BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: MBSLynne
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 04:19 PM

Pubs have been closing rather a lot in recent years, long before the smoking ban. It has become more and more difficult to make a living from just running a pub, particularly in villages. Our village used to have six and we now have three. And look at the number of pubs that are now Indian restaurants. There are all sorts of reasons for it, including the fact that people tend to go out to pubs in their cars and drink less than they did a few years ago. I think the smoking ban is just one of many factors.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: GUEST,Jim Carroll
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 02:59 PM

Swings and roundabouts,
Irish pubs did lose some customers because of the ban, but eventually those who didn't come before hand started to do so once they realised it was possible to breathe in pubs.
The two major factors now are the clampdown on drink-driving and the fact that publicans can sell their licences for astronomical amounts to anywhere in the country.
Jim Carroll
PS As far as I'm concerned smokers would be welcome anywhere if they didn't kill people and if they didn't smell.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 12:49 PM

Way above in my last post a figure disappeared. I meant to say "In Alaska, it's (smoking regulation) within 10 feet of the door of a public building."

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Mr Happy
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 12:02 PM

Evert time the govt. makes up a new law, there's always a windfall in the offing for someone.

This time its builders, shelter manufacturers, others?

Ye know wot they say - Every cloud has a silver lining!

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 11:34 AM

The attempt to shift the focus of the issue from the health and comfort of people in general and onto the 'poor, innocent folks who just like a cigarette with their beer, and the forlorn pub owners who can't cope' is just a red herring. There is no doubt that smoking kills and causes health problems for those it doesn't kill immediately....if it were invented today, it would never be approved. and it is only a matter of time before it is banned...maybe many years, but someday....The only reason it isn't now is to avoid the economic impact and the chaos of millions of hard-core smokers having fits and causing uproar.

   Someone needs to ASK all those smokers where they go now, and where they smoke. Are they JUST staying home? Are they going to pubs which do have a place outside to smoke? No matter what the answers, things WILL sort out. Some pubs may close...but listing individual examples shows nothing.....some pubs will survive, and do well. Some smokers will quit...some will just go where they can easily nip OUT for a smoke.

25 years ago, our local sing had ashtrays set out and some of us suffered...now smoking is banned and I only know 2 of the regulars who smoke, and they seem to cope. IT IS PROGRESS ...and it is GOOD progress.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: JeremyC
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 11:28 AM

A smoking ban just passed recently here in Ohio, and I can definitely say it's hurt business at the bar I go to most often. It's definitely better for singers (even though I smoke, myself, I can tell the difference in my voice now that I'm not in secondhand smoke all the time, though as a smoker I hate to say it).

I do think the drunks in bars are more of a problem than the smokers. Sounds like the same thing exists in the UK, really--a friend of mine who works at the Waterstones in Winchester told me that, when they had their Harry Potter release party, people from the pubs kept coming in and causing trouble, even though the customers were mostly children who had been allowed to stay up past their bedtime to get a book and a bag of sweets and chosen for a Hogwarts house. Not that I think much of Harry Potter, but these were kids holding their mother's hands, and they didn't deserve to have their evening disrupted by loud, rude, foul-mouthed drunks fresh from a night at the pub. A person is much more likely to get into a fight or cause trouble after drinking than they are after smoking, not that I have a problem with either in moderation.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Midchuck
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 11:17 AM

Bat Goddess said:

New Hampshire is surrounded by states that banned smoking in public places several years ago (like Maine), but didn't finally pass anti-smoking legislation until recently. It won't take effect for another couple months. The thing is, I know of a lot of people who follow our music, but won't come to The Press Room now because of the smoke level (even with smoke eaters). They WILL come (and drink! and eat) when the venue is smoke-free.

New Hampshire is also surrounded by states that have motorcycle helmet laws, but they believe in "the wind in your hair." So my sister is a widow.

Maybe they should change their motto to "Live Free and Die." Makes it sort of embarrassing to be a libertarian. Individual liberty isn't about intentionally being stupid. It's about being smart by your own free choice, rather than because someone is going to send you to jail to protect you from yourself.

But public smoking is a special case. A basic premise of libertarianism is that no one has the right to initiate the use of force or violence. How can someone blowing poison gas in my face not be considered initiating violence?

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: webfolk
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 11:00 AM

Grab wrote,
"it's impossible to talk about no-smoking pubs without mentioning Wetherspoons, where every single pub in Britain's biggest chain of pubs has been no-smoking for as long as I can remember"

not near me they weren't.

