Sunak wants to phase out legal smoking

[Elpenor]

One of the first things I noticed after the smoking ban was how smelly venues are. Crowds of people in a room, dancing etc. I got to notice the signature smell of different crowds : date night/on the pull... coming straight from work, out with the lads...

Am sure there was a - now lost - post on here when the original smoking ban happened describing that pubs / clubs now smelt of sweat and shit

 

[LakieLady]

With pubs having enough problems, I am vexed with the idea of banning smoking in pub gardens.

On the radio a little while ago, they said that whatever organisation represents publicans were warning that the pub trade fell by 10% following the indoor smoking ban, and that they were very concerned about the potential impact of banning smoking in pub gardens.

 

[mojo pixy]

Can you think of any other product like that?

Refined sugar

 

[frogwoman]

I enjoy a pint as much (if not more) than the average person, so could be cast as something of a hypocrite, but I have to say that I'm uncomfortable about boozing and smoking being hailed as one (two) of the joys of working class life. If we stand back and look at our joys, they do represent mass addictions that profit the corporate dealers and externalise the social/environmental costs onto taxes from labour. Objectively, there is nothing there to celebrate.

As for pub/cafe gardens etc. there appears to be an assumption that non-smokers only want to sit inside.

Yeah, I think it's possible to be uncomfortable with this without wanting to romanticise smoking. I've been abroad to places where they still smoke indoors and it's not something I miss tbh

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

I suspect the absolute ban came about in the aftermath of the King's Cross fire

That's what Wikipedia says but I remember differently. As i said in my post i remember the final final ban coming in a bit later - before that smoking was allowed in certain areas, probably in the above ground sections, and in certain designated areas, but I remember the briefing and the announcement (which i received as an employee) that even that was being done away with, post 1988 though, not 1987 as Wikipedia claims.

 

[lazythursday]

Martin has spoken and declared the matter "a libertarian issue". My own experience of attempting to use his non-smoking outside areas is that there is zero monitoring or observance.

Whereas Spoons' ridiculous no dogs even in outdoor areas policy tends to be rigidly enforced in my experience. Some libertarian.

 

[Jennaonthebeach]

Can you think of any other product like that?

Fatty meat.

 

[LakieLady]

Apologies for unnecessarily long post. I'm in a waiting room.

Remember when people smoked in hospital, doctor, dentist waiting rooms?

Late 70s/early 80s, I had a doctor who smoked. He kept a packet of Dunhill on his desk and would have a cig between patients. When he opened the door to call the next patient in, a cloud of smoke would come out.

 

[two sheds]

It used to be recommended as an expectorant

 

[frogwoman]

The biggest increase in smoking has been in young middle class women apparently

More younger middle-class women smoking, study suggests

Younger women could benefit from targeted interventions to tackle the apparent rise, researchers say.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[LakieLady]

Am sure there was a - now lost - post on here when the original smoking ban happened describing that pubs / clubs now smelt of sweat and shit

And those vile "lemon" scented things that they use to try and disguise the stale piss smell of the urinals!

 

[Serge Forward]

Late 70s/early 80s, I had a doctor who smoked. He kept a packet of Dunhill on his desk and would have a cig between patients. When he opened the door to call the next patient in, a cloud of smoke would come out.

When I was living in Greece, I went to see the doc and he offered me a fag.

 

[Skinny Ethel]

Come in handy if somebody wants a port'n lemon.

 

[og ogilby]

Late 70s/early 80s, I had a doctor who smoked. He kept a packet of Dunhill on his desk and would have a cig between patients. When he opened the door to call the next patient in, a cloud of smoke would come out.

I watched Call My Bluff on BBC4 a few nights back and the contestants were happily smoking away.. Finger on the buzzer with one hand and a fag on in the other.

 

[Serge Forward]

Dave Allen pretty much chain smoked through his show.

 

[CNT36]

Late 70s/early 80s, I had a doctor who smoked.

Good thinking. I always enjoyed Pertwee meat but it could go off quickly.

 

[mr steev]

Yeah I’d not mind vapes if it wasn’t for the gusts of rank cinnamon smoke

First e-cig I saw was this tiny little thing with a blue light, mimicked a cig but not much smoke, about 20 years ago. That was fine, minimal vapour. Now it’s gusts of the stuff

Tbh, as a means to give up cigarettes, those pen ones were pretty shit. I struggled with them for a while, but it was only when I invested in something that felt like I was actually smoking that I was able to make the switch away from tobacco.

Surely, stopping people smoking in the beer garden will just mean people will go and stand on the street and smoke/vape? And not all pubs have thriving beer gardens most of the time. In the pubs I frequent, most people outside are smoking (most are also older people for who a pint and a fag is their only social life. If anything, it should be left to the landlord/landlady's discrestion (as it probably is anyway)

 

[PR1Berske]

The original Ghostbusters has a lot of smoking.

