Are we heading for a complete ban ?

[2nd row]

   I smoke, and i admit it, there are times when i HATE it !!, but there are times, when i really need, and enjoy a cig'..... give it up ?? ' tis the only vice i've got left in my life ! wish i'd never started, and will strongly advise any one, especially the youngsters, AGAINST IT .. now, some of 'the total ban areas ' are hitting Scotland, what next?.... ' laying in bed with your partner, just made love, relaxing, having that peaceful smoke, CRASH ! can we expect a little nosy camera come zooming in ?!! will our police stations be packed full with naked couples hancuffed together ? can hear  Smudge saying " yes  please ",,,,, what next ? Smoker  tattooed across our foreheads ?

[Eastender]

Hi why dont you all get off your SOAP BOXES. Its a free country, and our rights are being taken away. Yes its a filthy habit, but for those who dont smoke, I'm sure you must some other filthy habit!!!!!!!!!!

[rinkytink]

 

I take it you don't drive then ansteyg ?

 

[ursula62]

The trouble with the ban is really this: by banning smoking in public places, they are effectively making people smoke at home.

All well and good you say. Well it is and it isn't.

Although the public ban is good for workers, who shouldn't have to breathe someone else's second hand smoke, the problem is that if more people smoke at home then their children will have to breathe more smoke than they did before the ban. 

Effectively a public ban means protecting workers (who have knowingly taken a job in a pub or club and were aware that smoking was permitted there at the time they applied for the job) at the expense of children who have little or no choice about living with their own parents.

[2nd row]

  good reply Ursula62, perhaps this is the reason why many people, who are smokers, are now staying at home to have a drink ? dont know what this will do to those in the pub trade ?...... but now, the ban covers the outside of the building too !!!! cant see me running the 3 miles home, everytime i want a fag !! and also, my sometimes swing moods when i cant have a fag !! example, sitting there on jury service ! it's a nightmare !

[Fat Boy]

ursula62, do you honestly believe that people go to the pub so that their children don't have to breathe in their smoke? dunno about anyone else but my parents didn't care less whether we were in the same room (or car) as them when they were smoking or not. and I've seen enough parents / grandparents smoking in cafes, in cars, over prams to strongly suggest that there's a lot of other people just the same. (Obviously this doesn't apply to ALL smokers but the idea that non-smokers should act as some kind of nicotine-sink for irresponsible parents... sorry but that's one of the daftest things I've ever heard)

[natalie_1982]

Excuse me anstey, get off your cross - that is the most insulting, ridiculoous thing I have ever heard that "Smokers don't care, even about their children". I think it's completely ignorant to make a sweeping statement like that.

[saffstar]

I'm an ex-smoker and I am in favour of a ban in public places.  A person's right not to have their health damaged is surely more important than another person's right to damage their own health?

 

Natalie  - good luck giving up. My tip would be to start doing away with all the little mini-habits, bit by bit.  I started when I got a new car - I didn't want it to stink, so I stopped smoking while driving.  Then I stopped having a ciggie in my lunch break.  It helped me and if you start now, it won't be quite such a shock to the system when you go cold turkey in the New Year.

[natalie_1982]

Thanks saffstar I've starting doing all that already and have cut down loads - about 5 a day and don't have my first til about 6pm, which is good for me!

[natalie_1982]

What evidence? You're not a smoker what would you know?

[Bangkok]

I gave up a year ago (actually 1 year and 23 days) and think of myself as a smoker who doesn't smoke.  However, I am determined not to smoke - I have a very strong mental image of a look of disappointment if I fail!

 

Reading the postings confirms that this is an issue people will never agree on, and one which becomes very emotional.  Perhaps the middle ground is to provide genuine non-smoking areas (not rubbish corners next to smokers) as well as smoking areas.  If it cannot be split, it is non-smoking.  People vote with their wallets and service providers adjust accordingly. 

[natalie_1982]

I've seen mother's beat their kids in the street, does that mean all mothers beat their children? I've seen teenage girls robbing shops, does that mean all teenage girls rob shops? It's ridiculous. Anstey I think you're rude, and you shouldn't tar everyone with the same brush. I'm pretty certain you're not Mary Poppins.

[natalie_1982]

You said "Smokers don't care...", not "Some smokers don't care... ". I did take offence because I make a point of not smoking around children or non-smokers, and I go out to smoke in the back garden. You generalised that all smokers do not care about other people - we do. And the majority of us would like to give up and are trying, and don't want to inflict it upon other people. Not all smokers "enforce second hand smoke" upon others, we're not all creatures from the bog.