UK Smoking Ban

Mojo Hojo

Mojo Hojo

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OK, as many Brits are aware, the government instituted a nationwide smoking ban in all bars, clubs and pubs on the 31st of June (July?)

What I want to know from you is what you think about it. Do you smoke and feel this is a robbery of your rights? Are you a regular club goer and find smoke irritating and praise the new system?


I personally do not like it. Reasons being that yes I am a smoker and I don't like going outside for a quick biff. Many clubs and pubs do not have a smoking bin outside the place, which leaves you with only one option of stubbing it out on the floor, which, if seen by the police, can result in a hefty £50 fine.


Another major issue behind this is should the government be more focused on serious aims like gun conrtol (the recent case of Rhys Jones is a prime example) and gang activity throughout the UK, rather then on people enjoying a cigarette in a relaxed, sociable and above all else WARM atmosphere:P?

Please, tell me your thoughts. No off topicness in this thread please i.e if you should smoke or shouldn't.
 
You're a year late there. This happened last June.

Personally I'm not bothered about it. It hasn't changed what any of the clubs are like, no one seems to complain about it too much and everyone copes. People have just accepted it and got on with it.
 
Im a smoker and it doesn't bother me either, it's making people smoke less and the bars all have clearer air, I hate stinking of smoke (yes I know, you don't even need to say it but Im not a heavy smoker)

Meh, it' all good
 
Ahaha no it's all good, I must admit, it was kind of refreshing walking into a pub and smelling the food rather than the smoke. I think the owners of places should all invest in the cigarette bins though, so we're not throwing them on the floor if you get me.


I guess I just miss sitting with a pint in one hand and a fag in the other. Such is life I guess.


I honestly do think they should be better focusing their efforst on gang activity and the like though. But that is for another topic methinks.
 
Some places near me have proper smoking areas and people just lounge around outside on the settees with the canopy over their heads, but some places really DO need to get bins -_-

Its rather unsightly looking at all the fag ends in the gutter. I know it's my choice to do it but what do they expect you to do? Put it in your pocket?

Edit* if im on a night out, i wont even HAVE pockets -_-
 
Government focusing on important things? :O
Lolz, sorry but...yeah, they don't focus on important issues such as homelessness for one. It's always charity organisations that look after homeless folk. Never hear anything on the news about them tackling homelessness do you?

They should do yes - concerning gun crime - police are too scared to deal with youths of today. There needs to be a big kick up the arse for the Government of today.

Anyway, I'm not a smoker, and I do agree with the ban. Uh huh...that's going to seem a bit biased to some, but, at the end of the day, I think this will encourage some people to reflect on this habit, and try and give it up, especially if they've got a serious addiction to it.

Smoking may seem like good stress relief, but cost of cigarettes can accumulate, and eventually you'll be paying the biggest loss - your life could be stopped short. There's other ways to destress, like - martial arts! Seriously, great way to destress, and to keep fit. Smoking, kinda like doesn't help you keep fit. All the build up of the "bad stuff" is going to have a knock on effect.

Clubs/Pubs round my area seem to be doing pretty fine. Not that I'm an avid visitor, but when I pass them, there seems to be still a regular inflow of people.

People say this ban could encourage people to smoke more around children but seriously - it's not as if this doesn't happen already in homes.

People complain about being outside in the cold? Hah. It's nothing. You're inevitable screwing your life up and worried about a few minutes in the cold? Tut tut.

I still can't understand why people smoke. I really don't. Stress relief - yeah, but...eh. It's just confusing.

If anyone doesn't like what I say, then sorry. But that's me :)
 
Your points are perfectly valid Rulia, I hate the smell of smoke and thats coming from a smoker. I know I should quit but it's just something I do

I was really wary of the ban at first but it doesn't bother me one bit, if it's pissing down outside I might not even bother going out at all

People are certainly smoking less, I never smoked much anyway but on a night out I used to smoke quite alot and now I don't so it's all good :monster:
 
Hey don't orry about it, you're totally entitled to your own opinion. I'm not gonna be like "ARGH HOW DAREZ YOU SAYZ IM KILLING MYSELVEZ?" cos in all honesty, every smoker, social or regular, knows they are shortening their lives.

But anyway, I do think the smoking ban has made people smoke more at home, which I really don't like cos although I smoke, I don't want a house to reek of it. It puts me right off a house straight away.
 
Ugh, I've been raised under the care of a dad who smokes, and so I REALLY really hate it, and all drugs for that matter.

I think it's good that the act went into effect as far as the pubs go; second-hand smoking is really bad, and is perhaps as harmful as smoking the actual cancer stick yourself. Back in the day, my dad used to smoke around me all the time until I was 10, and then I turned into a bitch and threw away all of his cigarettes, poured bleach on them, and told them that if we wanted to smoke anymore, he had to do so on the balcony facing the backyard with the window closed lest anyone see him and me be embarrassed.

