day to defend smoking. It appears that resentful non-smoking office workers, having successfully banished the smokers from the office and forced them to huddle in freezing groups on the street, are now complaining that the smokers do less work as a result of their fag breaks.

There was a puritan on the show who was warning workers that bosses might not employ them for these sorts of reasons. Which is the biggest pile of hogwash I can remember hearing.

For one thing, everyone knows that hours put in have no relationship to productivity. Perhaps smokers work better because they have more breaks. There is also an underlying assumption that nothing else but work, work and more work can go on in the workplace, conjuring up an image of unutterable misery, torture, slavery and greyness.

Like all puritans, my enemy on the radio came out with the line: "I've nothing against people enjoying themselves." But it is clear that, under cover of the anti-smoking campaign, this is about weakening the rights of the worker and laying an ethical foundation for the introduction of new legislation banning work breaks unless at properly sanctioned times.

I understand the AA has introduced a limit on toilet breaks and will monitor call centre staff to ensure they work at least 85% of the day. Removing an hour for lunch, that gives just two 10-minute breaks. The GMB union called it a "battery chicken" approach.

But they should have called a strike! Rise up! Fight back! This has to stop!