Tobacco wars

Netherlands suspends tobacco inspections in small bars - AFP(Yahoo) News - Jul 9/09

Orwellian EU wants to Ban Outdoor Smoking

Smoking outside pubs and offices could be banned under plans to be announced by the European Union today.

Brussels bureaucrats want to outlaw it in areas like beer gardens and covered patios – and even extend it to concerts such as last weekend’s Glastonbury Festival.

The European Commission says the current ban in enclosed public places doesn’t go far enough and non-smokers are still in danger.

But Forest, the pro-smoking organisation, says the scheme is “dubious, difficult to enforce and a potential death knell for businesses”. Director Simon Clark said: “If the EU wants smokers off the streets it would be more productive to use resources for smoking rooms.”

Even if the British Government, which banned smoking in enclosed public places two years ago, objects to the EU plan, it could still be outvoted. News Source
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/110658/Ban-on-outdoor-smoking

Major National Anti-Smoking Group Supports Bans on Smokers in Certain Public Places and Workplaces

Conservative club fined for smoke ban breach
By Ewan Turney
A Conservative club in Wales has been forced to cough up £5,000 in fines and costs after breaking the smoking ban.

The Balfour Conservative Club in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire and steward John Phillips were each fined £1,000 and also have to pay £3,000 costs.

Council officers found three people smoking at the club on 12 June last year following a tip-off.

"£5,000 for such an offence seems to me to be over the top. It's disproportionate," Phillips told the BBC.

Council health manager Jeff Beynon added: "To put the interests of smokers above the health of others is wholly unacceptable."
http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk

Rampton Hospital patients in smoking ban appeal
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
THREE patients at a high security psychiatric hospital in Notts are to have a legal challenge against the smoking ban heard at the Court of Appeal in London tomorrow.
Lawyers representing the patients at Rampton Hospital, at Retford, will begin the appeal case, which is scheduled to last for two days.
They are seeking leave to appeal against a previous ruling in the High Court in London which said the smoking ban must be upheld on-site.
The patients feel the ban contravenes their rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk

Lift smoke ban to save pubs call

SMOKE PLEA: Lift ban to save pubs
 
A campaign aimed at saving Wigan's pubs is gaining momentum.
Members and officials of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) will mount a petition-protest in Standish tomorrow to highlight the crisis in the licensed trade.

Depending on the response, they say, this could be the first of many.
The campaign, launched last year at Newtown Labour Club, comes as pubs in the Wigan area face an uncertain future.

The Latham House pub in Kitt Green is the latest victim, pulling its final pints this week.
UKIP blames the smoking ban, excessive beer taxes and unfair supermarket competition.

Wigan UKIP chairman Alan Freeman said: "Pubs are at the heart of the community and that heart is being ripped out by this self-serving government. I'm a smoker myself, and I'm not saying it is good for you, but I can't see what is wrong with having a ventilated room set aside in a pub or club for smokers.

"We would revise the ban to allow more choice. We believe pubs and clubs should be able to choose to allow smoking or not."
Camra member Brian Gleave said it was upsetting to see traditional pubs close, but he does not believe reversing the smoking ban alone would save them.

He said: "I support what Camra was saying during the consultation, before the smoking ban came in, that a room could be set aside for smokers and one for non-smokers.

"It's one reason pubs are struggling, but certainly not the only one, despite what UKIP are saying."

UKIP activists will be in Cross Street, Standish, on Saturday between 10.30 am-1.30 pm.
http://www.wigantoday.net

Why pubs are so important to our villages

Pubs have been having a torrid time for the past 18 months – and, unfortunately, the crisis is unlikely to abate quickly. They are facing a series of threats, all of which are conspiring to see record numbers closing. Landlords blame two poor summers and the smoking ban, which was introduced in 2007, for hitting trade.
There is also the competition from supermarkets and off-licences, which is forcing many to think twice about a visit to the pub.
After all, if your local off-licence is selling six cans of Kronenbourg for £5, then you are going to think twice about paying £3 a pint at the pub over the road.
This competition is only made worse by the recession, where people are having to think very hard about the way they spend their money.
The recession is now affecting everyone's life and the prudent are saving their pennies in case there is a rainy day around the corner.

All this would be bad enough, but there is a feeling some breweries are demanding too high a price for their beer and for rent.
In fact, the Campaign for Real Ale is more forthright. Keith Williams, Camra's local chairman, says: "The breweries are strangling the pub trade. The reality is that the breweries charge them extortionate prices for rent and beer, and many landlords don't last more than a couple of years."
It is easy to dismiss pub closures as just part and parcel of the economic downturn, and claim "the strongest will always survive".
That harsh view may be true in our towns and in Leicester city centre, but what about our villages, where there is only one pub?
Pubs are an important part of the community and, in an increasingly insular and virtual world, they represent vital meeting places.
Let's hope breweries bear this in mind when fixing their future rents and beer prices.

Comments (4)
For over two millenium pubs have existed in one form or another, ancient Rome had them, places where the public met and discussed the great issues of their day, or sport, the missus and kids, buisisness, you name it, it is dicussed in pubs.

This is especially true in villages, they are the very hub of the community, from the quick pint or two after work to long lazy Sunday afternoons or the Friday Saturday night outings. Where else could you discuss sport or ploitics with a stranger and yet feel comfortable?

So yes stand up for your pub,ammend the smoking ban, reduce taxation on alcohol and set a minimum price in supermarkets, but most of all save the social hubs of our villages. people are social creatures we need to socialise so where is the benefit in destroying pubs? soapy, rainworth commented on 13-Feb-2009 15:53
Mr Johnson, you have spoken excellently and any libertarian should 100% agree with you. We are bordering on total prohibition in the country, starting with the smoking ban that has divided communities and households. We have plenty more freedoms to lose unless we fight back. llaoa, 3rd world England commented on 13-Feb-2009 15:11

