Ryan you look young and wander if you remember smoking in a pub, as a non smoker your eyes would become sore, your clothes stank of smoke, it damaged your health as well as the staff it left poisoness residue over all the surfaces in the form of a yellow tar, you clothes were regulary ruined by a clumsy drunks smoke touching you ..... now are you seriously saying that even
though i have a choice i should refrain from socialising with a beer because of the minority of society believe its their right to smoke anywhere they want..... i know many smokers and very few hold the opinion you just gave they also believe now that withsmoking comes respect to those who dont.
Now if i was to walk into a smokers house then
i 100% agree that he shouldn't feel like he cant light up as its his little empire and i entered it...
where as the pub is public and not his personal space so with respect to the health of others they should respect their habit does effect the health of others. If drinkers were in a regular habit of drinking their beer then puking all-over a non drinker anytime they entered a pub this would seem intolerable so why is it so wrong to put this to smokers and their habits....
PS ... its no-smoking day next week
I can see that your views on smoking are exactly those that make this ban so infuriating to myself and others who hold quite a contrary position
Your comments are very one sided and extremly polarised with regard the existence of smokers in society
I hold the view that there are far greater and far more damaging health agendas in society that could have been tackled without, or before,this
obsessive onslaught on those who chose to smoke
I use the word obsessive because never have I known so much energy and effort put into a cause than that of the anti smoker,he feels it is somehow his right and his duty to impose "his" lifestyle on those who chose otherwise ( I use the term anti-smoker in contrast to non smoker by the way)
You are but one in many in society who appear to have this "unhealthy" obsession, By the way,that word is used very deliberately
With my choices and my actions and my opinion.I find it incredible and become very angry, that views that I detest can have their will imposed on my way of life
Firstly,lets dispel the myths and untruths that you and others with your viewpoint proclaim to the world as your justification for your interference with my choice of lifestyle
(A big smokers "Mind your own business sign" would be the satisfying way of reopening the pubs of this country once again)
I don't impose my second hand smoke on anyone
Never in my life have I been in a restaurant and lit a cigarette
Smokers are not asking to be permitted to mix with the likes of yourself and stain and make smell your smoke free clothing
Smokers are not asking to frequent the places that you eat,drink,shop,do busimess.work or otherwise frequent
In fact the less contact we have the better for everybody concerned
I am a smoker in a familly of non smokers,however I came from a familly of smokers
Never has my smoking been inflicted on my own non smoking familly
I have 2 sons who detest the smell and the pastime of smoking.I understand the view from the other side of the fence as it were
You support and others like you support the no smoking ban and in its entirety no doubt,you may be more than happy if we did not exist,but exist we do,we pay taxes and vote and have familly and aspirations, no different to yourself
We also "had" freedom like yourself,however that was removed by the people with your views who think it is their right to impose those views and their lifestyles on us smokers
You should have no such right,I don't for one moment make apology for doing something that I enjoy and enjoy thoroughly
I can afford and will continue to practice smoking as I have done for nigh on sixty years,I will probably put up with future obsessive tagetting,but continue I will and hopefully also continue never having used the health service
I have never knowingly subjected the non smoker to unwanted affects of my pastime and don't seek to do so should this ban be modified
Neither would I dream of imposing my opinion on those of other opinions or practices when its none of my business,that's your freedom that should not be removed by anyone
When the ban was introduced,it was a blanket
vindictive rule of law,that vindictiveness as and will continue,mainly because of the obsession of the anti smokers that you represent
There was and is a simple modification to the ban that would have been sensible.protected the non smoker from the effects that are vastly exagerated of health implications and allowed freedom to continue for all the people of the land instead of those who sought and succeeded in imposing their will on others
Be I a smoker or non smoker,I need to frequent shops,I need to visit places of government,I may need to visit the library,I may need to visit the park,the list can be endless
Wherever a non smoker has little or no choice to frequent,smoking has and should be banned,that is not for one moment contended
You are free to do your business,go to your work,eat in your pretend pub and ride your smoke free bus,you will not be subjected to this horendous nightmare that you imagine smoking to be
However,below is where freedom was and has been removed
It is an absolute and non negotiable fact that the social structure,ie the pubs have been destroyed in their once proud place as the cornerstone of life in Britain,it has been destroyed
I will agree that pricing and big brewery food mania as taken its toll,but the vast percentage of non use of pubs is because smokers in their tens of thousands decided your obsession was a step too far and ceased socialising
A great percentage of the non smokers left in the once thriving social gatherings (where they found themselves short on friends and atmosphere) they followed the smoker out the door,perhaps never frequenting the pubs again,that is when they died
The younger generation have been introduced to three quarter empty pubs and they know no different,they see little attraction in these places and do not associate a pub as anything other than fill your face venue, created by this non smoking obsession
E
very pub could and should have had the freedom to chose whether they were smoking pubs or whether they were to be non smoking pubs
That choice was never given because your view had to be imposed or it would not have prevailed,most would have chosen to permit smoking
It was to force the public into following government policy and the will and obsession of the anti smoker lobby that freedom of choice was removed
If choice had been allowed,those that chose smoking could be free from the interference of your kind, nobody would be forcing non smokers to enter a leisure establishment (the pub) that they feel is detrimental to their health or their cardigans
They would not have their hands tied behind their backs and forced to mix with the objects of their obsession
They would have smoke free pubs to discuss the vile habit till their hearts content
But most of all they would not have imposed their will on something that should not be their business
Smokers would have used their own establishments.probably swelled vastly by the majority of non smokers who seem not to be as obssessive as some parts of the anti smoking community
I have kept this debate to smoking,freedom and pubs,the wider subjects like the NHS ,costs of healthcare and taxes can be kept for another day,where the debate is also not as one sided as portaryed
