IS England/the UK incapable of using its own initiative? Why do we have to use America as an example to follow, (Is It Time We Banned Smoking In Public? Daily Echo, May 26) and ban smoking in public if we think it’s a good idea?

There is no excuse for what is now regarded as “smoking litter”, or dog-ends, as many tobacconists now sell small tins for smokers to place their butts in until they can dispose of them appropriately.

So, if we must follow America, how about doing so with the booze as well? In parts of the States, it is an arrestable offence to be seen in public with a bottle of spirit alcohol – so they are sold in a brown paper bag.

Not a day goes by without I see someone walking along the road swigging from a can of lager.

And as soon as it is empty, the now useless can is thrown into the nearest available garden shrubbery.

Is this kind of littering not one and the same as dog ends in the streets?

How about forgetting what America does, and do what England/the UK believes is the right thing to do?

And as soon as the beer-swillers start depositing their empty cans into a waste bin, then we can take the smokers to task about their anti-social behaviour.

ALAN BURRIDGE, Blandford Road, Upton