Three articles in the Leicester Mercury highlighted the effects smoking bans have on pubs and what do I get in comments? nothing constructive from anti smokers that's for sure! When will people realise that 68% of smokers are regular drinkers-not 68% of non smokers? Had they have implemented this law fairly in the first place; ie, CHOICE for licensees and staff alike. If only 50% of the pubs had catered for smokers, those opting for that choice would be having no financial worries. The non smoking 50% would have, largely, been struggling from day1 !
The pub has always been a comforting aroma of beer, cigarettes & food-who on earth wants to stand in some alien building now reeking of 'BO' & cleaning products? Not me,
and not many smokers.
Pubs have been forced to spend unnecessary money on 'smoking shelters' which are not deemed fit for pigs. Smokers have been newly categorised as second class citizens and worse, cast outside like dogs to brave the inhospitable elements when they should always have been inside enjoying the hospitality a pub offers.
To the hordes of non smokers ready to invade our pubs once smokers were cast out-where were/are you? Government hype to assuage the industry.
For the scientifically minded-where is the cast iron evidence that SHS (passive smoking) kills? It isn't-even our very own DofH cannot find any evidence!
Of the 79,000 deaths each year attributable to passive smoking where are all the death certificates stating SHS as causation?-there isn't even one in the whole wide world!
To be sure, this government has done a fantastic job of hoodwinking 75% of the people which in turn has caused the closure of more than 2,500 pubs, cost 100,000 people their jobs in the industry, left 7 bankruptcies in it's wake and rendrered 32 couples homeless! Yes indeed, what a marvellous piece of initiative from a government floundering like a fish out of water.
It is no surprise that the recession started about the same time as the smoking ban, pubs shut during the first week as takings plummeted.
Today we have the news that Punch Taverns have offered all 7,560 of their public houses for purchase by tenants. Why? Quite simply they are about finished. £4.5bn in debt, tenants screaming out for help and pubs devoid of what were once called 'regulars'-you know the type: drop in for a fag and 3 or 4 pints every day.
freedom2choose.info has been here all along, fighting this idiotic total ban. We have talked to licensees aplenty but they still sit and wait. We will get this spiteful, restrictive and socially destructive ban amended, all we need is the licensees help by joining with us-it's not too late!
The WMC have opened their eyes,have seen what's happening; we have the full support of the CIU National Executive Committee-when are the licensees going to realise what is needed?
The simplest and fairest answer is for pubs to have choice. Staff likewise. Smoking pubs will flourish from day one and non smoking pubs will have to do the best they can in these poor economic times. Note here that during all past recessions smokers have still gone to the pub to moan about the recession!
They talk about seperate ventilated rooms-excuse me, years ago they were called "The Snug". There was freedom2choose then so simply bring it back.
Licensees, join the fight against dictatorship and lifestyle control, for that is what this government is all about. When you realise that they no longer care for the people you will be halfway there! Phil Johnson, Leicester commented on 13-Feb-2009 12:13

'Pubs have been having a torrid time for the past 18 months' What happened 18 months ago? The smoking ban. A few weeks ago I went to Belgium and despite beer costing over £5 a pint, the pubs were packed because they allow smoking. chas, Little Britain commented on 13-Feb-2009 11:08
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk

Hospital staff and visitors face fines for smoking


NHS staff could be banned from lighting up cigarettes during breaks under tough new rules - even if they are not on hospital grounds.

They could face disciplinary action by Grampian health chiefs under plans branded "health fascism".

Other measures would also see patients barred from bring tobacco to hospital.

And a fags enforcer would be brought in to levy on-the spot fines on workers, visitors or patients caught smoking.

Grampian health bosses plan tough new measures in a bid to wipe out the weed on every NHS site on their patch - including scrapping smoking shelters.

The zero-tolerance policy will hit 18,000 Grampian NHS staff in the north-east. And the plans could be rubberstamped as early as this week.

Health chiefs plan to spend £80,000 on the ban - with more cash to help staff quit.

But they are prepared to make exceptions.

In a report to the board, employee director Stephen Gordon admitted: "A complete ban may be seen as contentious, particularly on humanitarian grounds.

"It may not be appropriate at times to stop a person smoking, for example in times of acute distress or mental ill health".

However, smokers' lobby FOREST hit out at the move.

Spokesman Neil Rafferty said: "To suggest a member of staff cannot smoke during their own time is tantamount to health fascism.

"It's one of the most extreme cases of smoker victimisation we've ever seen."

A spokesman for health bosses said: "NHS Grampian is committed to moving towards a smoke-free environment across all its premises."
Feb 3 2009 By Kris Gilmartin
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk

If this is our future, it stinks

Friday, January 30, 2009

North Essex: Campaigners challenge ban on smoking

A NEW campaign to help the struggling pub industry has been welcomed at a crisis meeting for the trade.

Industry representatives from north Essex, including Colchester and Wivenhoe, gathered at the Queen’s Head near Coggeshall to discuss how to challenge the blanket ban on smoking inside establishments.

They believe the Government legislation, which came into force in summer 2007, has seriously damaged trade, with Paul Lofthouse, who runs the Queen’s Head, describing the industry as being in “dire straits”.

They backed a new campaign called “Save pubs and clubs – amend the smoking ban” which was put forward by Simon Clark, director of pro-smoking lobby group Forest.

It is planned that the nationwide initiative, which would be a coalition of different groups, will be launched in six to eight weeks with the aim of amending the Government legislation so there may be the option for pubs to be smoking or non-smoking, or have a smoking room.

After the meeting Dave Clayton, vice-president of the Colchester Licensed Victuallers Association (LVA), said: “If they set up the campaign like they said I think there will be a lot of customers only too willing to back it.”

He added: “No-one is asking to go completely back to smoking.”

John Parker, secretary of the Colchester LVA and landlord of the Flag Inn in Wivenhoe, said: “It’s not good at the moment. It’s very difficult. I mean we have all spent money on lovely smoking areas but people are not coming out any more, especially when it’s cold.”

Figures released last week from the British Beer and Pub Association estimated 39 pubs closed each week.

The Gazette later contacted Martin Dockrell, director of policy and research at Ash, which campaigns to eliminate the harm caused by tobacco, who said people “overwhelmingly” supported the smoking ban.

He said: “No-one wants to turn the clocks back to smokey pubs, not least because we know how harmful it is to people’s health.”

He said there were 450,000 fewer smokers since the ban.

He added: “It’s certainly true old style pubs are having a difficult time but it cannot really be said to be to do with smoke-free legislation.”

By Mariam Ghaemi

Colchestersoapy, rainworth says...
6:21pm Thu 29 Jan 09
As a former resident of Colchester which I fondly remember as a vibrant friendly town with a diverse range of entertainment venues I am glad to finally see an initiatve to tackle this travesty of legislation.

The pubs have been the centre of social activity since before Christ and was one of the benefits the Romans brought with them to England so it is fitting the begin in the Colchester area.

It is a sad reflection on society that under 100 people in a charity who unelected have been allowed to dictate an unjust law that is destroying the fabric of our society and the lives of over 100, 000 people not including spouses and children.