Geoff
www.webfolk.net

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 10:25 AM

Skipy - You win. I can see that you will not be phased by rhyme nor reason. Neither will you let a few simple facts cloud your arguments. Let me just have one last try on this thread. Pubs have been loosing trade for years. The smoking ban may or may not have pushed some of them over the edge. It is not however the sole cause of them closing. Those that have and will close, will have closed anyway. Not a one that you mention up to now has been doing particularly well. All the smoking ban has done is speeded up the inevitable. Give us just one instance of a pub that was doing well before, losing all it's trade on July the 1st.

Anyhow, to my mind the number of people that benefit from the ban is far greater than those who lose out. And I don't just mean the 60-odd% who don't smoke having precidence over the 30-odd% who do. I am talking about the countless families who will be happy seeing their loved ones live rather than die a horrible lung disease related death. There can be no way of measuring that against the exeedingly small sacrifice that smokers have to make when they nip out for a fag.

Carry on and publish all the closures that the popular press and biased media can muster. Someone else can give the facts from the other side. I am fed up of banging my head on a wall. Tell you what though. I shall still be sat in the smoke free singaround while you stand outside with another coffin nail.

Good luck.

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: skipy
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 09:52 AM

THE landlords of a Suffolk pub have become the first victims of the smoking ban - and last night a campaign group predicted that hundreds of pubs across the country will close as a result of the controversial crackdown.

After more than two years running the Greene King-owned Elephant and Castle in Hospital Road, Bury St Edmunds, licensees Marian and Gareth Thomas have decided to call time on their business.

The couple, who had their plans for a smoking shelter outside the pub turned down, claim the smoking ban was the final straw.
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Alice
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 09:50 AM

No, it is not like saying that.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: skipy
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 09:48 AM

Come on Alice, that's like saying "take all the cars off the road" to protect people!
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Alice
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 09:41 AM

Let's see, trying to weigh this .... 2 pubs close on one hand or thousands of people protected from
heart and lung disease from second hand smoke... hmmmm.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 09:36 AM

So, Royall took over the pub 18 months ago and now reckons it is the smoking ban that has closed the pub? He took it over and then stamped his personality on it with a major refurbish. Where did he come from? What did he do before? Does he know anything Wiganers (I worked there for years and they are a traditional bunch to say the least!)? Does he know the pub trade? What other changes has he forced on the previous regulars?

Again, I don't know the guy so it would be unfair of me to suggest he is looking for an excuse for his bad management. If some people can keep or even increase their custom and some can't though I doubt very much whether the ban can be the sole culprit. Is anyone else noticing that for every incident of a pub losing trade there seems to be one that is doing better? Maybe this is what we needed to get rid of some of the crap pubs and landlords we have had to put up with before?

Again skipy - look at the Shisha cafes. They are the only genuine casualties of the ban. I am surprised the Moslem council of Britain has not become involved!

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Rasener
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 09:11 AM

How many is that now Skipy 2?

How many pubs are there in England ?

What % is 2 of ??????????????

Its like all these sort of arguments.

A child is abducted and all of a sudden all children are being abducted.

Somebody is murdered and suddenly everybody is murdered.

There's a shark been spotted by a beach. Bloody hell the whole of the United Kingdoms shores have sharks waiting to mutilate your bodies.

So on and so forth.

The gutter press are responsible for knee jerk reactions on many an occasion simply by plugging to death one incident.

I think things have to be put into perspective e.g. the flooding disasters are far more important than this thread.

You are still a good guy though Skipy - respect to you.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: skipy
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 07:57 AM

A pub which introduced a smoking ban six months ahead of the national ban has been forced to close due to a lack of custom.

The Bush, in Ince near Wigan thought it was getting ahead of the game by banning smokers at ther start of the year but licensee Deejay Royall has been forced to shut the doors just weeks after the country-wide ban came in.

Royall took over the pub 18 months ago and thousands were spent transforming the interior.

He told the Wigan Evening Post: "Basically, we ran out of customers.

"We introduced a smoking ban in February, we'd had it refurbished and it was looking nice.

"People started to go to other pubs that hadn't introduced the smoking ban yet and then when it came in July they stopped coming in altogether.

"A lot of pubs will be struggling because of the ban. I'm personally gutted."

Despite being forced to close his business Royall is still a fan of the ban but believes it will force other pubs out of business.

He added: "I still think it's a good idea but one that people will have to get used to and in the short term it will spell disaster for many pubs.

"People are staying at home, buying cheap booze from the supermarkets and sitting with their friends smoking their heads off.

