Smoking Cigarettes in Pubs
It’s a sad truth that some of us smoke - yes, even some of your friendly neighbourhood alittlepoison people. Now that the hand of the state may be plucking that crumby roll up from my drunken pub face (BBC News article), I’d like to hear some of your reactions to it. Will this proposed legislation have a real, living effect on your life? Will it help you give up? Do you want to? Can you picture yourself dying from smoking in the same way you can picture yourself wearing a yellow hat in the sunshine?
November 18th, 2004
1:49 am
Republicans are Go!
hey kids,
well this is one of those issues which always irritates me slightly.
Theres always a bit of my angsty brain which wants to rebel against this sort of thing and go: i want to smoke where i want and i will whether or not the governement likes it or not. then theres the older hushdie who thinks well: i don’t like those fags smoking all over my smart dinner.
In some ways i want there to be a ban on smoking, then smoking will become a bit like marijuana, there will be little speak easy bars where i can smoke with frank sinatra and god.
maybe not, its similar to the licensing laws and how later licensing laws will make us more ‘european’. have these politicians been out on a friday night in any town/city in england recently?
the brewers and publicans have such an influence in this country just like oil and tobacco companies do.
not much will change, but i do think that a ban of smoking in places where you eat is a good idea. I think also having a ban on smoking will make people give up, just because it will become difficult to find a place to smoke.
so it leaves the hard core and their speak easys…..
November 18th, 2004
2:03 pm
I’m not sure if the ban’ll work, or if people will sneak off to a dark corner and do it anyway. However I think its an excellent idea. I’m fed up with going out for a few drinks and a chat with my friends and knowing that my clothes are going to stink of smoke after an hour or two, I’m fed up of smoke making my eyes water and unbreathable pub air, I’m fed up of those feckin eejits who light up a cigarrette right next to me and then just leave it dangling in their hand as noxious chemicals build up in the air and the ash tapers then falls onto the table. If you have to smoke it then smoke it, but don’t be a dick and just light and then hold it! Mostly, when it comes to the whole smoking in public places thing, I’m fed up with the lack of choice, and the whole choice debate. Sure, enough smokers say they want the choice to be able to smoke, and landlords say they want the choice to let people smoke, but what about us non smokers who want the choice to be as far away from that pollution as possible, and yet still want to go out on a weekend to a pub, club or bar? What about that choice huh? Pretty much every time I go out with friends for a drink or a dance I am very aware and often irritated by the smoke; sometimes so much so that I am conciously not having a good night out because of it. What about my choice of not having to deal with other people’s smoke? Existing non-smoking areas are a joke on the whole, as smoke just wafts over from the smoking area. The way I see it smoking in a public place with no thought to the people around you’s feelings about it is incredibly anti-social and thoughtless.
I was on a web site the other day (http://www.easybreathing.avon.nhs.uk/), looking at supposedly smoke free pubs, and in fact I found only twelve on there in the bristol area that had seperate no smoking areas. Of those, at least a couple are pretty ineffective with their smoke free areas (I’ve been to them in the past and experienced it for myself) and there was only one that was completely smoke free, and that’s a bar/tapas/restaurant thing anyway. Now what kind of choice is that?
November 18th, 2004
5:31 pm
I think we really do need nonsmoking pubs, it’ll help us “social smokers” to give up. If you’re not a heavy smoker and there’s noone else smoking around you, then the temptation deminishes.
I’m going to give up… soon.
November 19th, 2004
11:59 am
How will this law affect clubs and bars? I can name a few that seem to be practically air-tight. My clothes reek for days!
(On a different subject… I would pay good money to see Alice Cooper as the next machine nemesis in Terminator 4. Can anyone better?)
November 19th, 2004
5:46 pm
Ah, smoking. Excuse me, while I pack my pipe and prepare to muse.
Similarly to Hushdie, I’m in two minds about the ban. I have no problem with non-smoking restaurants and if someone asks me not to smoke I won’t, once I put my fag out in their drink. What I find a bit frustrating about it is that it has to be legislated for- allow pubs to be non-smoking if they like, have people ask each other politely not to smoke, that sort of thing.
Obviously smoking is bad for you, but there’s some arguments that it’s not as bad as some assume. For example statistics on deaths from smoking related diseases are ambiguous as those diseases can be caught by non-smokers. A graph of heart disease instances for smokers and non-smokers only has a real difference after the age of 35. Many smokers also have unhealthy lifestyles generally and so the effect of smoking itself is less easy to discern. The health effects of smoking are partly reversible, so if you stop when you’re 30, you’re as healthy as a non-smoker by 35.
I’ll be interested to see if the smoking ban is a clever little way around ever allowing cannabis cafes that sell food. It will obviously depend on how its phrased in parliament, but I imagine that will be in the draughters minds.
November 19th, 2004
6:31 pm
(hows about the scary mysterious man from lost highway? he would be a pretty terrifying nemesis)
I find that febreze gets rid of the smell.
I do hate the smell too, sometimes i wake up and feel like a grandad whos been at a conservative club all evening.
I heard smoking was good for your teeth and your soul.
Alot of the reason I smoke i think is because there is the sort of ‘cool’ factor. people smoke Marlboro because they think they can be rock stars, or lucky strikes because you feel like a cowboy.
What we need is a lot more un-cool people on television and in films smoking. Imagine seeing an anti smoking advert which had mick hucknell smoking a fag. That would at least stop me from smoking for a day at least.
I do not think a ban is a good idea, it is a bit frightening that the government can decide that because something is unhealthy that they should ban it. we live in freedom! But i do think there should be as Daman said more choice for non-smokers, and definetely make smoking something which is a minority in bars rather than a majority.
anyway enough from me.
anyone heard the new lemon jelly single. tis good i must say.
November 19th, 2004
10:54 pm
I heard that Arnold Schwartzenerger has constructed an air-con ’smoke tent’ in his governmental office so he can smoke his big fat stogies. That’s completely true, that is.
As for Febreze, I’ve found it works on your lungs to reverse the effects of cigarettes. A few squirts and I’ve got the lungs of a completely reversed 35 year old.
November 20th, 2004
3:42 am
I must sya something while people are looking at this (and i can’t remember how to do a little linky thingy)
see the new star wars episode 3 trailers and teaser poster, tis well cool! i love the poster especially and always will i think even if the film is shit!)
November 23rd, 2004
12:11 am
What else alternatives to smoke marijuana with? This is a little problem for my friend!
December 2nd, 2004
5:15 am
SMOKING CIGARETTES AND WATCHING CAPTAIN KANGEROO, NOW DON’T TELL ME I’VE NOTHING TO DO!