Grr Ashtrays outside supermarket doors!

janninew

baza52 wrote: »

A large group of friends and you only get a couple of bottles....

Smoking HAS affected pubs.

Before the ban you could happily sit in a group of friends all night.
Now the smokers are constantly going outside leaving the non smoker(s) of the group sitting on their own inside.

I would also say that most people in the pub who go for a drink rather than food are smokers. probably a 80/20 split.

I know smoking HAS affected pubs, I've never denied it, all I'm saying is the recession has also had an impact! At the end of the day smoking is highly unlikely to be ever allowed in pubs, restaurants etc again so the landlords either have to deal with it or find another job, no much can be done about it! I would have been quite happy with smoking rooms in pubs, but it ain't going to happen and the smokers will have to accept this.

Fire_Fox

I don't see there is any comparison between smokers in the doorways of public places and in beer gardens. I find it really inconsiderate that staff and patients alike think it's fine to flout the smoking ban and smoke in the doorway of NHS buildings (no smoking on site at all) when I cannot avoid going there without losing my job.

However I have no need to go to a pub, it is a want, I have the choice to go to a different pub, sit in a different place or drink in my non-smoking home. If you don't want your children exposed to second hand smoke don't take them to places that are specifically designed for the taking of drugs (alcohol). They can pretend to be as family-friendly as you like, it is still a pub - go to a restaurant, take a picnic to the park or by the river. Adult smokers don't (shouldn't) congregate in a children's playground so why is it OK for children to congregate in an adult 'playground'?

Grandmama

From a smoker who is teetotal. On holiday this Easter. Sitting in a friends garden with a BBQ smoking away and a bonfire going in same garden. I sits as far away from people as I can a to have a ciggie. Complaints about me smoking and pretend coughing from some whilst knocking back pints of alcohol. No one smokes here they says. Oh! Funny that, their two teenagers wish they could join me. I went round to the front garden to have my ciggie leaving the others to thie supposedly clean air and getting drunk status. That's life. By the way I carry my own ashtray ( a little one with a lid) around with me so do not leave butts lying around.

rev_henry

baza52 wrote: »

A large group of friends and you only get a couple of bottles....

Smoking HAS affected pubs.

Before the ban you could happily sit in a group of friends all night.
Now the smokers are constantly going outside leaving the non smoker(s) of the group sitting on their own inside.

I would also say that most people in the pub who go for a drink rather than food are smokers. probably a 80/20 split.

I have social nonsmoking friends who come out of the pub to socially notsmoke whilst I smoke haha.

marleyboy

qetu1357 wrote: »

Cheap booze from supermarkets is why pubs are closing.

£3 a pint in a pub OR £6 for 18 bottles from a supermarket then have your friends round, order a takeaway and put Sky Sports on.

This is not the case at all.

Cheap booze in supermarkets has been available for decades, it never did have any direct effect on the pub trade, because the majority of people going to the pub back then, enjoyed the freedom of drinking and smoking there, (and were more than prepared to pay the extra cost to cover it), the pub trade was killed when the smoking ban was enforced. Even at the cost of alcohol today - open just one pub that allows smoking, and see how quickly that pub fills up. Regardless of how many supermarkets surround it.

I do love seeing this (anything else but the ban killed the pubs), as pretty much everyone knew this would be the result, predicting therefore, that the smoking ban WOULD kill the pub trade.

Another fulfilled prediction that those who preached for it, will never actually go to them AFTER the ban, blaming it on "the big telly" or "loud music", then as one by one the pubs crumble, changing tactics and blaming it on anything from the "recession" to the availability of "cheap booze" from supermarkets.

ALL of which I might add, still existed well PRIOR to any tobacco ban, yet NONE of which, successfully managed to kill the pub trade as rapidly and as dramatically as the smoking ban did.

The only reason the pub trade is dying, is because those majority of smokers, now choose to buy their booze from a supermarket and gather together in a place where they can still choose to smoke and drink together, in front of a big screen television or loud music system, enjoying themselves as they used to, only now in the comfort of one of their homes. The irony being, that there are just as much NON smokers (myself included), that choose to socialize with them, in much the same way, leaving the traditional local pub, to suffer its own devices.

It may have killed the pubs, but as always been the case, never the regulars, happily smoking and drinking, playing cards, darts or generally socializing in the new aptly named "FREE HOUSE".

Governments know this, already they are trying to add more tax onto cheaper alternative booze, by using the "drink binge" excuse, in order to control the prices of alcohol to get the revenue back that they have lost as a direct result.

They will do anything it takes to control these bad habits...EXCEPT of course, an outright ban on them, that would cost them just a little bit too much to be classed as "in the best interests of public health\safety".

My sympathies go out to smokers, not only are they demonized for partaking, they no longer have a right to enjoy their pleasures within any shelter, it would seem not even in their own cars (however I would love to see how that works with a convertible), yet for some bizzarre reason, regardless of the potential health risks either to themselves or others around them, they can still buy them at every supermarket, garage, corner shop or newsagent.

If a drinker can enjoy his\her alcohol or a pollution guzzling driver can enjoy his\her freedom to rev, I dont see why a smoker cannot be allowed the freedom to smoke.

If neither is acceptable BAN THEM!, otherwise accept it, a drinker WILL drink, a driver WILL drive and a smoker WILL smoke!