Also I never heard anything about landlords having choices!

The landlords and/or breweries dependant on the lease or arrangement could ALWAYS designate some areas to be smoking and some to be non smoking, just in the same way as the owners or managers of ANY public building always had a say in who did what in their building. Just look at where smoking has been allowed or not allowed in the last ten or so years. Have you been able to smoke in hospitals in the last 10 years? No. Have you been able to smoke in public libraries in the last 10 years? No. Have you been able to smoke in schools in the last 10 years? No.

No need to ask yourself why smoking was allowed everywhere in most pubs is there? I have said over and over it was the 90%+ of landlords and breweries who chose NOT to have smoke free bars and areas that have forced the governments hand. I don't know how many times or different ways I can say this. The free choice that the licensed trade has had for the last 50 or more years has failed. Carry on giving them free choice and there is no indication at all that it will work in the next 50 years. This is why someone HAD to act and the only someone with the power to act was the government.

The next time a landlord comes crying to you about freedom of choice ask him why he did not do more to make sure that non-smokers had the same freedom of choice. Ask him why he did not have an area where smoke could only affect those that entered it. Ask him what he ever did to protect his staff from the effects of smoke. I think the answers from the vast majority may surprise you.

Cheers

Dave