Now, I have an awkward breathing problem, which made me collapse twice this past year of band camp. The doctors accredited that to my 'heavy' second-hand smoking all those years ago, and now I just think it's silly for people to smoke in enclosed public places like that. I know it might motivate more people to smoke at home, but if you really don't want your house to smell like that, then smoke outside like my dad does. The downwind will take all that nastiness away for ya. :updown:
 
I often socialised in pubs and casual bars whilst I was in school/college, and found constant thick clouds of smoke to be quite a dampener of a Saturday night's pleasantries. It's understandable why smokers would begrudge the law, but it's a perfectly considerate act for those who don't smoke, as far as I'm concerned.

Bars weren't solely places to smoke, so I saw nothing wrong with the passing of this rule.
 
I think that this is a great thing. I have nothing against smokers but personally hate have smoke blown into my face when I am trying to eat or even just stand around gormlessly. I can't stand the smell of smoke and it makes it so difficult to breathe. For God's sake, why should non-smokers have to put up with other people's smelly habits!?

If people want to smoke then by all means do so, but there's no need to be as selfish as to pollute other people's air when you can just go somewhere else if you're that desperate.
 
Anyone else notice those large no smoking areas in cafes, pubs, restaurants etc before this law was passed.


Yeah me too, they were there for a reason. If people didn't want to get nicotined up then they can fuck off into the no smoking area, is it so much of a challenge. Apparently so. So now thanks to all you bitchers, the pavements are littered with cigarette butts, which when it rains the nasty chemicals get washed into drains and into our water supply. So much for saving our planet eh?

We're selfish? You're taking away our right to smoke for fuck sake, you're the selfish ones here. There were plenty of places for you to go where it was a smoke free zone, but alas, you won't stop there. I hear also they're going to ban smoking in towns, trying to anyway.

And I swear if another non-smoker comes up and coughs in an agitating way, he's getting my fag in his fucking cornea. You don't see people going to people in wheelchairs and dancing in front of them do you?


Bah, stupid law, instead of passing that they could be doing something more useful but as we can see now they're going to make students pledge an oath to the Queen for Britishness.

Out Labour, Out plz.
 
I don't understand how you can use the factor of litter and pollution in drained water as an argument. Lest I be missing something, are the smokers not responsible for that due to... oh I don't know... laziness to find a suitable bin? Yeah, thought so.

Passing a rule of no smoking indoors is hardly justification for smokers to litter the streets.
 
The Architect said:
I don't understand how you can use the factor of litter and pollution in drained water as an argument. Lest I be missing something, are the smokers not responsible for that due to... oh I don't know... laziness to find a suitable bin? Yeah, thought so.

Passing a rule of no smoking indoors is hardly justification for smokers to litter the streets.
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You are aware you aren't mean to put hot ashes into a bin?

Some pubs have ash trays, I use them, some places don't empty theirs, or don't have them, as Bambi said, where are going to put them? In our pockets?

If you're going to make us smoke outside, put more ashtrays on bins in places other than pubs.

At least indoors there were ashtrays on tables and the like, we don't use the ban as an excuse to litter, people just do it without thought.
 
I suppose there are some areas that're more accommodating of the factor of hot ashes than others, but there's still a large number of bins with cigarette disposal trays. If you're in an area of town that happens to not have these, then you've only yourself to blame for smoking there in the first place.

Alternatively get off your arse and request that your local council accommodate your apparent demanding needs? I fail to see anything overwhelmingly challenging there, unless you're in an indefinite "cba" mood - by thinking which makes you quite contradictive.
 
Ever heard of diffusion? Smoke likes to travel you know, and always manages to find its way into a non-smoking area, believe it or not.

I'll admit that it is extremely selfish of me to take away your precious right to pollute everybody around you's lungs with smoke. I don't like smoking because it takes away my right to breathe. Selfish, I know, but there is no unselfish good deed at the end of the day, and we all think about ourselves and our own well-being. As if it is 'un-selfish' to want to smoke...

My dad has smoked heavily for as long as I can remember now, and doesn't care who he does it around. Recently I've had a lot of problems breathing, and I never actually linked the two until I read Reality.Fantasy's post. However, he is the only person who I want to quit because I actually care about him, everyone else can smoke all they want for all I care, just not around me thanks.
 
The Architect said:
I suppose there are some areas that're more accommodating of the factor of hot ashes than others, but there's still a large number of bins with cigarette disposal trays. If you're in an area of town that happens to not have these, then you've only yourself to blame for smoking there in the first place.