The numbers involved must be very close to Martin Dockrell's 450,000! Of course we are accutely aware that Mr Dockerell's job depends on this happening and no doubt has this in mind but what a price for keeping him employed, I note he does not comment on the 64% increase in momey spent on smoking cessation for a return of a 32% drop in the numbers of quitters and the rise in smoking prevelance, or more potential customers for our ailing pubs!

It is Ironic that that pub closures were in single figures before the the smoking ban and have now risen to 36 a week since, and that pubs have weathered both depressions and the low priced supermarket alcohol for years and yet now cannot manage!

So follow the spirit of Boudicea, fight this tyranny give us back our pubs, our clubs, our society, and our freedom.
http://www.gazette-news.co.uk

TICAP Wednesday 28th January

09:40 Conference is reconvened with a quick rundown of yesterday's events.

For those in the UK, Nick Hogan has drawn attention to a new web-site, backed by UKIP, to save our pubs. You can view it here.

09:45 Dr John Luik (pictured below) begins the discussion on how to tackle the prohibition epidemic. He argues that prohibitionists are increasingly following a state-led programme of health promotion which fears differing lifestyles which "differ from the state view of a good life"

Dr Luik: "The prohibitionist does not essentially believe human beings can make rational choices. They don't want debate on these choices."

Dr Luik explains how prohibitionists use skewed statistics to 'prove' their point, and then avoid debate at all costs. If forced into debate, one should ride out the initial irrational insults, and push for discussion of facts. With smoking, alcohol and obesity, the prohibitionist will always attempt to avoid bare facts by attempting to discredit the questioner as being "paid".

How appropriate ... see comments from yesterday.

Dr Luik points out that prohibitionists have a long record of failure, which leads to even more prohibitionist measures to reduce consumption of 'unhealthy' products. He states that the best way to defeat a prohibitionist is to know the science better than them, and to stick to the facts and true statistics which consistently show their policies not to be successful.

10:20 Nigel Farage MEP (UKIP) enthusiastically begins his speech. He starts by slmming the EU for their decision to cancel the previous TICAP venue. He states that he will "raise merry hell" about it and will be pursuing compensation.


On prohibition,

Nigel Farage: "It's about time we stood up and said: 'Enough is enough'."

Farage asks if it is not the healthy way to live to be born a free man or woman, without being restricted in lifestyle choices by Government. He states that now, alcohol is the prohibitionists next target, he mentions the UK's proposed legislation to criminalise giving alcohol to anyone under 15 years of age ... to gasps from the French contingent.

Farage picks out the British Beer and Pub Association for attack, saying that, in conversation with one of their member recently, the BBPA representative stated "the smoking ban is not an issue anymore" despite UK pubs closing at the rate of 6 per day.

Nigel Farage: "I'm going to fight for separate smoking rooms. It is a realistic target to aim for."

Mr Farage ends by highlighting strict prohibitions in the past, such as that under Cromwell. He stated that all such prohibition comes to an end and looks forward to the time when this will happen again and common sense returns.

10:45 Gian Turci rises to present "The Brussel Declaration". He calls for the interests of proper science to be protected, and for the rejection of science as a result of corruption, marketing spin and ideological promotion.

10:55 Coffee Break followed by questions from the floor.

11:15 Conference reconvenes.

A UK attendee asks Dr Luik if it is falling educational standards that has led to poor debate and science reporting. He says that it is not necessarily educational standards, but poor reporting of science by journalists and government. Nigel Farage steps in and adds that he feels, in the UK, that the BBC charging a licence fee is wrong if they are to be taking sides in healthist debate.

Frederique DuPont asks about the increasing prohibitionist tendency to 'brainwash' children regards 'correct' lifestyles. Dr Luik answers that he has no problem with this, as it doesn't work. He asserts that no matter the emphasis from the health lobby, "you can't stop the young from experimenting". The factor of wealth is more relevant. The richer people are, the less likely they are to take risks. Dr Luik sated that a better approach would be to encourage ambition and entrepreneurial spirit.

Dr Luik: "The warning that would best deter young people from smoking would be 'Warning. Your parents think smoking is cool'."

In response to a question about marginalisation of smokers, Dr Luik states that making a section of society social outcasts is the least attractive aspect of the prohibitionists to the general public, and should be a central plank of the fight against them.

11:50 A German attendee questions Nigel Farage and disagrees with the separation of smokers and non-smokers. Farage replies saying that although he understands the sentiment, he feels a compromise is more realistic, restores choice, and gives government a way of relaxing legislation without losing face.

On a question about encroachment on civil liberties in general and who to vote for in countries other than the UK, Mr Farage answers that he feels there are many parties through Europe that have an agenda geared towards this, and he is hopeful that the EU group of which UKIP are a member, will have a greater representation after the 2009 elections.

The session ends with an assertion from Nigel Farage that he is firmly behind TICAP and will do his best to resist prohibitionists in the EU.

Delegates have been invited to tour the EU building by UKIP, so we will get to go inside after all ... hopefully.

Eamon Mallon is bringing the conference to a close with a live rendition of his song "Jackboot".


12:20 The inaugural TICAP Conference ends

India film smoking ban is lifted 
 
 
The High Court in Delhi has overturned a government ban on showing smoking scenes in films.

The court said that the ban violated the fundamental right of film-makers to freedom of speech and expression.

"The director of films should not have multifarious authorities breathing down their necks when indulging in creative art," Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said.

Film-makers had condemned the ban when it was instigated in 2005 as an absurd infringement of artistic expression.

'Wrong target'

Mr Justice Kaul passed the order to revoke the ban as an "umpire judge" after a junior court had earlier given a split ruling on efforts by Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt to challenge curbs on scenes of smoking in films and on television.

Mr Justice Kaul agreed that a blanket ban on films that showed smoking scenes was a direct encroachment on the creativity and free artistic expression of the film-maker.

Movie-makers said that films were the wrong target in the drive to curb smoking.

The government had argued that 800,000 Indians a year died from smoking-related diseases and that it was wrong for films or TV programmes to glamorise the habit.

It said that old films - whether Indian or foreign - must carry warnings if they showed smoking scenes. It said all logos of tobacco products must be masked or cut out.

Mr Bhatt condemned the move at the time, saying: "One would understand a ban on surrogate advertising, but to completely ban [smoking] is ridiculous, a joke taken too far."

He and other film makers argued that the government should go after the source - people who produced tobacco.

