Beg pardon, I've looked up about Wetherspoons and I'm completely wrong. I must just have been lucky in only being near no-smoking Wetherspoonses!

Link interestingly *does* say that their profits went down a lot (20%) with no smoking - but does also quote a director saying "There is no doubt we have lost smokers to pubs next door. That can't happen, of course, under a universal ban." It also says that food sales went up by 10%.

href=http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1723302,00.html

I'm prepared to believe that before the ban came in, the hardcore drinkers would head for a smoking pub over a no-smoking pub, and Wetherspoons does have a "drink-till-you-drop" kind of customer base. After the ban - well, instead of going to pub A or pub B, it's a choice between going out or not going out. If your time down the pub is important to you, then we're not talking an effect, are we?

For examples of smoke-free drinking, check out Scotland and Ireland. I don't believe banning smoking killed the pubs in either of those countries.

Graham.