Smoking ban to be scrapped?

[Guilbert]

Yes I have noticed that smoker now REALLY smell, but they probably dont realise it.

When peole could smoke everywhere (at work, on the bus, in pubs) then it was difficult to notice if an individual person smelt of cigarettes.

But now I realy notice it. I was stood behind someone waiting to cross the road the other day so my nose was right next to their hair and clothes and they did not half stink.

I would have loved to say to them "do you realise how much you stink of cigarettes".

[max_tranmere]

Thanks for your replies. Whether it is an EU Law or a UK wide one, it does seem unlikely that Boris The Blonde Bombshell would have the power to scrap it, or to delegate decisions down to local councils so they could decide. If it had been decided at national Government level, and local areas had all just gone along with it, then that suggests local authorities could possibly decide for themselves - and it was that which made me slightly optimistic that some areas of London may have allowed local boozers to decide. If though it is National or EC then local councils will never have the power to change the present position. It looks like we are stuck with it.

Someone said recently, on 1 July which marked the first anniversary since the ban came in, that the entire way that people associate with each other - after associating with each other that way for countless centuries - has been permanently changed by the smoking ban. I agree. Previously, whether you were a smoker or a non smoker, you and your mate, or you and your girlfriend/wife, or you and your group, had a certain place in the pub for the whole evening, and would only ever leave it to go to the loo - or if you were sitting away from the bar, to get some drinks. Now, the whole pub is mobile, people sit or stand where they are and then leave that spot to go outside for a fag. People are moving all the time, not staying in their group but leaving it and returning all the time - someone at the bar will leave their place and often return to a differnt spot after their fag.

The mass of people standing outside the pub now kind of resembles more like a gathering at a barbeque - with people spread all over the place and interacting, then talking to someone a few metres away, etc. Then heading back in. It really has changed how we all interact - and this applies to the non-smokers too.

[colonel]

It is devolved: four different laws for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; and for that matter Ireland and the Isle of Man.

It is neither an UK or a EU law. Or for that matter does it involve Boris Johnson or any London council.

[emma butt]

i wish we could smoke in pubs again i for one and everyone i know wish this as well the facts are there that it is ruining the bar and club industry and heres why.

1. atmoshere anyone that likes a good dance when they go out i know quite a few djs that said it is imposible to build a atmosphere now on the dancefloor because half the people in the club are outside smoking
2 .it is has cost pubs and clubs afotune the pubs with no room for smoking areas are shutting as are your smaller pubs as smokers think of the lines of well if i cant smoke i may as drink in somewhere a bit more upmarket this is fact 4 pubs and 2 bars closed in my local area already.
3. doorstaff nightmare they have to employ doorman to man the smoking area most bars club needing t least 2 extra doorstaff .
4 its all a big lie the government will tell that its been a great sucses like in ireland before it came here but if you reed the report from the brewary over 2000 people have lost there jobs because of this ban and sales are down people are now filling the isles of tesco on a friday and sat night to drink at home when they can have a fag when they want , if they do go out they go out much later .

people choose to have a go at smokers all the time but we pay alot of the taxes trust me if there were no fags you would pay higher tax elsewhere and before you say that we cost a fortune to the nhs for operations the actual figure works out that the average smoker has paid for his operations on the nhs 5 times over by the time he is 50.

sorry if i have upset anyone but anti smokers do my head in love to all emma butt.

[colonel]

Sorry Emma babe,

Smokers do pay high taxes. That's because they cost the NHS a fortune!

If smokers want to induce horrible diseases on themselves, then that is their choice. But my interest and concern is in two areas:

Non-smokers affected by passive smoking.

Children- usually girls- forced into smoking by peer pressure. Maybe you were one of them? Mum was pushed into smoking at 14 by her mates and was dead for 65. She would have been 74 now. Nine lost years, Emma.

[Dace]

THe smoking ban in places of work I am fairly sure is an EU law that came into effect. That is what the smoking ban is.
I may be wrong about that though, gonna do some research

Emma, I would gladly pay more taxes if it meant people didn't smoke anymore, thats the honest truth

[JamesW]

No, that's wrong Dace.

The EU Parliament has proposed a EU-wide ban on smoking in the workplace, but the earliest this would be voted on is 2011. If passed, it could easily be a couple more years at least before it came into effect.

[Sam Slater]

[quote]and before you say that we cost a fortune to the nhs for operations the actual figure works out that the average smoker has paid for his operations on the nhs 5 times over by the time he is 50.[/quote]

That's way, way off. I had a paper somewhere, but in actuality, even a 20-a-day smoker only pays enough tax, over 40 years, for (I think) 20 weeks cancer treatment. Most people who develop smoking related cancers have treatment much longer.

[max_tranmere]

It's swings and roundabouts with this whole thing of whether smokers pay enough extra tax to cover the extra cost they incur the NHS. They cost more to the state as their treatment is expensive, but they are likely to die earlier therefore costing the state huge amounts less in pensions, etc.

Seperate subject: has anyone heard of the e-cigarette? Go to Wikipedia to read about it. It's this thing that is slightly bigger than a normal ciggy, you put a battery in it and some fluid and it processes the stuff so that when you drag on it it is like smoking.

That bimbo Daisy Lowe who is always in the tabloids was photographed smoking one inside a nighclub and apparently quite a few places now allow them as they do not omit any smoke. Therefore it is not really smoking, but is just like smoking in every other sense. Have a read about them online. I might get one!

[Sam Slater]

[quote]It's swings and roundabouts with this whole thing of whether smokers pay enough extra tax to cover the extra cost they incur the NHS. [/quote]

Even if they paid enough, does that give them a right to make others inhale their smoke?