Another one! Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: MBSLynne
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 07:41 AM

I can't see that takings going down that much can be put down to the smoking ban. Most, if not all people go to the pub to socialise and have a drink. Ok, if they are smokers that used to include a cigarette as well, but I can't see them all staying home just because they can't smoke in the pub. Pubs are noticeably pleasanter places since the smoking ban, and I've heard even smokers say so.

Our local village pub has had a wooden gazebo thingy erected at the front for the smokers. Surely it's no big hardship for them to go outside? The landlady in question must have had some very stroppy customers if they are staying away in such quantities just because they can't smoke there. The people I know who smoke aren't staying away from the pub just because of the ban.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 06:34 AM

Of course we're only going to hear the horror stories of how a 'smoking' pub has been put out of business by the ban... no-one is going to print stories of people doing well and enjoying themselves... just like we only heard the sob stories from publicans who hadn't applied correctly or in time for the PEL and lost their music nights. Did we hear any stories of new clubs forming thanks to the new PEL? No, I don't think we did.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Grab
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 06:34 AM

So the smoking ban was the final coffin nail, then... :-)

FWIW, quite a few pubs in Cambridge have been no-smoking by choice for some years now. Strangely, they're also the most popular ones. And it's impossible to talk about no-smoking pubs without mentioning Wetherspoons, where every single pub in Britain's biggest chain of pubs has been no-smoking for as long as I can remember, and it doesn't seem to have harmed their business a bit.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 06:27 AM

Now he's planning to turn it into flats.

Precisely. Cash in on the property boom, and blame the smoking restrictions.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 06:26 AM

Is that the one in Stratford where I met you once, with Micca and Cat, Manitas? Very quiet when I was there if it was - Glad to hear it has bucked up.

D.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 06:23 AM

I have my weekly session in a pub that has a high percentage of smokers (including the manager and staff). The manager thought that trade would die off but we now seem to have more people in than before (it's a very small pub and it's very easy to tell how many people are in).

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 06:16 AM

Don't get me wrong, the pub wasn't booming before

They knew the 'ban' was coming for almost a year. Why did they not do something before?

I would imagine 75 to 80 per cent of the regulars were working-class people who liked a cigarette

What a crass, patronising statement. Only working class people go in pubs and smoke? Bless 'em, poor dears. They are not like us landlords though... If that was the landlords attitude I am not surprised he is closing. What are the chances he was just looking for an excuse so he could sell to property developers anyway?

None of the ones I listed in the other thread have closed yet, btw. And they are all in a 'working class' area. In fact the Wagon and Horses was recently featured in the local press for their amazingly well designed and run smoking area - complete with heating and TV!

Keep trying though, skipy. I am sure we will eventualy find a pub that has closed exclusively due to the 'ban'. Maybe I could point you in the right direction - Try substituting 'pubs' with 'shisha cafes'

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Brakn
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 06:06 AM

"awful smell clinging"

My typing is getting "worser"

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Brakn
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 06:01 AM

What Liz the Squeak said. Amen.

I go to a lot of pubs and I'd say that 90% of the customers are well pleased. You can now go out for a drink and then go home without that awful cinging onto your hair and your clothes.

Pubs that are on their arse were probably that way before the ban.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: skipy
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 05:25 AM

Cut & Paste:-
welsh pub to close because of ban

PUB TRADE KILLED BY SMOKING BAN
A Briton Ferry pub has become one of the country's first victims of the new smoking laws.The Earl of Jersey has closed within months of the ban on lighting-up in enclosed public spaces coming into force.
Its owner Kerry Morgan, aged 50, said the pub had nowhere for people to go outside for a cigarette.
Now he's planning to turn it into flats.

"Don't get me wrong, the pub wasn't booming before," said Mr Morgan.

"But once the ban came in, there was no facility for people to smoke outside and it just emptied.

"I would imagine 75 to 80 per cent of the regulars were working-class people who liked a cigarette.

"The landlords tried their best, but the ban was the final nail in the coffin."

Mr Morgan said converting the building into homes was now the only option.
Now me again:- As stated in a previous thread, this is about building houses!
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Partridge
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 04:56 AM

My local prepared ahead for the ban with a very pleasant decked area outside. I have noticed that there are very few people inside and its quite busy outside, whether that will change in the winter I don't know. Even non smokers are sitting outside - it certainly can't be the sunshine - as its been mostly rain

They have redecorated inside, and it looks very good, they even provide little stickers that say just nipped out for a smoke, so that no one will remove your drink or nick your seat while you are having a smoke.

There is a really good atmosphere amongst the smokers, joking about being even worse social lepers.

Pat xx

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 04:31 AM

On BBC this am.