But the World Health Organisation said the move would help cut India's smoking-related deaths because the portrayal of "attractive people smoking" had an influence on young people as "some of them identify with those on the screens".

In 2004, smoking was banned in public places in India and a ban imposed on tobacco firms' advertising in and sponsoring of sporting events.

Another law in 2005 required manufacturers to list tar and nicotine content on packets.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/

 

Free speech stubbed out

Simon Clark-Forest.
Last year, as I wrote HERE, I travelled to Brussels to attend a meeting of "EU experts, civil society and social partners to support the Commission's Impact Assessment on the forthcoming initiative on smoke-free environments".

Seconds into the meeting, to which I had been invited, several hands shot up and two or three delegates announced that if I didn't leave they would leave the room. Others nodded in agreement. In the EU, it seems, free speech and tobacco operate on different planets.

Next week, also in Brussels, a group called The International Coalition Against Prohibition (TICAP) was due to hold a two-day conference under the patronage of Godfrey Bloom MEP (UKIP). The event was called "Smoking Bans and Lies" and the programme was unambiguously partisan.

Venue was the European Parliament building and I understand that several readers of this blog were planning to attend.

Yesterday morning it was reported that the conference had been moved from the Parliament to a hotel near the Parliament building. Last night I was told by Gawain Towler, press officer for UKIP in Brussels, that the original conference hosted by Godfrey Bloom has been cancelled and in its place is a "new" conference with a very similar programme. (Don't ask me why. I'm only the messenger.)

The "new" conference will be called "Thinking Is Forbidden" and officially it will be hosted not by Godfrey Bloom but by the British arm of the Independence/Democracy Group (aka UKIP). Delegates who were due to attend "Smoking Bans and Lies" will be invited to attend "Thinking Is Forbidden" instead.

The reason for this game of musical chairs seems to be related to THIS outrageous letter which was sent, in December, to Hans-Gert Pöttering, president of the European Parliament, by Florence Berteletti Kemp, director of the Smoke Free Partnership (which includes Cancer Research UK).

In her letter, Kemp argues that "this event should not under any circumstances take place on the premises of the European Parliament". She then gives the following reasons:

"the event appears to be in contravention of Parliament’s own rules of procedure and is detrimental to the dignity of Parliament"
"the event goes against all of Parliament’s adopted reports and the European Community’s legislation and commitments on this topic"
"it violates the spirit of the International Framework Convention on Tobacco Control"
There's a lot more of this high-handed nonsense in Kemp's letter and any self-respecting institution would have torn it up and sent her packing. But not the European Parliament. I am told that on on Tuesday 12 January a committee met in camera and decided that permission for the conference to be held within the Parliament building had been withdrawn.

Neither Godfrey Bloom nor anyone else associated with "Smoking Bans and Lies" were told that the conference was on the agenda. In their absence, the committee acted as judge and jury. According to UKIP's Gawain Towler, the organisers only discovered that they were barred from using the Parliament building on Tuesday this week, a full seven days after the meeting.

What has happened beggars belief. I am assured that the venue was secured months in advance. Delegates and speakers have made travel arrangements. Hotel accommodation has been reserved. Video conferencing links have been booked.

And yet ... is anyone surprised? The anti-tobacco lobby is ruthless and will happily suppress any form of debate, or opposition.

Ironically, thanks to these unelected bureaucrats, news of the conference will almost certainly reach a far wider audience than would otherwise have been the case.

Note: as I understand it, "Thinking Is Forbidden" will take place at the Hotel Berlyamont Silken, Blvd Charlemagne 11, Brussels, on 27-28 January. For details/confirmation contact Gawain Towler, Independence/Democracy Group, telephone +32 (0)2 284 6384.
http://takingliberties.squarespace.com/

Smoking ban fails to persuade more to give up as number of successful quitters drops by a quarter


The number of smokers giving up has barely increased since the ban, despite a hike in the amount spent by the NHS on quitting services.
Figures show that nearly a quarter fewer smokers gave up the habit between April and September last year compared to 2007  -  the year the ban on smoking in public places was brought in.
At the same time, the amount spent by the NHS on stop smoking services increased from £26million to £33million.


Critics of the ban said the figures showed that it has had only limited success and that, although many smokers quit soon after the laws were introduced in July 2007, the numbers trailed off.
However, ministers were quick to point out that the ban was designed principally to protect people from second hand smoke and not just to encourage smokers to give up.
The NHS counts someone as having successfully stopped smoking if they manage to stay off cigarettes for four weeks after first quitting.
The numbers doing so fell by 24 per cent from 176,277 in 2007 to 133,704 last year, according to figures for the NHS Information Centre.
It means that the amount the Health Service is paying for each successful quitter has risen by 65 per cent from £148 to £244.
In 2006, the year before the ban, 128,868 smokers managed to quit  -  4,836 fewer than in 2008  -  while the cost to the NHS per quitter was £181.
Mark Wallace, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: 'The nanny state is becoming more expensive and less effective by the day.
'The Government seems to love glossy advertising and expensive television adverts but these figures show they are very ineffective. If the authorities stop heckling people so much, they might get a better reception.'
Last month, the Daily Mail revealed that the proportion of men who smoke has actually risen since the ban, while there has been no change among women.
A survey of 7,000 Britons also found that the average smoker still smokes the same amount of cigarettes each day, while men aged 16 to 34 have actually increased their consumption by one and a half cigarettes.
Tim Straughton, chief executive of the NHS Information Centre, said: 'The NHS is spending more than ever to support people to quit through its Stop Smoking services.
'The numbers who kicked the habit in April to September 2008 were substantially lower than in 2007 when the smoking ban came in. However, they were still higher than the same period in 2006 which was a more typical year to compare them with.'
Public health minister Dawn Primarolo said: 'NHS Stop Smoking Services remain extremely costeffective.
'The Department of Health will continue to work hard to attract smokers to quit with NHS support. Smokers who use such support are four times more likely to succeed than those who try to quit by willpower alone.'


By Daniel Martin
http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Waveney pubs breach smoke ban


Fewer people giving up smoking

A fifth of pubs were found to be in breach of smoke-free legislation during a four-day blitz in the Waveney area.

The clampdown by Waveney District Council's licensing team and Suffolk Police saw 122 pubs, clubs, hotels and other alcohol-licensed premises visited to assess compliance with relevant legislation.

During the campaign more than 90pc of establishments open in Waveney on a Friday and Saturday were assessed, including all but a handful of the pubs.

