Lib Dems Split on smoking but so are all the others...!

This would be much more of a headline if the proposed bill was whipped by all political parties, and for some reason certain members of the LD parliamentary party were opposed to the party whip. In my opinion you can apply the classic JS Mill test, and that on balance smoking should be banned in public places because of the harm caused to others. This is not denying the right of people to smoke and cause harm to themselves, but in a private place.
The significant policy differences in the debate appeared to be over approaches to the public sector.
To claim differences on things like how many seats we should target, versus how many we need to enter power in our own right is a nonsense.