Thursday, March 30, 2006

No Smoking (more or less)

First of all, a disclaimer: I know that the majority of the people who read this page are non-smokers, and think that smoking’s a vile, nasty habit. Regardless, no high horses, please. Shetland ponies only.

The smoking ban came in at 6am on Sunday morning. I think it’s a good thing, although I think it may have been better to introduce it as they did in Ireland, at the end of an evening, with a great big party.

It is now illegal to smoke in any enclosed public space, such as bars, restaurants, etc etc.

What worried me was the vitriol between the two opposing camps in newspapers, magazines and the like, leading up to this law coming into effect.

The majority of smokers considered the supporters of the ban to be heartless killjoys, and the majority of the non-smokers considered smokers to be murdering bastards.

Speaking purely for myself, whilst I may have smoked in pubs (albeit trying to keep it as far away from non-smokers as possible and, if I were with a non-smoker, asking if they’d prefer if I stepped outside), I did not smoke in restaurants (ewwww), bus shelters, near children or pregnant women (or indeed, any passer by) and, in general, kept (and keep) my nasty toxic fumes away from everyone else.

I think the supporters of the ban had (and have) a very valid point and, whilst there’s a bit of me that wishes that there were a few select pubs where we could still suck on our death-sticks in the warm, I think Scotland was right to bring in this law.

So.
In summation: ban good, not all non-smokers are tight-arsed killjoys, and not all smokers are murderous, child-choking bastards.

Oh, and I never drop cigarette butts in the street, either. Littering is bad too, mmmkay?



Here. The Oracle of Bacon*. I can't get more than three.

*Do you see what I did there? Bacon? Smoking? Smoked bacon?
*sigh*
Oh, never mind.

7 Comments:

At 10:38 am, Blogger Nettie said...

Are they going to do what they did here and have a 'no smoking policy' inside the pubs but an area (We have beer gardens here) that you can smoke in? Or will they just toss you all out on the street?

PS I must look like spam today because my word verification is eqzjhxma. How bloody long and complicated is that?

 
At 12:34 pm, Blogger Charybdis said...

Here some restaurants have smoking sections. Originally they were required to have a completely seperate ventilation system and be walled off from the rest of the restaurant, but that's never been very enforced. Still, most restaurants in Arlington are completely smoke free unless they have a bar.

As for bars, they aren't covered as long as a certain percentage of their sales comes from alcohol, and all the ones that I've ever been in are incredibly smokey.

 
At 6:21 pm, Blogger Amy said...

I don't really approve of the ban, as long as there are seperate smoking/non-smoking places. I don't really smoke (much) but I don't think it's right that smokers have to stand out in the rain for the comfort of non-smokers.

 
At 3:58 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't really care if strangers smoke in their own bars or restaurants, so long as they do it where I don't have to put up with it. As far as people around me smoking, I'm only in favour of it if I'm the one who gets to set them on fire in the first place. . .

 
At 7:44 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have no problem with people smoking because smokers usually have a great sense of humour. When the place where I worked had a quiet time I'd often disappear with the smokers for a chat and the company.
Hell you gotta go sometime.

 
At 8:05 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmm
What's this about bacon
I like bacon, specially on toast
of in an omelette

 
At 11:15 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I got infinite on that bacon thing. :)

I was surprised that Dan Ackroyd was infinite since he starred with
Carrie Fisher in Blues Brothers and She was 2 :)

 

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