Smoking Poll

[Gonzo]

Passive smoking causes cancer. The debate ends there for me.

In twenty years time, when the country decides it can't really afford to pay for the care of all the elderly economically inactive people that are by then living to a ripe old age, I predict that that will be seen as a positive thing, not a negative one.

[fckvwls]

If the Government was serious it has within its power the means to prohibit the manufacture, distribution and retailing of toxic products, not to do so in the case of tobacco smacks of hypocrisy.

Perhaps they don't want to give you the opportunity to bang on about a 'nanny state' i.e. they warn you of the dangers whilst giving you the freedom of choice.

[Mich the Tester]

Passive smoking causes cancer. The debate ends there for me.

OK, but are you prepared to stick a couple of hundred quid every week in your local landlord's till to compensate him for the smoking ban?

[Bagpuss]

I didn't start to smoke until I went to uni (social smoker). I gave up a while ago. But as a pub goer of 20 odd years (most smoke free), I never once thought smoking should be banned in pubs. Most pubs had adequate ventilation, and those that didn't, it would be just one small room that you could usually avoid. Most of my non smoking pub going friends were not bothered about smoking, I don't think this was untypical.
We enjoyed the craic, the characters, the spit and sawdust proper pubs.

The only people shouting were ex-smoking Nazis (do as I say not as I did), or people who never went to pubs.

In my local town, 5 pubs have shut in the last 18 months. Each one of them a traditional pub. A friend is a local Landlord and tells me the many customers he lost are not being replaced by the clean air brigade.

[BlightyBoy]

Diverting the topic, as I said would happen, the smoking ban is closing the traditional pubs at an alarming rate, leaving only the souless theme bars to thrive. All these 'smoke free' extra drinkers didn't materialise. As usual in this country those most vociferous about smoking in pubs never actually wanted to go.

They've gotten round that one over here.

The German government said, initially, that pubs had to provide a smoking area. If there were no extra rooms then the landlord was allowed to erect a tent.

Many of them hung canvas in the bar, called it a tent. Job done.

Additionally, many pubs have gotten together to overturn the smoking ban by exercising their rights under a second law which states that any law preventing or otherwise inhibiting the legal running of a business is not punishable if infringed. Pubs maintain that their custom has dropped, ergo they do not always observe the law banning smoking in public buildings.

Further, many pubs have created so-called "smoking clubs". You are obliged to pay a €1 "club subscription" whereupon you can sit at the bar and smoke to your heart's (or lungs!) content. As a club, it is therefore not a "public" building and the law no longer applies.

Why oh why oh why do we in England put up with crap like this and just go along with whatever nonsense the government pass as laws?!

[Gonzo]

Same in NL. Old pubs which were the heart and soul of towns and villages are closing down because the few anti-smoking campaigners that do actually visit them just sit around for hours with a pot of herbal tea instead of buying rounds of drinks and keeping the tills working. Now I gave up smoking a long time ago, but I'm disgusted that a landlord can't decide for himself what goes on in his own pub, which is often actually a part of his own home. That's one of the secrets of a really good pub; it's someone's home that he has kitted out for the enjoyment of the public.

On my last trip to Copenhagen I thought the Danes had the right idea.

The premises had to decide a policy which was one of three options:

• Completely non smoking
• Separate smoking and non-smoking areas
• Smoking throughout

Then they had to display a sign outside to make it clear what the policy was so people could make up their own minds about whether they went in.

Is that just too sensible?

[lambrini_socialist]

Show me the evidence

yeah! totally loving that sword of truth! and you wield it so manfully!

non-smoking people who spend a lot of time in bars may well be dying from lung cancer but there's absolutely no proof it's caused by man-made tobacco emissions. none. and that's a fact!

[Moscow Mule]

I don't miss the disgusting stench of my clothes after a night out in the pub that was the norm when smoking was allowed.

That said, I understand the desire for a pint & a smoke and don't see anything wrong with the three tier approach described by gonzo.

[Foxy Moron]

LS, What's your view on all the pubs shutting?

[cailin maith]

On my last trip to Copenhagen I thought the Danes had the right idea.

The premises had to decide a policy which was one of three options:

• Completely non smoking
• Separate smoking and non-smoking areas
• Smoking throughout

Then they had to display a sign outside to make it clear what the policy was so people could make up their own minds about whether they went in.

Is that just too sensible?

Way too sensible for this country!!

I don't smoke and I have asthma so I prefer the pubs without the stinky smell of cigs but it should be ones own choice...