Should smoking be banned in public places?

How about narrowing the scope of your poll question a little to 'enclosed public places'? Also, are you referring to a particular country?

Nick

The question refers to enclosed public spaces and I'm not referring to any particular country - why should the answer be country-dependent?

Things aren't looking good for the Smokers so far....

Conclusive proof that the people want smoking banned.

On 'Any questions' from Chichester on Radio 4 friday, only 5 people didn't want smoking banned in enclosed public spaces (out of @100, I guess). All 5 smoked.

Conclusive proof that pinko liberal radio 4 listening southern namby pambys want a ban.



Stephen

Even here in backward Spain, 81% of those surveyed favoured strict limitations on smoking in public places.

Yes.

i'm a smoker and i think it should be banned!

in all honesty tho' i'd wish i never started.
tried to give up a couple of times, but failed...............miserably!!


i will give up, i am determined to, but been under a bit of stress lately, plus certain events have curtailed the *giving up*. (no excuse i know, but in certain instances, smoking does help situations)

As with the mobile phones and driving thread I'm fast reaching the conclusion that those who frequent the Naim forum are not representative of the population on the whole, and tend to be more of a control-freak bent than the average person.

"Naim users are on the whole reactionary illiberals."

Discuss.

Regards,

Steve.

[This message was edited by Steve Toy on Tue 16 November 2004 at 6:03.]

"I'm fast reaching the conclusion that those who frequent the Naim forum are not representative of the population on the whole"

As a general statement I would agree, but the percentages here are very close to what the Scottish office saw in their survey.

Well the white paper is out now see bbc news- it obviously covers much more than just smoking.

I was wondering about the "prepared food" part of it, my local serves food at lunchtime only and on special occasions (e.g. the Quiz Night) in the evenings. Does the ban apply only at lunchtime when the food is served?

Mrs S was in yesterday morning cooking the books, she said that the place reeked of tobaco from the day before.

Btw, Mrs S asked Peter Who(?) about the possibility of banning smoking - he replied that he thought it was bad for business. But then he thought that all day opening would be bad too - NOT! It has proved a success even though he only opens all day on a Sunday.

I'm just wondering about the practicalities of applying a "no smoking in public places ban"

By this, I am assuming that it will work in a similar fashion to the U.S,(I haven't been to Ireland since their ban came into being), i.e. drinkers who want a nicotine break will have to go outside. Therefore, the pubs, restaurants and bars will need to create an area,(like workplaces do)for smokers to go to to indulge their habit. This means allowing them to take their glasses with them as they won't leave their drinks on the tables and at the bar itself. I feel that many establishments might have a problem with this,(with glasses leaving the premises/being broken/used as weapons against passers by, etc), so we might expect the wholesale introduction of plastic glasses.
What a wonderful prospect that will be - real ale from a plastic beaker - I don't bloody think so.
Of course, the other aspect is one of safetyarticularly in establishments where there is a high percentage of smokers.
What are the implications of 30-40 smoking pissed up 20 somethings on the street late at night likely to be? If they weren't smoking no doubt the law would move them on....

I suspect that the way the proposals are expected to work is that the big town centre drinking holes and night clubs would get round the ban by either not serving food thus being exempt from the ruling or by being a private club, also exempt. This would mean that the large groups of 20 somethings on the pavements would not occur any more than they do today.

Whatever the government brings in the big companies will work round - witness the massive change in the brewing/pub industry after the Beer Orders in 1990 preventing brewers owning more than 2000 pubs etc. Fewer, bigger brewers (at the big end of the market) supplying independent pub companies. Some of the smaller family brewers also tried it with very mixed results (e.g. the sad tale of Eldridge Pope declining from good regional brewer to failing small PubCo.)

Real Ale from plastic 'glasses' ugh! I thought I'd seen the back of that when I graduated.

p.s. jlfrs, is Fleet town centre a no-go area at night these days? It wasn't that long ago when the town was dry between the two pubs at either end of the main drag (about 1.5 miles apart).

"p.s. jlfrs, is Fleet town centre a no-go area at night these days? It wasn't that long ago when the town was dry between the two pubs at either end of the main drag (about 1.5 miles apart)."

Well, let's put it this way Seagull - I've been living here for 4 months having moved from "boring Buckinghamshire" and Fleet seems to be a no-go area at any time of the day or night! I've been there about 3 times for a few drinks and a bite to eat an that was 3 times too many - the two pubs are very poor indeed and Fleet's idea of haute cuisine is either Indian or Chinese and nothing else. I live between Dogmersfield and Crookham Village where there are two excellent pubs - the George and Lobster and The Queen's Head. Both serve excellent food, ale and wine, plus a token lager for the unenlightened.I see no reason to venture further afield but have been into Odiham recently. This is a strange place: beautiful historic town with wide streets in the middle of nowhere but not one pub,(unless you count the hotel which doubles as a mediocre fish restaurant).
I was expecting it to be like Old Amersham where I used to live - gorgeous olde worlde houses, wide streets and spoilt for choice with more decent pubs and bistros than one could shake a stick at.
In short - Fleet doesn't appear to have changed much since you were last here....

The government's latest proposals re. banning smoking in public places has hit the Stock Market.

The FTSE is 17 points lower as a result...

Regards,

Steve.

Steve,

quote:

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The government's latest proposals re. banning smoking in public places has hit the Stock Market.

The FTSE is 17 points lower as a result...

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That's nothing. Alan Greenspan can wipe 300 points from the Dow just by uttering "irrational exuberance." He does it every once in a while just for fun.

Joe