smoking ban

[sunflower68]

Anyone got any feelings on this? I think it will be odd for a while. A bit sad for the oldsters whose only real social connection might be a pint and a fag in the pub.

Pubs are going to suffer. Surely they will now have to build smokers their own 'outhouses' complying, of course, to health and safety rules and regs.

It's a good thing for the population as a whole. How times have changed! It's not long ago I remember smoking being allowed on buses, trains and planes.

[Steve_Luts]

Elfin - "clearly lived with" - yes, we have, but under massive sufferance!!

Pubs are primarily somewhere to consume alcohol, bu then have a whole range of secondary activities - food, live music, gaming, dominoes, bingo, karoake, quizzes, darts, speed dating - you name it, you can find a pub that does it. They also serve as great social meeting points, focal points of the community, places to watch sport etc etc etc.

And here's the rub: of the myriad things you can do in a pub, the only thing* that can interfere with the quality of life of other pub go-ers is flippin' smoking!!!

So we have as you so dismissively put it 'lived with it' under great duress, and soon we won't have to. Which, in the main, is a good thing us for non-smokers.

Strewth - this is enough to mkae me start smoking!! In my own home or car of course, not impacting on others.

Steve

* I s'pose a punch in the face in a pub might affect your quality of life, but that aside.

[sunflower68]

Thanks for the great replies all; forgive me if I don't rate them!

xxxIAPxxx you know I love you really. You're no oldster but a sprightly young thing I'm sure :)

Gonna suggest Mr Sunflower gets into the outdoor heating trade pronto - lots of money to be made there.

[flubber]

I smoke and actually enjoy a cigarette with a pint in the pub, but I have never smoked in a restaurant as I have always felt it unfair to those eating (whether they smoke or not) if there is a ban I can live with it and it would not worry me at all.

[chelseagreen]

the original idea for the ban was health and safety at work, why should any worker have to breathe in smoke when it can be avoided? if you start saying that bar staff can choose to work in smoke free pubs it makes it their responsibilty, it'd be like saying if a worker doesn't like working in an asbestos riddled factory they can always leave! the onus must be on the employer to ensure all staff are as safe as possible. as a smoker i'm very happy with the ban as, like most smokers i smoke twice as much when i have a pint.
as for business being affected, surely more nonsmokers will go to the pub now, i'm not aware of mass pub closures in ireland!

[webbo3]

firstlyim a smoker and i say great lets ban it in restaraunts.................but leave it up to individual pubs to decide.

by the way.....smoking is allowed in 3 places

1. prisons(so prisoners have more rights than me,a law abiding citizen).

2 old peoples homes(they are old and will die soon anyway so a bit of passive dosen matter.

3..wait for it .palaces.....so yes .the palace of westminster, where all the MP's work is ok for smoking.

and there could be lots of problems ......if a non smoking plumber or decorator went to a house to work and the owner lit up could he ask him to put it out ,after all its his place of work.

[chelseagreen]

don't know about the legalities involved, but if someone doing work in my house asked me not to smoke in the same room as them i think it's just good old-fashioned manners not too!!!

[sammd]

I haven't had the time to read all previous 67 answers but my opinion...the ban is fantastic!!! I can't wait for summer 2007! I hate breathing in other people's smoke in pubs and clubs. Why should i get cancer because other people can't quit! I'm also looking forward to my clothes not stinking of it and one day when i have kids they won't have to breathe it in either. It's a shame it didn't come in earlier as my clubbing days will be nearly over by the time it comes in force, but for my ongoing days in pubs it'll be great! It'll also help a lot of people to quit.

Someone above mentioned an increase in taxes due to the loss of people buying cigarettes - but how much money is going to be saved on healthcare from less people getting cancer!!!

[stevie-p]

i agree,smoking tax is worth millions to the government,who will pay when they get no revenue from this.....ALL of us!!!

[camberlad]

I am sorry, but cant remeber who said about driking does not cause deaths...

How many people do you hear about who are killed due to drunk driving, people who get into fights. Have you ever been in an A&E on a friday and saturday night - I have as a HCA and the amout of people who are there due to drink.

Also, i agree that the tax will need to be picked up by the members of public, and that will mean that smokers will have to pay so much more.

You also have to look at the social economics of why people smoke.

[livk]

I think the smoking ban is an example of just how much we have become a nanny state under this Government and also Europe. If I own a pub or a restaurant, choose to allow people to smoke on the premises, advertise the venue as such, none smokers could exercise a choice of whether to patronise the business premises. Staff working in these premises would all be adults, and are not forced at gun point to work in venues that allow smoking, so again they would work in the knowledge that smoking was allowed. These are all choices that as responsible adults we can make, if we are allowed to do so, without Nanny Blair et al dictating to us what we should do.

[sammd]

Surely the NHS savings from asthma and cancer treatment would outweigh the loss in cigarette tax? Not everyone will give up either.

[wvaleriechas]

Its nonsense to say that the N.H.S. will benefit from people giving up smoking. I t is common knowledge among us informed "oldies" that the N.H.S. has benefited for decades from the revenue on tobacco & a good excuse for the Chancellor to increase this revenue every single budget day since the anti smoking lobby got going. There are far more injuries, accidents & broken homes caused by alcohol than by smoking (not to mention drug abuse), all these things are a drain on national expenditure. Drug addicts get treatment free to wean them off as do alcoholics but what do smokers get? the answer is:- expensive patches, gum & pills which don't work without the essential willpower. Its another example of companies cashing in on people who just dont manage to do it on their own. We can't all be the perfect ,non habit people that other people want us to be. We die if we smoke (some of us) we die if we overeat (some of us) we die if we drink (some of us.) For goodness sake just be grateful you have a life to live, thanks to the thousands of tommies who fought for our freedom & democracy. And YES, most of them had a fag in their mouths when they died & were no drain on the N.H.S. because there wasn't any.

Mother Hubbard.

[siddlem]

just another errosion of our human rights, non smokers always had the choice, don't go or set up your own non smoking business. It appears the british people have lost their backbone and are not protesting. There is no absolute proof between passive smoking and cancer, The only thing that is certain is death and taxes. I hope thousands of businesses go to the wall.