 

[frogwoman]

When I went to Romania (2022) there was supposedly an indoor smoking ban but people were just sitting by the open pub window and smoking.

 

[frogwoman]

Went to Armenia a few years back and they had big 'no smoking' signs up in the bars and everyone was just smoking underneath them and paying no attention to it at all. Not really something I miss especially for the people working in those places who have to work in that all day tbh. I think you need a balance. We've probably gone too far but I wouldn't want to go back to how it was and still is in many parts of the world necessarily.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Went to Armenia a few years back and they had big 'no smoking' signs up in the bars and everyone was just smoking underneath them and paying no attention to it at all. Not really something I miss especially for the people working in those places who have to work in that all day tbh. I think you need a balance. We've probably gone too far but I wouldn't want to go back to how it was and still is in many parts of the world necessarily.

Walked in to a bar in Innsbruck a couple of years ago and stopped dead in my tracks, it was a total fog, braved it for a pint, came out and my clothes and hair utterly stank. That's what I used to impose on people for 30 years. You could also buy fags from vending machines on the street there, which is handy for helping child smokers score...

 

[frogwoman]

Walked in to a bar in Innsbruck a couple of years ago and stopped dead in my tracks, it was a total fog, braved it for a pint, came out and my clothes and hair utterly stank. That's what I used to impose on people for 30 years. You could also buy fags from vending machines on the street there, which is handy for helping child smokers score...

In Germany they have those special indoor rooms for smokers at the airport. I was craving a fag and went in there to smoke but decided against it because it was so rank, you could hardly breathe lol. That sort of thing would probably help put people off.

 

[Wookey]

Yes they do.

Indeed, it's a poison, in any quantity. Daft to pretend otherwise.

 

[skyscraper101]

With so many more pressing problems in the country right now, this seems like a weird thing to go after. Has anyone really been clamoring for banning smoking outside? Even as a non-smoker who gets routinely irritated by smokers who walk and smoke, it seems excessive in an age where smoking is already on the decline, and pubs and bars are closing in record numbers. I don't see it doing anything for Labour in terms of popularity. It just gives more ammunition to tossers like Farage and Tories who go on about the nanny state.

Or maybe Starmer doesn't care and he's getting all the unpopular stuff out of the way while he has five years of a massive majority. Who cares about someone having a fag in a park ffs. Kids playgrounds sure fine but let the dying vestiges of the smokers have their open air fag on the heath or whatever.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

In Germany they have those special indoor rooms for smokers at the airport. I was craving a fag and went in there to smoke but decided against it because it was so rank, you could hardly breathe lol. That sort of thing would probably help put people off.

The one in Manila's domestic terminal is like a lean-to greenhouse type affair, the glass is literally dripping with tar, fucking gross, still didn't stop me getting stuck in though

 

[Serge Forward]

In Germany they have those special indoor rooms for smokers at the airport. I was craving a fag and went in there to smoke but decided against it because it was so rank, you could hardly breathe lol. That sort of thing would probably help put people off.

The ones at Bergamo airport in Italy are quite nice small open air nooks with fake foliage. As I'm now a non smoker, I go in there to accompany Mrs Forward who likes a quick ciggy before getting on the plane.

 

[frogwoman]

With so many more pressing problems in the country right now, this seems like a weird thing to go after. Has anyone really been clamoring for banning smoking outside? Even as a non-smoker who gets routinely irritated by smokers who walk and smoke, it seems excessive in an age where smoking is already on the decline, and pubs and bars are closing in record numbers. I don't see it doing anything for Labour in terms of popularity. It just gives more ammunition to tossers like Farage and Tories who go on about the nanny state.

Or maybe Starmer doesn't care and he's getting all the unpopular stuff out of the way while he has five years of a massive majority. Who cares about someone having a fag in a park ffs. Kids playgrounds sure fine but let the dying vestiges of the smokers have their open air fag on the heath or whatever.

During lockdown I used to go sit on a park bench away from everyone else and have a fag when i needed to get away from the house, it helped keep me sane. Wouldn't smoke near kids etc anyway, fine with banning it at kids playgrounds.

 

[RevolutionSound]

Indeed, it's a poison, in any quantity. Daft to pretend otherwise.

Indeed. Don't get me wrong, I like a drink. But it's really not good in any quantity.

 

[Petcha]

I don't smoke. And can't be arsed reading this thread tbh. But in principle, no. Let people fucking smoke outdoors, as many of my mates do. What did you Labour voting idiots get yourselves into here....

 

[cupid_stunt]

I don't smoke. And can't be arsed reading this thread tbh. But in principle, no. Let people fucking smoke outdoors, as many of my mates do. What did you Labour voting idiots get yourselves into here....

Who did you vote for, Tories or Reform?