Ban Alcohol

[sasguru]

Fair point, so why not allow people to have their own pub where people are welcome to smoke?

I would welcome that - I didn't make the laws. Blame NL.

[Zorba]

Sasguru's point is good. Of course, there is always the risk of the freedom of others being linked to the spending of their taxes on NHS services for people suffering from illnesses linked to smoking, i.e. if you smoke you restrict my freedom to have a health service that doesn't spend millions on illnesses that won't affect non-smokers so much.

But you could say the same thing for obesity, alcohol and even motorists. So I think that would be going too far. I do think that private smoking clubs or pubs should be allowed though - you could always insist that any staff are already smokers, to avoid any involuntary passive smoking issues.

[zathras]

Fair point, so why not allow people to have their own pub where people are welcome to smoke?

Because the people who work there did not choose to be in a smoking environment and unlike us not everyone gets to choose where they work, so do not bother to come back and say they could choose to work elsewhere.

It is also worth pointing out that 3 out of 4 people do not smoke, so any Pub which decides to allow smoking is also turning away 75% of the potential market.

The person who smokes makes the decision also for those around them. The person who drinks makes no such decision for those around them.

PS Oral Sex is illegal in some places.

[sasguru]

PS Oral Sex is illegal in some places.

Where? Tunbridge Wells?

[DodgyAgent]

Because the people who work there did not choose to be in a smoking environment and unlike us not everyone gets to choose where they work, so do not bother to come back and say they could choose to work elsewhere.

It is also worth pointing out that 3 out of 4 people do not smoke, so any Pub which decides to allow smoking is also turning away 75% of the potential market.

The person who smokes makes the decision also for those around them. The person who drinks makes no such decision for those around them.

PS Oral Sex is illegal in some places.

So if I wanted to set up a pub just for people who smoke and employed only people who themselves smoked/happy to work in smoke, why should the fact that you dont think that it would be profitable be a reason for banning me from opening the pub?

I may point out to you that there are many things that people do that affect others around them, some of which are dangerous, some of which are anti social, none of which are banned:
1. Fart
2. Drive cars that pump out toxic carbon monoxide
3 Dont wash so send off BO
4. Fat and occupy excess space on aircraft, buses and other confined spaces.
5. Noise, inmmany forms that are legal yet annoying and stressful.
6 "bagging sun loungers with towels"

[sasguru]

1. Fart
Legislation would be a little drastic, especially for those with irritable bowel syndrome

2. Drive cars that pump out toxic carbon monoxide
I agree. Make 'em pay through the nose.

3 Dont wash so send off BO
Such people are generally shunned I find

4. Fat and occupy excess space on aircraft, buses and other confined spaces.
I agree. Raise taxes on lard and cakes

5. Noise, inmmany forms that are legal yet annoying and stressful.
That's what environmental health officers and ASBOs are for

6 "bagging sun loungers with towels"
Wake up earlier

HTH

[OwlHoot]

I thought sad, lonely, pathetic losers bevcame recruitment consultants? Isn't that what you do when you cannot get a real job?

You say no "decent" arguement was raised in your ban fishing thread, maybe because it was a stup[id thread with very weak arguements on your side?

And "noone has been killed by passive smoking", where have you been the last 50 years? There has been a mountain of evidence to show that you can catch cancer by passive smoking. You are an idiot.

That whistling noise you probably missed was the underlying (or overflying?) point of Dodgy's post sailing way over your head.

While we're about it, why not ban football? Total waste of a saturday afternoon watching a bunch of grossly overpaid primadonnas kicking a pig's bladder around.

[The Lone Gunman]

I would welcome that - I didn't make the laws. Blame NL.

But wasn't that the situation we had before the ban for non smokers, that they could set up or change a pub to not allow smoking? A no smoking pub for non smokers run and staffed by non smokers?
They just chose not to bother, they chose to carry on visiting smoking pubs then kicked up a fuss that smoking should be banned.
For the sake of 1 little no smoking sign we now have law that curtails our freedoms. Don't believe that your freedoms have not been damaged just because you do not smoke.