One Kent publican at least is saying his trade has nearly doubled, and is wondering where all the newbies were before the ban.

Said publican is a very happy bunny.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 04:06 AM

There are pubs all over the land closing on a weekly basis - and that was before the ban was enforced. The population of the country is changing from a going out, social drinking one to a home (because it's cheaper) or non-drinking one (health and/or religious reasons). The smoking ban may have something to do with losing some trade, but to blame it solely is wrong. The best thing to do now would be to put some elbow grease into deep cleaning the place, give it a lick of paint that isn't tobacco stain brown and entice some new customers in.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 03:54 AM

It is propably one of the pubs that would have closed regardless of the ban. Any pub management who rely on 34% of the population to keep them going deserve no better. Why isn't this landlady doing something to get more people in? Both smokers and non-smokers? I don't know her at all but the line it is impossible for the pub to afford new shelters for smoking customers, or even cover costs in running entertainment at the pub, such as hosting a band. is a dead giveaway. They want the custom without putting anything into it themselves.

Keep up the good work, skipy, glad you have relented on your self-imposed ban on not discussing it! :-)

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 03:32 AM

Sorcha - you're saying Laramie has banned smoking in public bars?!!

How Ironic... Laramie is the cigarette of choice of Bart Simpson and co!

I used to have fairly sound lungs. In 1984 I got pleurisy. Turns out it was probably caused by my spending a week with 149 other 18-25yr olds in a fairly confined space - it was March so not exactly go outside and smoke weather. I was one of what must have been 2% who didn't smoke. 23 years later, I still feel the effects of that pleural scarring, so much so that combined with a heart condition, the doctors thought I was asthmatic. I've never smoked, but both my parents did. Enough damage was done to my lungs by other people's smoke that I don't want to sit in a room full of fug. Damage your own lungs by all means, it's your body, your choice... but it's also my body, my choice and I choose not to be exposed to cigarette smoke please.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 03:19 AM

I don't smoke. But I'm not precious about it, even though smoking (with help from Medway Maritime Hosital) killed my wife.

Last night, after playing for the morris, we had a beer or two and a play with the locals in the pub we'd danced outside. A couple of the people from the jam session kept going outside to smoke. It was quite disruptive of the session. The session was better while all were there. I'd rather that they had stayed and played or sung (and smoked).

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Mr Happy
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 03:03 AM

The Villan,

'I wish the pubs in my town would go out of business, then we wouldn't have the drunken, yobbish, aggro, asbo problems that seem to be blighting most towns and villages in England.'

The 1st festival I attended post ban was Saddleworth.

I'm pretty sure the reason the pubs were so pleasant & accessible this year was precisely because of the restriction.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 03:02 AM

"...within 100 feet of any public building..."? In Alaska, it's within feet of the door of a public building. What is it with Kansas!

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 02:57 AM

'Chris', above, asserted that 90% of their customers are smokers. What a godawful place for a non-smoker.

Why would a non-smoker insist on going to a place where he/she knows there will be that sort of smoking?

Smoking itself has NOT been banned, Sorcha. It has simply been banned within confined public areas (buildings).

Proposed regulations in my area ban smoking anywhere on the premises of any place with public access, or in a competing proposal within 100 feet of any public building. Either, or both, appear to have a good chance of passing.

As "interpreted" by the local Attorney General, the first would mean that you could not smoke inside your own vehicle in the remotest corner of a super WalMart parking lot (up to 1/4 mile+ from the entrance at some businesses in the area affected). The second version has elicited the "legal opinion" that it would make it illegal for most places to even provide a legal "smoking place" outside.

"Nobody who's not like me has any rights" - pretty well sums it up, although the current crop of banners (not just anti-smokers) extend it to "Anyone who isn't JUST LIKE ME should suffer and be punished for it."

John

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Ernest
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 02:39 AM

Oh that unreasonable demand to go outside for a smoke. What an impertinence to ask of people who are handicapped by unsound lungs.

Can anyone please write/whine a protest song?

Cough
Ernest

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Rasener
Date: 01 Aug 07 - 02:10 AM

I wish the pubs in my town would go out of business, then we wouldn't have the drunken, yobbish, aggro, asbo problems that seem to be blighting most towns and villages in England.

Skipy, sounds like your first post pub, didn't do much to prepare and cater for the smokers once the ban came in and are now whinging becuase their business has gone tits up. Same old problem, they probably don't have much up in the brainbox. Bad managers will fail.