But while there were a number of examples of excellent practice, the inspectors also discovered breaches.

They found around 40pc of premises with technical offences regarding licences, 25pc with breaches relating to designated premises supervisors, the person responsible for the operation of the premises and the contact for any concerns, 20pc breached smoke-free requirements and five were permitting smoking in prohibited areas.

Police focused on underage and excess alcohol sales at premises with officers giving advice to licensees, and this will be followed up via further checks, including test purchase operations with trading standards, at a later date.

The council said the campaign would result in a number of advisory and warning letters being issued to licensees and that one establishment was temporarily closed due to significant breaches.

There are also likely to be two prosecutions as a result of the inspections. At least two premises gave rise to concern regarding significant noise nuisance, which officers will continue to monitor.

Ken Sale, Waveney District Council portfolio holder for the environment said: “These inspections, carried out at a time when they were perhaps least expected, send out a clear message that licensing conditions must be observed and that both the council as licensing authority and the police, are prepared to work together to monitor levels of compliance, even on the busiest nights of the week.

“A licence is only granted on the understanding that that the applicant will abide by its conditions. We will not tolerate breaches, or indeed any activity likely to compromise the four licensing objectives of preventing crime and disorder, ensuring public safety, preventing public nuisance and the protection children from harm. Officers will take formal action where appropriate to deal with persistent or serious offenders.”

Inspector Nick Aitken from Suffolk Police said the campaign had been beneficial: “As a result, officers have more confidence around licensing legislation. We have adopted a friendly approach to licensees and continue to work to build our partnership with them through the ongoing Nightsafe initiative.”

Fewer people giving up smoking
EMILY DENNIS

http://new.edp24.co.uk

Pubs closing at rate of 39 per week

Figures revealed as Parliament prepares to debate new mandatory code

The number of pubs closing per week in Britain has accelerated to a staggering 39 per week.

The figures, compiled by CGA Strategy for the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), are released today when a new mandatory code of practice for the industry is set to be debated in Parliament.

Rob Hayward, chief executive of the BBPA, said the code would lead to even more closures.

He said: “With pubs closing at a record rate and job losses escalating, it is truly staggering that the government is proposing to hit the sector with a £300m bill for extra red tape this year alone.

“In fact, the government openly state they believe that their new regulations will lead to more pub closures and job losses.

“Pub closures are a clear demonstration of the extreme financial and economic pressures facing the sector.


“At this time of deepening recession and rising unemployment, the government should be actively looking at ways to support the community asset of the pub. They should not be introducing legislation that will condemn more pubs to closure and put more people out of work.”

The figure of 39 closures per week relates to the first six months of last year and is an increase of three per week from the previous figure of 36 given by the BBPA's research.

In total 1,973 pubs shut up shop in 2008, 40 per cent higher than the 1,409 closures reported by the BBPA in 2007.

Hayward added: “It is incomprehensible that the government not only seems to be so unconcerned about the loss of more pubs and jobs, but is introducing laws that they admit will make the problem worse. 44,000 jobs have been lost across the sector in the last couple of years and 59,000 more jobs will go unless action is taken.”

The figures reveal that community pubs are most at threat. Suburban pubs are closing at the rate of 19 a week, town centre pubs at eight a week and rural pubs at 13 a week.

Britain’s pubs are now closing almost 10 times faster than in 2006 (four a week) and nearly 20 times faster than in 2005 (two a week).
19 January, 2009

By Matt Eley
http://www.thepublican.com/story.asp?storycode=62484

Smoking bans can kill pub workers


From Mr Michael J. McFadden.

Sir, Matthew Engel ("How our pubs have run out of puff", Outside Edge, January 2/3) did a beautiful job of describing what the smoking ban has done to pubs and the bizarre consequences of such bans, but he overlooked one of the most important consequences: the devastating effect on the lives and health of the thousands of workers who have lost their jobs on the holy altar of the anti-smokers.

Have some workers possibly been spared an extra chance in a thousand of getting lung cancer 40 years down the road? I actually don't believe so from my own research, but even if it were true, what is the trade-off? A loss of 50 or so pubs per week in the UK and Ireland translates into a five-year loss of roughly 100,000 jobs if we assume the average pub employs 10 people. The general impact on the economy of these people being forced to go on the dole or work at menial jobs has severe health consequences in and of itself.

A British Medical Journal study several years ago examined income inequality and its effect on mortality. It estimated that a 1 per cent difference in income translated into 21 deaths per 100,000 per year. If we assume that the estimated 100,000 workers who lose their jobs over five years had their income cut by 50 per cent, that would be over 1,000 extra deaths per year caused by the smoking bans. That's 1,000 per year, right now, as opposed to 100 claimed/theorised to happen 40 years from now without a ban. Sure, it is all statistics, and with some juggling things might not seem quite so dire, but it is clear that no amount of juggling could ever eliminate such a massive disparity.

The smoking bans in the UK and Ireland are killing people, not saving them. Those bans need to be reversed and the people who promoted them and the politicians who voted them in, knowing the consequences, need to be held responsible.

Michael J. McFadden,

Philadelphia, PA, US

Author of Dissecting Antismokers' Brains
http://www.ft.com

Crosby pubs are at increasing risk of closure because of the smoking ban, warns UKIP


PUBS in Crosby are at increasing risk of closure because of the smoking ban, warns the UK Independence Party.

Paul Nuttall, UKIP chairman, said the ban on drinks promotions is an additional blow but the smoking ban is the major contributor to the closures.

He said nationally pubs are closing at the rate of 36 a week and these include premises within Sefton.

Mr Nuttall, who is also the lead North West candidate in the Euro-elections, said: “Instead of trying to help the industry the government seems intent on its demise.

“Meanwhile drunkenness and alcohol-related violence, particularly among the young, is continuing to spiral.”

He said people are buying booze at lower prices from supermarkets and off-licences, encouraging more people to drink.

Mr Nuttall said: “Youngsters get tanked up on cheap shop-bought drink before they even go out for the night and then spend little in the pubs and clubs as they have already consumed much.”

Describing pubs as an “easy target” he said licensees should have a right to choose whether they have a ventilated area within their premises.

He said: “This would be a properly ventilated room so that non-smokers elsewhere in the building would be unaffected. It is not uncommon to see pensioners shivering outside premises, including bingo halls, while they have a smoke. Is this any way to treat them?

“Some people argue that it is unfair that bar staff have to work in smoky conditions – but what about the staff who have lost their jobs because of the smoking ban?”

