Various posts, sliced, diced and responded to > AIUI, the pattern for the smoking ban has been an initial drop in > takings/custom, which has now largely been reversed.
Not according to the publicans around this neck of the woods it hasn't. As it happens, I was talking with the landlord of my local about this very issue earlier today and he confirmed what I said and then some. From the horses' mouth, his trade has been hammered by the smoking ban and he tells me that he's far from being alone - most of the pubs in the area, both rural and urban, are suffering badly. Of course, the anti-smokers will NEVER accept any possibility of this being the case, just as they never accepted the possibility of a sensible compromise. My local, as with many others, could very easily have been altered to provide a smoking room adequately separated from the non-smoking areas. In fact, it already had been long before the ban came into force. Smokers, and their companions, could smoke in warmth and comfort. Non-smokers could sit in warmth and comfort *and*, glory of glories, without having to breath in smoke. But no, only a total draconian ban will do. And to illustrate how stupid it can get, the landlord of whom I speak cannot even smoke in his *private* upstairs flat above the pub which he owns outright. Apparently, the corridor and stairway between his flat and the public areas of the pub are "too short". Simple truth is that for every example of how good the smoking ban has been trotted out by one side of the argument, t'other side will trot out a counter-example. All I know for certain is that in my particular locality, pubs which were doing a roaring trade before the ban came into effect are now struggling to survive and the landlords in question have no doubt as to the cause. > Of course, one downside of the smoking ban is that if you want to go > in the pub garden in the summer it's full of morons puffing away > at the dreaded stinkweed. Yep. And I for one will accept being called a moron for smoking - it's ridiculously expensive and it's gonna kill ne sooner rather than later so how can I possibly argue? :-) > Watch out - it could be public drinking next. Too late! > How about we all recognise it as an issue we're never going to come > close to agreeing on and move on. Probably a good idea! > This has the makings of a nasty argument and I don't think any of > us wants that. Spoilsport :-) Bru We could have a smoking boaters mini gig at the House of Commons and go in there for a ciggy John nb DoasIsayNotasIdo [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
