so when all the smoking bans come in.... at it stands at the monent:
scotland, northern ireland and wales the smoking ban will be in all public places.......
but in england pubs that don't serve food and private clubs (yey for swinging establishments!!) will be exempt
where do you stand on the issue.....
sean xxxxxxxxxxxx
what Ice said even though I am a heavy smoker
all in all quite happy really it could save me a fortune
As a smoker I care not a jot what they do, if it's banned I go stand outside, hardly a hardship, but personally I think a ban in all public places where folk are employed would have been better because there is no ambiguity with that, what they are coming up with is niether here nor there and will most probably be open to various interprutations.
My understanding which I will admit is limited, is that the aim is to protect the workforce from passive smoking. Under that premise, where the hell is the relevance of food in all of this. If it's for the comfort of the patrons then I can see some tie up with eating a meal and having cigerette smoke in the environment, but it's not and thats why I cannot see any relevance in the 'if they sell food, if they don't' argument, as far as I can make out thats just wafty shite.
Clearly there are two different issues, one which is the focus of their attention at the moment, which is to force employers to protect their employees, from the effects of passive smoking (on the basis that they have little choice over being there) whilst at work, through legislation, in which case it don't really work if it's not a blanket coverage. The other issue is the comfort of folk who dont actually work in the establishment, but visit it, who by and large, have a bit more choice over their patronage of the establishment, certainly within liesure facilities such as pubs and clubs, who should be able to choose not to visit a smoking establishment if they want, but as yet find that choice severely restricted because there are still very few pubs and clubs that are non smoking. Now you could say tough shit, it shows that pubs and clubs want smokers in there cos they know their client target, but that just doesn't cut it these days because public opinion on smoking has moved so far in the last twenty years.
As I said, I give not a jot how things pan out, but I do think that anything less than a full ban is just creating a pain in the arse for the local authorities that will be required to police it.
just get it out and smoke it :!:
There is choice already.
Landlords can ban smoking in their pub if the so wish. or have designated smoking/no smoking areas.
Staff can choose whether or not they wish to work in a workplace with a smokey atmosphere.
People worried about passive smoking can decide to go elsewhere.
The fact that these choices already exist, and yet there are still very few non-smoking pubs and clubs, suggests that public opinion is against the ban.
I, for the record, am a smoker who will welcome a ban in public places. I am hoping I can use it as a springboard to stop all together.
government have thier heads up their arse's ban smoking but on the same day allow additionall flights at uk airports?????????
Apparently 1 in 5 pubs that serve food are going to stop doing food just so that people can continue to smoke in the pub
I smoke, but rarely go into pubs anyway since I don't often drink (I had more to drink at the NE munch than I'd had in about the previous two years put together). Ironically, most of the time if I'm going to a pub it's to have a meal, so I suppose I'll be stood outside in the cold having my post-prandial roll up.
I'd have more sympathy for any sort of ban if the scientific body of evidence related to the dangers of smoking could be said to be unbiased and representative. Unfortunately over the past 15 years there has been a huge bias in the funding and reporting of research against anything that says anything other than the medical profession's party line that smoking is really bad and causes pretty much everything that could go wrong with you.
As it is, I feel like I'm being picked on as an easy target for politicians and health campaigners who're too scared to actually tackle problems that might make a real difference to people's health - like industrial and transport pollution, poor housing, poverty, etc. I don't like being picked on and fed propaganda, and thus have no intention of giving up.
i just quit so i dont care :smug:
well one out of two aint bad
flibble gibble glurp who stole my camel :shock:
I have no problem with going outside if we're in a no smoking cafe or restaurant, I am a smoker but I don't like people smoking while I'm eating so can see why others wouldn't like it.
What does annoy me though, is when I get PM's from guys wanting to join one of my Dogging nights and the guy says 'I'm a non smoker but don't mind if you do' Er............excuse me? You want to enjoy my charms you put up with my smoking, like it or not!!!
On this theme, noone has mantioned the best reason in the workd to give up smoking. We all know that it gives you lung cancer and heart disease and generally signs your death warrant, but the best reason ever to give up is...... it makes a blokes cum reek! I can only swallow cum from non-smokers, smokers cum makes me gag! If the ban helps people give up, then thats more cum I can swallow and I am definitely in favour of that!
I look forward to the ban cos if I end up in someone elses bed after a night out and have to put last nights clothes back on, it makes me feel sick when I put smoky stinky clothes back on. When the smoking ban comes in I'll be able to wear the same clothes for weeks!
Now if I'm off the mark here someone put me right, but as I posted earlier, my understanding is that this proposed legislation is about protecting people at work by ensuring that it's their right to work in an environment where cigerette smoke isn't present and therefore the risks of passive smoking are greatly diminished. It is not about the comfort of visitors to establishments, although that will clearly be a bi -product of any such legislation.
The reality is that if you accept the principal that an employee is entitled to work in a smoke free environment as part of the general principal that we should be working in environments that are as safe as is practicable, then you need to legislate for it. This thread has centred on places of liesure / hospitality, pubs, clubs, hotels, restuarants etc, so for that purpose lets stick to that one small area when we are talking 'public places'
To suggest that it's left to the owner, manager, landlord to decide if their establishment is smoking or non smoking just doesn't work. There is commercial value to allowing smoking in the premises. When weighing up the prospects of protecting the health of their employees, particularly employees that rarely stay at the one establishment, (bar staff and waiting staff tend to stick within the industry, but move around establishments) and turning a few grand more each year, then the attraction of cash will very often win, not necessarily because they are bad employers, but because they need to stay in business and remain competitive and the only way to do that is to offer what the competition offer and play from a level field, why hamper yourself with lost revenue if there is no need to,
The view has also been expressed that if people don't want to work in these places with smoke then they should leave, go work elsewhere. Again the reality and I'm thinking about the hospitality industry here, is that people stick with what they know and as Ice has said, why should the onus be on the employee to seek out a safe working environment.
Its ontresting that the Government have decided to ban smoking in some public places. They have been forced into doing it to apease the rising tide of the anti smoking lobby. They still allow it though cause the money they get through revenues is massive. If they where bothered that much by it they would ban it out right.
In New York where it is banned in all public places, underground smoking dens have opened up. These venues are run by gangsters and sell un taxed beer. Its a harp back to the prohibition days.
Also in the USA a certain state has brought in laws that you can only smoke in your own house thats if there are no minors and non smokers. Nanny state isnt in it. But they still havnt stopped the sales of cigs.
Some food for thought
(And our child it's not a passive smoker thanks to home smoke-ban 
).
) 