UKIP has now launched a Save the British Pub campaign in a fight to save pubs from closure.
http://www.crosbyherald.co.uk

Youth smoking up despite ban

The number of young people smoking in Scotland has risen sharply, despite the ban in pubs.
Nearly a third of 16 to 24 year-olds are smokers, an official health report showed.

The percentage - 31 per cent - is a substantial rise on the number of young smokers in 2004, which stood at 25 per cent.

The smoking ban was imposed in March 2006.
Public health minister Shona Robison said: "We are committed to doing all we can to reducing smoking rates in Scotland - both by encouraging more smokers to quit and discouraging young people from starting in the first place.

"Significant progress has been made in recent years to shift cultural attitudes to smoking, but this report clearly demonstrates that firm action needs to continue if we are to succeed in our desire to make Scotland smoke-free."

The findings will disappoint anti-smoking campaigners. Even though some of the demographic are too young to go to pubs, several experts predicted the ban would have a freezing effect on society, where smoking lost some of its charm to the young.

The figures show women are more likely to smoke than men between ages 16 to 19 while men become more likely to smoke between 20 and 24.


Half of young adult smokers in 2006 were in employment, while 30 per cent were not in education, employment or training.
 
http://www.politics.co.uk

Full house no more as Mecca sales fall 7%
 
MECCA Bingo owner Rank yesterday blamed the impact of the smoking ban south of the Border and new gambling laws for a 7 per cent fall in sales this year.
The group, which also owns Grosvenor Casinos, said admissions fell by 11 per cent in Mecca bingo halls in the 50 weeks to 14 December.

But the company offered hope that actions taken to boost business were paying.

Like-for-like sales were up 1 per cent in the 15 weeks since 1 September – the comparable period since new smoking legislation was introduced last year.

However, that sales momentum was a slowdown from a rise of 6 per cent reported between September and mid-October

Admissions also fell across Grosvenor Casinos – down 14 per cent in the year so far, although it partly mitigated this with a 10 per cent rise in spend per customer.

By Victoria Thomson
http://business.scotsman.com

Shisha cafe owner fined for smoking ban breach

Thursday, December 18, 2008, 09:30
A shisha cafe has fallen foul of the laws which forbid smoking in public places.
Marhaba, in Evington, has become the third such business in Leicester to be hit with a fine since a ban was introduced in July last year.
The cafe's manager was ordered to pay £1,650 in fines and costs following a court hearing yesterday.
Suhayl Ismail (26), of Buxton Street, Spinney Hill, Leicester, pleaded guilty at the city magistrates' court to failing to stop people smoking at Marhaba on March 16.
Katherine Jamieson, for the council, said environmental health officer Steve Joyce stopped outside the bar, in Evington Road, at 12.50am.
He saw a member of the public enter and a number of people sitting at tables smoking shisha pipes.
"When he was interviewed, the defendant accepted he had spoken to the officer, but thought smoking was allowed as it was out of hours," Ms Jamieson said.
"He said the event was a private party for friends and family members only, not open to the public.
"There were no signs on the door saying it was closed to the public and the door was unlocked."
Mrs Jamieson said prior to the smoking ban's introduction, information had been sent to all businesses likely to be affected, including shisha cafes.
"Mr Ismail requested a meeting with council officers on September 6, 2007, to see if smoking could be allowed at private functions.
"He was told it would not be allowed," Ms Jamieson said.
Ismail had also been given a caution by the council.
Louise McGhee, for Ismail, said he accepted he had fallen foul of the legislation by allowing shisha pipes to be smoked at a private party.
She said: "He honestly believed that, as it was out of hours and a private function, he could allow this.
"It was not a deliberate contravention of the law."
She said the business was floundering and he had been trying to sell the lease for some time.
"By 11pm, all the members of the public had left. It was just a reunion party for friends and family," she said.
"They were helping themselves to drinks and had brought their own food."
District judge Richard Holland said Ismail's claim that he believed smoking was allowed at private parties was counterbalanced by the fact that he had been told the opposite at a meeting with the council.
He said: "The officer saw what appeared to be a member of the public going into the premises and there were no signs saying it was a private party with the public not allowed."
At yesterday's hearing, Ismail was fined £650 and ordered to pay £1,000 towards Leicester City Council's costs.
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk

Tobacco consultation a "joke" says Forest
The smokers’ lobby group Forest has condemned the government’s public consultation on future tobacco controls as a “joke” and says the response has been “manufactured” to support the Department of Health’s proposals.
 
Dismissing the results of the consultation, announced this week by the DH, Forest director Simon Clark said: “This wasn’t a public consultation. It was a public sector consultation. Most of the groups that responded are publicly funded, and thousands of respondents were public sector employees, many of them health professionals.”
 
Of the 96,515 responses, said Clark, the overwhelming majority were pre-written postcards or e-mail campaigns by state-funded anti-smoking groups: 49,507 came from Smokefree North West and 8,128 from Smokefree North East. A further 10,757 came from D-MYST, SmokeFree Liverpool’s youth organisation.
 
“The DH is shameless. Not only does it fund many of these groups, it gave the anti-smoking organisation ASH £191,000 for its ‘Beyond Smoking Kills’ report.
 
“Surprise, surprise, research commissioned by ASH for the report found a ‘high level of public support’ for a range of tobacco control measures including a ban on tobacco display at the point of sale and a ban on tobacco vending machines, the very same proposals that were put forward by the DH in the consultation document.”
 
Clark noted that: “In 2006 ASH boasted that ‘campaigning of this kind is literally a confidence trick’ and that ‘it is essential that campaigners create the impression of inevitable success’.” (1)
 
He urged people not to fall for another ‘confidence trick’, and added: “The government appears to have held talks with every stakeholder with the notable exception of the consumer, the people who actually purchase and consume tobacco.
 
“There are at least ten million smokers in Britain. They are entitled to be consulted properly on an issue that could have a major impact on their lives, especially the way they are treated and perceived by their employers other members of the public.”
http://www.forestonline.org

Call for action as 27 Preston pubs close
The admission by Alistair Darling that the smoking ban has been a nail in the coffin of the pub trade has been welcomed by the UK Independence Party.

But the party is deeply disappointed that the Chancellor does not intend to lift the prohibition.

:"Pubs in this country are closing at the rate of 36 a week, including 27 in Preston this year, and urgent action is needed before even more disappear," said Paul Nuttall, chairman of the UK Independence Party.

"The hike in beer tax has his the pubs hard and they are not fighting on a level playing field with the supermarkets, which sell beer cheaper than water.

