Topic: Going for a smoke ?

[kenkew]

It's certainly going to be interesting to see reports from the anti-smoking spies who are going round pubs checking.
A friend of mine here in Belgium opened a new restaurant last February. The smoking ban was about to start here so he added a 'Bar-Room' to the building. No eating in there but smoking and drinking are legally allowed because it's a dedicated and sign-posted a smoking room.
 If that's allowed here, then under EU law shouldn't it be allowed for UK pubs to state with a sign on the door, 'This is - is not - a Smoking allowed pub?'
 This law will be tested in a hundred ways....like I said, will be intereting to see what happens.

[grawrc]

In Edinburgh landlords who have allowed smoking have been prosecuted and warned and/or fined. They can also lose their licence.

[kenkew]

....and if earnings go down, can they sue?

[keef]

Somewhere in the Kingdom of Wessex.. ;)

[Oldmanofthewoods]

Kingdom of Wessex we are!  Staggering amount of pubs still allowing the weed but we had to through out a couple of non-smokers who grizzled!

Thank God we are sane down 'ere!

[cornykev]

Did you not 'THROW' them out then.  ;D ;D ;D

[northener]

I confess i ended up smokig in pub friday. I'd only gone out in a t-shirt and by 10 o clock it was freezing so myself and 3or 4 mates sparked up. 2 couples nearby reported us to bouncers who came over threatened to thruogh us out so we put em out. Pubs round our way are'nt geared up for a ban. No shelters or heating.

[greyhound]

You put the bouncers out?  Well done.   ;D

[northener]

No they were big lads. I'm planning on York races on Friday i'm dreading it if thats no smoking. if it is i'm moving to Spain.

[cornykev]

Not all of them are prepared Northener because they all think its summer time, only us lotties know the the seasons are changing, it does make my laugh though watching them freeze.  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Oldmanofthewoods]

Two more grizzlers thrown out of the pub last night too. These two are going to "report us to the council"!  Since I have never heard of a council doing any work we are not actually quaking in our boots.  However, I am thinking that the council spies will come out in the evening on overtime so I am thinking that the sanctimonious *fatherless children* might come!

Anyone spotted any of the parasitical layabouts yet?

Jack

[cacran]

I lurv fresh air!!!!!!!!

[SnooziSuzi]

Anyone spotted any of the parasitical layabouts yet?
Jack

Well they're hardly going to come in dressed in suits and bowler hats are they!?  As soon as one of your fellow drinkers reports to them that you are still smoking in the pub they will send plain clothed people out with backup. 

Did you challenge authority like this when seatbelt laws came in I wonder?  That was hardly a decision made just to p*ss people off - it was just as legitimate as this smoking ban. 

A lot of pubs lose trade when people give up smoking because the customers don't want to be surrounded by smokers, so saying that they will lose trade by stopping people is horse cr*p.

[Oldmanofthewoods]

Anyone spotted any of the parasitical layabouts yet?
Jack

Well they're hardly going to come in dressed in suits and bowler hats are they!?  As soon as one of your fellow drinkers reports to them that you are still smoking in the pub they will send plain clothed people out with backup. 

Did you challenge authority like this when seatbelt laws came in I wonder?  That was hardly a decision made just to p*ss people off - it was just as legitimate as this smoking ban. 

A lot of pubs lose trade when people give up smoking because the customers don't want to be surrounded by smokers, so saying that they will lose trade by stopping people is horse cr*p.

They will be spotted in my local easily.  No, I didn't challenge the seat belt laws, I don't have a car and your comment was a complete non-sequiter.

You have no idea about the trade in my local, nor about the people in it - so mind your own business.

[asbean]

Oooooooooh!  It'll be pistols at dawn next  ;D ;D ;D

[Oldmanofthewoods]

"Grass for breakfast" is unfortunately, like smoking in public places illegal.  I would have moaned about that law too.

Jack

[SnooziSuzi]

You have no idea about the trade in my local, nor about the people in it - so mind your own business.

MIND MY OWN BUSINESS!!!!??   >:(

Hang on a minute,  you have openly and smugly told everyone that you intend to break a law which has only been implimented to protect vulnerable people from ignorant, irresponsible individuals like you and you tell me to mind my own business!! 

You are acting like a spoilt kid who'se been told he can't have something so you're going to stamp your feet and beligerantly defy the law until you get what you want.  Good luck with that!  ::)

I don't care what your local is like, or the people that go there;  I'm sure that many of the people who frequent the pubs in my village would have the same opinion as you do about the ban, but the point is that by smoking in an enclosed public area you are breaking the law.  If you were any kind of a man you'd have some respect for the people around you and do the decent thing! 

I suppose that EVERYONE who goes into your pub smokes?  Well in that case why not lock yourselves in there and sit and stink and grow your cancers but don't do it where other people are around who just want to have a pint without smelling like an ashtray.

As I have said in a previous post, this law has ony come into place because smokers have always had the choice to not smoke around other people but have chosen to waive that right.  I used to be a smoker (I know, there's nothing worse than an ex-smoker) so I know what I'm talking about.  I also have come out the other end and have been 'clean' for several years and I used to smoke everywhere and anywhere without any regard for children, adults or anyone else around me - I can't believe how selfish I used to be because I just didn't care about them!

So go and smoke in your pub, in a doorway or anywhere else where it is now illegal to do so and I hope you are caught and fined over and over and over and over again.

Mind my own business indeed!

[Oldmanofthewoods]

Yes, mind your own business.

Just because you have acted, and continue to act in a selfish, insensitive way it doesn't mean that the rest of us do.  Don't bracket others with your own self-centered irresponsibility.  I am talking to you, not to everyone.  You however wish to bracket everyone into one convenient slot so you can make ridiculous comments about people whose views you obviously don't care about.

[Barnowl]

I don't see why we couldn't have had smoking and non-smoking rooms  - providing smokers collect their drinks from the non-smoking area so that bar staff are not imperilled.

As one who has always been extremely conscientious about where and when I smoke, I do feel rather hard done by.

With regard to obeying the law.....

Over the course of the last decade, each year has seen an average of 2,685 new laws - the equivalent of almost seven and a half a day or one every three-and-a-quarter hours - said legal information providers Sweet & Maxwell.

...perhaps we have rather too many?

[SnooziSuzi]

Um,  doesn't your response look like what I was saying to you? (OMOTW)

OK,  I was going to retaliate with a comment to put you down but I'm rising above it.

This whole topic is one which is bound to cause vastly divided opinions, as it obviously has ( ;)) so perhaps we should just leave it at that otherwise we'll go round in circles!

People like me will continue to lament smoking in public places and smokers will continue to lament the loss of these places.  It's not as if the government can stop you from smoking in non-enclosed public places, or indeed places which are not public.   

Rant Off!