We have just arrived back in the UK and will be here for a year. We've come from New Zealand where smoking in pubs was banned in November last year. The stats have still to be compiled for the first year, but it seems that so far pubs have not been adversely effected and since kids can go into pubs over there the number of people drinking in pubs may actually go up.

We are both folk musicians and have a small baby (3 months). We have had a fabulous time in NZ since the birth of Finley and have continued to attend all the festivals, pub sessions and folk club nights we did before he was born (with him in tow). The folk club in Auckland has been non smoking for many years and is full to capacity (about 100 people) nearly every week; anyone who smokes can have a fag outside in the break.

Since Finley comes with us wherever we go and we won't take him to smoking venues, it looks like our folk life is to be severly curtailed in the UK. This is a crying shame since Finley has been used to music from day one - at 5 days old he'd spent more than half of his life at a folk festival. In fact he seems to be a bit of a fiddle fan. I would love to become more acquainted with the UK folk scene at it's roots in the clubs, but it seems there are no non smoking venues in the area where we will be (Huddersfield). I am sure we are not the only family being kept out of the clubs by the current smoking policy of most pubs and folk clubs.