"But many landlords have confirmed that it is the smoking ban that is the final straw, particularly those without smoking shelters.

"UKIP has launched a Save the British pub campaign and advocates that licensees should have the right to choose whether their premises has a smoking room or not.

"No-one wants to sit eating food in a smoky atmosphere but the old-faashioned Smoke Room could be re-introduced as long as it has suitable ventilation," said Mr Nuttall.
http://www.prestoncitizen.co.uk

French say 'non' to quitting smoking as figures show no cut in numbers since it was banned in public places
Their stubborn resistance to change and love of smoking are almost national characteristics.
So recent figures revealing France's ban on lighting up in public places has 'completely failed' to cut the number of smokers are perhaps no surprise.
Defiant Gallic nicotine addicts are still puffing as much as they did when the tough new rules were brought in almost a year ago.
The country's 15million smokers are on target to get through 54billion cigarettes this year --the same amount as in 2004, according to a report by the government's anti-tobacco agency.
And the French Office for the Prevention of Smoking is now calling for a 10 per cent rise in cigarette prices.
 'Complete failure': A student smokes a cigarette in a Parisian cafe in 2006 - although banned since January this year - people are still smoking
A spokesman said: 'Measures to prevent passive smoking have not had any effect whatsoever on active smoking.
'This means 2008 will be the fourth consecutive year when smoking has not decreased in our country.

'We believe a significant rise in the price of cigarettes of ten per cent could cut sales by four per cent and also reduce the amount spent on health care.' 

Tough rules to outlaw the habit enclosedpublic places, including 200,000 cafes, restaruants and bars, came into force in January this year.
Just like Britain, smokers have been forced onto the streets and face a fine of 50 pounds for lighting up inside.   

Restaurateurs and bar owners have complained the rules have forced hundreds of businesses to close down.
By Ian Sparks
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk

Smoking should be banned outside, researchers suggest
Smoking in parks, on beaches and on the street should be banned in order to stop children taking up the habit, researchers have argued.
 

Further restrictions on smoking in public places would mean fewer children would be exposed to cigarettes and people smoking them making them less likely to want to take up the habit themselves, a series of experts have written in the British Medical Journal.

Others said the moves are 'nakedly paternalistic' and infringe on personal freedoms without strong evidence that such a ban would be beneficial.

Earlier this week ministers announced that displays of cigarettes and other tobacco products will have to be removed at the point of sale, meaning in effect they will have to be sold from 'under the counter'.

Further restrictions will also be introduced to ensure children cannot buy cigarettes from vending machines, through the use of tokens, electronic ID cards or remote control activation of the machines by the shopkeeper or landlord.

Bans on smoking in enclosed public places came into effect in England in July 2007 after similar moves in the rest of the UK and certain outdoor spaces like railway platforms and NHS grounds also prohibit smoking outside.

George Tomson and colleagues at the University of Otago, in Wellington, New Zealand said: "The central argument is that outdoor bans will reduce smoking being modelled to children as normal behaviour and thus cut the uptake of smoking. Outdoor smoke-free policies may in some circumstances, such as crowded locations like sports stadiums, reduce the health effects of secondhand smoke; will reduce fires and litter; and are likely to help smokers' attempts at quitting."

Countries including Finland, parts of Canada, two American states and New Zealand have already banned smoking on school grounds and in California smoking is banned within 25 feet (7.6 metres) of outside playgrounds.

Mr Thomson and his colleagues said research has shown the British public favour greater restrictions on outdoor smoking where there are children.

Simon Chapman, professor of public health at the University of Sydney, in Sydney, Australia argued against the idea.

He said: "The ethics here is about respect for the autonomy of individuals to act freely, providing their actions do not harm others.

"Some are affronted by the mere sight of smoking. Others have an evangelical mission to use paternalistic "tough love" to help others quit. Prohibitions on personal behaviours can be justified by the right to interfere with the liberty of people to harm to others. But paternalism is most odious when used as a justification for limiting the choices that adults make when they put only themselves at risk."
by Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Pubs lurch into deeper crisis as punters abandon them

Pubs may seem packed full of revellers in the run-up to Christmas, but the parlous state of the industry is enough to drive most landlords to drink.

The smoking ban, the sale of cheap alcohol by supermarkets, increased legislation and rises in duty have all left the sector reeling. Now it faces the sobering recession.

Figures released last week by marketing information company ACNielsen revealed that sales in pubs were their worst for 80 years.

Nielsen consultant Graham Page said: ‘The pub industry has been hit
by everything from the rise in the cost of barley to more legislation, the smoking ban and even two rubbish summers in succession.
wetherspoons

Meal appeal: Food sales have boosted chains such as Wetherspoons

Times are pretty tough for the trade and a lot of people are going bust.’

The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) said one in eight pubs – 7,500 – would be forced to close by
the end of 2012 and blamed cheap alcohol for steering people away from pubs and into their nearest supermarket.

Chief executive Mike Benner has warned of a ‘bloodbath’ on the High Street, blaming supermarkets for pushing ‘below-cost alcohol deals’.

In its Pre-Budget Report the Government said it would ban price promotions on retail alcohol sales, but also raised alcohol duties.

As a result, the British Beer and Pub Association launched its Axe The Beer Tax campaign and warned 36 pubs were closing each week, up from 27 a week last year.
Pub companies are suffering on the stock market just as much as the High Street.

Listed groups Punch Taverns, Enterprise Inns, Greene King, Fullers and others have
all seen their share prices tumble. Less than two years ago, Punch, Enterprise and Mitchells & Butlers’ total worth was £8.4billion and they were all in the FTSE 100 index.

They have all dropped out since and are worth only £1billion together. However, there are glimmers of hope for the sector, with managed pub companies such as Whitbread, Wetherspoon and even M&B back in fashion.


Whitbread – behind pub restaurant brands Beefeater, Brewer’s Fayre and Table Table – is expected to reveal healthy results tomorrow while both M&B and Wetherspoon
have shown good sales, helped by the popularity of their food.

‘Food has become a big part of what we do,’ said Wetherspoon chief executive John Hutson. ‘A third of our trade comes from food – it was five per cent when we floated – and another third comes from people having a drink with their food.

'We’re finding that some people are drinking less, but are coming with partners and children and having a meal with us instead.

'If you want to be successful, you’ve got to provide things people want and more people want to visit pubs to eat.’