I have to admit to feeling sorry for all the smokers who are outside the pubs as though they were criminals, but happy that the ban came in.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Jul 07 - 11:45 PM

The reason for banning smoking inside buildings is simple. The smoke goes through the air in all directions and it gets inside the lungs of people who don't smoke and don't want to. It's a violation of their space. In that respect it is quite unlike alcohol. I don't get drunk because the guy next to me is drinking and my liver doesn't suffer from his habit. My lungs do suffer if the guy next to me is smoking (in a confined area).

Smoking itself has NOT been banned, Sorcha. It has simply been banned within confined public areas (buildings). And that's why.

And it was not banned inside anywhere because it's "enjoyable" either. This is not a killjoy operation. I DON'T enjoy it. No non-smoker enjoys it, and even most smokers don't enjoy breathing secondhand smoke coming from other smokers. I'd like to have a choice about the matter. If someone does enjoy smoking, as many do, they are perfectly free to do it out in the open air where the smoke can easily disperse. That is not a "ban".

A ban is when you don't allow people to do something at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Janie
Date: 31 Jul 07 - 11:33 PM

Where I live in the USA (along what is called Tobacco Rd. btw) smoking has been banned in most public places for long enough that I am always a bit shocked when I go into an establishment elsewhere and find people smoking. I've been hauling my tail outside for asmoke for at least 10 years, and and don't think a thing about it. And neither do other smokers, as far as I can tell.

As others have said, I predict smokers will soon adjust their habits and their expectations, and look at going outside as an opportunity to stretch their legs.

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: M.Ted
Date: 31 Jul 07 - 11:19 PM

Smoking and drinking together are factors connected with esphageal cancer. From first hand observation, I can tell you that that is quite an unpleasant way to go out of business--

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jul 07 - 10:41 PM

Does anyone seriously think that if tobacco and its uses had just been discovered it would be legal? Smoking tobacco makes the heart race and inhaling causes dizziness, stale butts smell bad, ash trays are a hazard, first-hand smoke has a deleterious effect on lungs and arteries and leads to heart disease and emphysema, second-hand smoke is implicated in a myriad of syndromes and diseases, burning cigarettes have burnt down countless homes and businesses as well as ruined forests and grass fields for years to come. And it's not just burning tobacco that has bad effects- chewing tobacco causes a host of other ailments.

And we're supposed to feel sorry for the addict?

(I loved smoking all the years that I had the habit)

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Sorcha
Date: 31 Jul 07 - 10:08 PM

Yea, ban it ALL. Booze included. If it's in any way enjoyable it should be illegal.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Jul 07 - 08:57 PM

So....legislation limiting one addictive drug trade is interfering with the survival of another?

Where's Al Capone when we need him? ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jul 07 - 08:51 PM

'Chris', above, asserted that 90% of their customers are smokers. What a godawful place for a non-smoker.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: skipy
Date: 31 Jul 07 - 08:16 PM

Can't agree more.
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Jul 07 - 08:02 PM

"In the U/K you have to strap a child in & not use the phone, well that happens all the time!"

There are some irresponsible fools who fail to strap their children in, and others who use mobile phones while driving. They are very much in a minority, and deserve to be treated with the same contempt as drunken drivers.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 31 Jul 07 - 07:56 PM

My mother finally apologised to me a few years ago for smoking in the (usually closed) car when I was a child -- and then wondering why I was carsick.

My Dad quit smoking around 1980 because of his emphysema (and landing in the hospital with the emphysema aggravated by pneumonnia -- he passed away in 2000) -- Mom held out for a few more years.

New Hampshire is surrounded by states that banned smoking in public places several years ago (like Maine), but didn't finally pass anti-smoking legislation until recently. It won't take effect for another couple months. The thing is, I know of a lot of people who follow our music, but won't come to The Press Room now because of the smoke level (even with smoke eaters). They WILL come (and drink! and eat) when the venue is smoke-free.

And this singer will be very pleased, too!!!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: skipy
Date: 31 Jul 07 - 07:48 PM

In the U/K you have to strap a child in & not use the phone, well that happens all the time!
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Becca72
Date: 31 Jul 07 - 07:37 PM

In Bangor, Maine they recently banned smoking in any vehicle that a child is in. I love the idea and think it should be state-wide but I don't know how it would fly.

Subject: RE: BS: Smoking ban closing pubs, it's started!
From: Sorcha
Date: 31 Jul 07 - 07:33 PM

There are a couple towns in Wyo that have banned it, but I 'think' only 2...Cody? and Laramie for sure. Laramie is the 'Boulder, CO' of Wyoming, grin...in Laramie you can't even smoke outside in a parking lot, or rent a smoking motel room!