Smoking to be banned in all pubs

[major_clanger]

Well, I'm glad the Government saw sense and agreed to a free vote, as it seems the total ban passed by a majority of 328. There was also a majority of 200 for the proposal to extend the ban to private clubs.

Between these two measures, we can at last look forward to smoke-free conventions. (As Concussion will be, since Scotland has already enacted a ban that will have come into force by Easter).

Comments

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! That should reduce my throat problems at conventions a little. Sadly, I'd have to give up filking for a complete cure.

[eleyan.livejournal.com]

yay! Does this come into effect before novacon?

[fjm.livejournal.com]

I'm a dissenter I'm afraid. I'd have prefered segregation in public space. I think this is a real and unnecessary infringement of liberty.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

But many public spaces are not amenable to segregation. Consider BSFA meetings, for instance; the White Hart was so poorly ventilated that had we remained there I would probably have had to given up attending. I was on the point of being excluded from an event I enjoyed not for something I did, but because of something other people did, and I don't see the liberty in that.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Is there any reason work places can't have smoking rooms tho? At my university it was incredibly obvious that it was closed, not to stop smoking but to stop discussion.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Well, the problem with smoking rooms is that they have to be isolated from the air conditioning. And if they have to be converted back to non-smoking for some reason (such as a conversion to office space) they smell of smoke for years.
This happened in a one of my workplaces, and they had to give the room to a smoker, and even then no-one would visit him in the office...

[akicif.livejournal.com]

This is where the differences between the campaigns in England and in Scotland are at their clearest: in Scotland (and in Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands shortly) it's not a civil liberties issue but purely and simply a health and safety one. You can't expect a venue's staff to voluntarily expose themselves to smoke, and employing only smokers would be blatantly discriminatory.

Since Hogmanay I've reduced my smoking to pubs only, and only a few roll-up cigarettes in an evening (maybe more if it's a prolonged session or a late club or something, but then I'm almost as likely to spend more time not smoking). The plan is to be no longer smoking at all by when the ban comes in.

If the Private Club exception comes through, who's going to be responsible if club employees contract tobacco-related health problems?

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Private clubs are to be banned, too.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

I support the 'smoking carriage' option - a properly isolated space where no employees go during working hours, for smokers to take their drinks to.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I must remark that when smoking was finally banned in the last building I worked in, the people most in favour were the smokers, who reckoned it was a great 'give up' incentive. Worked, too. Or possibly watching a much loved colleague die of lung cancer had something to do with it...

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

The pub is currently a great stumbling point for a lot of people trying and failing to give up. I think a lot of people are going to finally be able to give up (or find a new excuse for failure of course).