Alternatively get off your arse and request that your local council accommodate your apparent demanding needs? I fail to see anything overwhelmingly challenging there, unless you're in an indefinite "cba" mood - by thinking which makes you quite contradictive.
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I could say the same about people who don't like smoking, if it bothers you that much, don't go there. The door swings both ways.

I've actually had that brainwave of going to the council, but nothing's been done, round here they're more focused on closing down businesses and causing gridlock in the most busy areas of town by putting more traffic lights in stupid places, but that's another story.

I dispose of my fag butts in ashtrays anytime possible, but if you're holding a burning piece of paper with no where to put it, you have no choice but to stub it out on the floor, else you burn your fingers.

Vesper Lynd said:
Ever heard of diffusion? Smoke likes to travel you know, and always manages to find its way into a non-smoking area, believe it or not.

I'll admit that it is extremely selfish of me to take away your precious right to pollute everybody around you's lungs with smoke. I don't like smoking because it takes away my right to breathe. Selfish, I know, but there is no unselfish good deed at the end of the day, and we all think about ourselves and our own well-being. As if it is 'un-selfish' to want to smoke...

My dad has smoked heavily for as long as I can remember now, and doesn't care who he does it around. Recently I've had a lot of problems breathing, and I never actually linked the two until I read Reality.Fantasy's post. However, he is the only person who I want to quit because I actually care about him, everyone else can smoke all they want for all I care, just not around me thanks.
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I wasn't saying smokers aren't selfish, I was just stating the door swings both ways in the way you just did. Also if you want your dad to quit, tell him how you feel, and tell your mother. If you don't like smoking, it's not the governments problem to enforce a law banning smokers from smoking indoors in public places, it's down to you in the end to find somewhere where you can go without being too smokey, instead of however just stopping everyone from smoking in peace. You want to breathe easy, we don't. I just think there should've been some better compromise instead of out right banning it in public places (and possibly in towns soon)

Fact of the matter is, if you're not breathing in smoke, you're breathing in some other form of air pollutant, but you don't see anything being done about that do you.
 
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Finnegan III said:
I wasn't saying smokers aren't selfish, I was just stating the door swings both ways in the way you just did. Also if you want your dad to quit, tell him how you feel, and tell your mother. If you don't like smoking, it's not the governments problem to enforce a law banning smokers from smoking indoors in public places, it's down to you in the end to find somewhere where you can go without being too smokey, instead of however just stopping everyone from smoking in peace. You want to breathe easy, we don't. I just think there should've been some better compromise instead of out right banning it in public places (and possibly in towns soon)
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If you expect non-smokers to go somewhere else, well the same can be said about smokers. Find somewhere else to go instead of stopping us from breathing in peace.

I agree about a compromise though, however if you think about it banning smoking in public places is a considerable step down from banning it all together (which will never happen mind you, because of man's almighty master: money), or as you said, banning it in towns. To be honest I think that banning smoking in towns is a bit too much. I can just hold my breath when I walk past someone who is smoking if I don't want to choke, no big deal. Besides, the previous solution to not being able to smoke in a pub was standing outside, but people won't even be able to do that. This would mean that people can only smoke in their houses, and I'm sure there are a lot of smokers who would usually spare their families lungs by going outside for a fag. That's not a bad thing, in my opinion.
Fact of the matter is, if you're not breathing in smoke, you're breathing in some other form of air pollutant, but you don't see anything being done about that do you.
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Well it's better than nothing I guess. But to continue on the point that you made, just about everything is bad for our health. Eating a packet of crisps a day is the equivalent of drinking 5 litres of cooking oil a year. Even typing this is killing my eyes. There are a lot of things that we do without realising it that have much worse effects on our health than smoking, the government just make a big deal out of it because it's one of the most obvious. Also, it has an effect on everybody who happens to be near you. Just seemed an obvious place to start I guess. Banning things is not the way to go though, goddd, if people want to be unhealthy let them! It's their lives! My main problem with smoking though from my point of view is that it is like having an unhealthy habit forced on you, one which I do not want at that.
 
We're not exactly forcing it on you are we. It's not like we're walking up to you, asking if you like smoking and blowing our smoke in your face. It isn't being forced on you, you have the choice to leave or deal with it. We however, don't have a choice as to whether we stay inside and smoke if it's pissing down, or go outside if it's a nice sunny day, we HAVE to go outside. As I said it's a poor arguement really saying either party is selfish, the real issue is the fact there hasn't been an attempt to compromise, just an iron fist slapping you on the wrist saying "NO!"

People have dealt with the smoke in pubs for years before this law, I don't see why the government is taking such a prominent stance on it now. More than likely, to appear to be doing something for the public.
 
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