Same law kicked in on 1 July here in Melbourne, too. Even as a non-smoker, I’m not sure I’m on board with this or that I will ever get used to walking into a pub and not smelling smoke. With me, that’s part of the deal with pubs/bars. I mean, if you don’t like Mickey Mouse, don’t go to Disneyland. That’s my take.
Actually, I have to wonder what pubs are going to smell like without the smoke to cover it all up - there’s something about that pub smell of spilled beer and stale smoke that I do find oddly appealing when it wafts into the street.
Today’s Times is reporting a pub in the south of England which is going to make all the non-smokers stand outside for ten minutes every hour, just as smokers will be doing. I don’t think that establishment will be in business for much longer.
I think the ban is a crappy move. If I want to be healthy, I’ll go for a country walk, while some others might go to a gym. I go to pubs for vice - cigarettes, booze and unsavoury conversation. There were plenty enough bars/pubs/restaurants to have something for everyone - some for health-conscious family types, some for those who want to gamble their health away for the sake of good smoky times.
If the evidence of yesterday is anything to go by, Jeyes cleaning fluid, drains, stale beer, BO, and farts. Though there was one establishment I visited that had gone bananas with the Febreeze, so that one smelled of Febreeze.
Hey, jjimm! - how did your school fete go? Weather was bloody atrocious here and some of the local events were rained off - except my son’s cub camp (‘mud’ camp).
Don’t worry, I’m sure farting will be the next target for public banishment. After all, we wouldn’t want to offend the sensitive. Plus, those greenhouse gasses, you know. It’s for your own good.
For the record, I’m a non-smoker who hates cigarette smoke. However, I’ve never needed a law to avoid it.
jjimm You forgot the overpowering smell of some bloke drenched in cheap aftershave or a woman similarly soaked in cheap perfume…market bought crap
My school fete, I found out after I arrived, was for a God Squad school, with lots of Christian propaganda on the walls, and ::horror:: Christian rock playing in the background.
Amazingly, the rain held off for the 2 1/2 hours I was working, and I did pretty well I think - though the staff had provided frozen burgers and sausages which meant I had to thaw them before cooking which caused a delay in delivery.
The Christians were all very nice, very supportive and helpful, and a very multicultural bunch: Africans, Indians, Afro Caribbeans, Eastern Europeans, Chinese, Japanese, and even some English people! I think one of the Indian mothers was faking it to get her kids into a Christian school mind, since she was wearing a bindi.
As I was packing away, I was informed by one of them that God had held the rain off because she had prayed to Him. Er… OK then!
But it was fun and I’d do it again.
How on earth did you get involved in that one?
BTW, it’s not uncommon for people of other faiths to purposely choose explicitly Christian ‘faith schools’ - not sure I quite understand the mechanics of it, but I think the reasoning is along the lines of there being a greater sympathy for the notion of faith and its trappings, even if it’s not the same faith.
Anyway, are you still up for the crayfish thing sometime?
It’s all a bit “meh” to me.
I only went to non-smoking pubs anyway, so it’s not altered my life all that much.
I’m making a point of continuing to visit the pubs that were non-smoking before the ban, as they tend to be nicer (IMO) anyway.
I do think it’s funny that the civil liberties argument is now so popular with smokers - it’s sucking on a piece of burning grass, really not something I can ever imagine getting worked up about!
Being from New York I’ve been used to going outside for a few years now. Last month when I went to the Isle of Man for the TT races it was fun to be able to smoke in a pub again.
Did the Isle of Man change over too?
The Isle of Man and the Channel Isles still allow smoking in enclosed public spaces
Pubs have been around much longer than smoking anyway, so we’re just putting things back the way they were in the good* old days.
*(for certain values of ‘good’)
Not the nanny state? Aren’t the English the most-monitored people in the world with the highest density of public surveillance cameras? I recently heard a piece on N.P.R. about someone sitting on a park bench in Leeds or something being reminded to deposit his trash in the nearest waste receptacle through the use of a monitoring camera and loudspeaker system.
Yeah, over here all educational institutions are commonly referred to as “school,” not just ones for little kiddies.
Close, it was Middlesbrough
(just an excuse to link to Charlie Brooker’s fantastic article on the subject.)
I can’t help but be glad…but not so much for myself. I mean I don’t even live in Britain. But I’m glad for the employees, who can’t get away. I just read a report over the weekend that did a study where they proved that secondhand smoke to the employees makes a big difference; some toxin or other showed up in their urine almost immediately after secondhand smoke.
I know I’m not expressing myself well. I’ll try to find the article.
Thanks!
I once looked into this topic for several minutes in a sitting (this makes me a qualified internet expert, see) and one of the claims I’ve run across is smokers actually benefit the system because they tend to die before they collect on most government benefits.