Nigel Stanley wrote ...
> though I don't miss the smokers' fug. Well I hope you're not going to miss the pubs as well then! 'Cos if you talk to the people at the sharp end, business has been going right down the tubes ever since the smoking ban - whatever b*llsh*t the government might like to spout In our village (not a small place by any means) we look set to going from having two pubs and a social club to having none. One pub (a Charley Wells chain pub) is on the market with outline PP for redevelopment into housing (and is almost certainly only temporarily saved from that fate by the credit crunch) whilst the other (independent free house), whose landlord I know fairly well, is hovering on the ragged edge of bankruptcy. Mine host is in no doubt at all that the significant loss of trade is a direct consequence of the smoking ban The social club is in deep financial do-do's despite having generated a large pot of cash a couple of years ago by selling half of its car park for redevelopment. It's particularly vulnerable as it is almost entirely dependent on the wet trade which has been hardest hit by the ban. The loss of all the on-licensed premises in the village will, also as a direct result of the smoking ban, bother me not one jot 'cos I now buy excellent bottled ale from the supermarket and drink it at home! Of course, when I give up smoking in the very near future (Doctors orders) my position on this issue will change completely :-) ... sadly, there probably won't be any pubs within walking distance, smoke free or otherwise, left for me to drink in :-( Bru
