I started the original thread and I think it's great that so many of you feel the same. At Whitby festival last month we encountered a pipe smoker who couldn't keep it going and re-lit the b**** thing 30 times, enveloping everyone in the Middle Earth in clouds of acrid smoke and stopping all the singers in their tracks. Pete of No Smoke Folk did offer to follow him outside, wrestle him to the ground and remove the offending pipe but alas the evening never quite recovered despite his kind offer.

Seriously, I respect other people's freedom but I have rights too and I think breathing is a pretty basic requirement. I too have lost someone dear to lung cancer and it's really not a joke. So how about it, folk club and singaround organisers - at the very least, how about asking people to step outside the club room for 5 minutes if they must smoke? Not a lot to ask, is it?