Wetherspoon offers fish and chips, a cup of tea and two slices of bread and butter for £3.20, while M&B is launching a £4.99 Christmas dinner and Whitbread’s Taybarns offers all-you-can-eat buffet meals for £7.95 in the evenings.
By Sarah Bridge
http://www.dailymail.co.uk

14 area bars win exemptions to smoking ban-HARRISBURG-Pennsylvania
By Rodney L. Sherman, Clarion News Editor

HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania Department of Health has granted 14 Clarion County bars exemptions to the recently enacted Clean Indoor Air Act.

The Clean Indoor Air Act went into effect Sept. 11 and banned smoking in most public places, including restaurants, workplaces and a portion of casino floors.

The bill, however, allowed for some exceptions, including private residences (except those being used at the time for the provision of child-care services), private social functions where the site involved is under the control of the sponsor (except when the club is open to the public for a club-sponsored event, or used for a private event that is not club sponsored) and a wholesale or retail tobacco shop.

According to information posted on the Department of Health’s website, 14 exemptions have been granted in Clarion County .

The list doe not include which businesses applied for exemptions. The exemptions granted include:

All-Stars Bar in East Brady.

Mike’s Restaurant and Lounge in Salem Township .

Mac’s Bar and Grill in Knox.

Knotty Pines in Farmington Township .

BK’s near Lucinda.

The Dew Drop Inn in Paint Township .

The Woodland ’s Tavern near Mayport.

The Blue Town Tavern north of New Bethlehem.

Desperado’s Bar in New Bethlehem.

Diddy’s Bar in New Bethlehem.

Chadz Lounge outside Rimersburg.

Doc’s Tavern in Rimersburg.

Savelli’s Tavern in Huey.

The Shippen Inn just outside Shippenville.

In order to be granted an exemption to the Clean Indoor Air Act, the establishment had to prove:

It has a valid restaurant liquor license or an eating place retail dispenser license.

It has total annual (calendar year) sales of food sold for on-premises consumption of less than or equal to 20 percent of the combined gross sales.

It does not permit individuals under the age of 18 years of age in the establishment at any time or for any reason. This includes children of business owners or children accompanied by adults entering the establishment to pick up take out food. The establishment had to post signage at all entrances stating “No one under the age of 18 permitted.”

It posts signage at all entrances stating smoking is permitted.

A second exemption classification allows a drinking establishment to apply for an exception if on Sept. 11, the effective date of the CIAA, the drinking establishment had an enclosed bar area within its bar-restaurant  that meets the following requirements:

It has a valid restaurant liquor license or an eating place retail dispenser license.

The bar area is a physically connected or adjacent enclosed area which is separate from the eating area.

The bar area has a separate air system and a separate outside entrance.

The same age restriction and signage requirements listed above are met.

The sales of food consumed in the enclosed bar area where smoking is permitted must be less than or equal to 20 percent of the combined annual (calendar year) gross sales within the permitted smoking area.
http://www2.theclarionnews.com

Co-op welcomes tobacco ban
By Leigh Robinson
The Midcounties Co-operative has welcomed the announcement for plans to ban tobacco from open sale in shops.

The Government announced the move to ban all shops and supermarkets from openly displaying tobacco products to help reduce smoking among children and adults.

According to the Department of Health, display sales encourage unplanned purchases, increasing sales by 12-28%.

The Midcounties Co-operative, the third largest consumer co-op in the UK, was the first major retailer to remove all promotions from tobacco seven years ago.

Ben Reid, chief executive of The Midcounties Co-operative, said: "As an ethical retailer we view this legislation as vitally important in the fight against tobacco-related disease, and we welcome the Government's plans.

"We are actively trying to deter both young people and adults from smoking. We run an awareness campaign on the dangers of smoking and also offer smoking cessation advice in a number of Midcounties Co-operative pharmacies.

"Good health is a focus for the Society and we run a number of initiatives aimed at both adults and children, including Healthy Hound', an active lifestyle campaign for school children."

The Midcounties Co-operative is based in Oxford and Walsall, with trading outlets stretching to Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and surrounding counties.

It is a £700m business with over 550 branches, 7,000 employees and over 300,000 members.

http://www.wiltshirebusinessonline.co.uk

Smoking ban leaves Leeds pubs gasping for life
11 December 2008
By Mark Hookham
THE smoking ban is helping to push more and more pubs in Leeds to call time, Alistair Darling has admitted.

The Chancellor included the impact of the smoking ban in a list of pressures faced by the struggling pub trade.

Ministers have often been reluctant to admit that Labour's decision to ban smoking in public places in 2007 has had a knock-on effect on pubs.

Mr Darling's comments came as the British Beer and Pub Association warned MPs that the number of failing pubs is now "accelerating rapidly."

Leeds lost 12 boozers last year out of a total of 740 licensed premises, although this figure includes nightclubs and off-licences.

Much loved drinking holes like the The Skinners Arms in Sheepscar; The Waggon and Horses in Holbeck; The White Stag in Mabgate and The Golden Lion in Wortley have all gone to the wall.

The BBPA estimates that pubs are now closing at the rate of 27 a week. This is seven times faster than in 2006 and 15 times faster than in 2005.

BBPA chairman Rob Hayward yesterday told the Commons business and enterprise committee that much of the decline has come at a time of "ever greater aggression" from supermarkets.


"They are discounting to an extent that all pubs find incredibly difficult to compete against," he warned. But he also added that the smoking ban had a "dramatic effect on the pub trade."

Mr Darling agreed that the ban was affecting pubs.
He said: "If you look at pubs generally there is a lot of different things going on here.

"People's drinking habits have changed, there is no doubt you can buy drink at the supermarkets a lot cheaper than you can buy if you go and buy it on-premises, there is no doubt the smoking ban has made a difference.

"There is a whole range of things that are making a difference."
However, John Rowe, the manager of the Grove Inn and chairman of the Leeds branch of Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), says the Government was right to insist that smoking in pubs be stubbed out.

He said: "I do not see why it should affect the public trade, although I can see it has affected the clubs trade."

Mr Darling also defended his decision to twice hike alcohol duty this year.

But Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland said: "The reality is that it is his policies like the ill-advised and extortionate duty hike that are really threatening the future of pubs."
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk

European smokers light the fires of resistance

Another day, yet another victory in Britain for the anti-smoking zealots. Not content with Britain having arguably the most draconian anti-smoking laws in the world, we're now to have a ban on shop displays of tobacco.

In the rest of Europe however, the zealots are not having it all their own way. Here's my piece on the growing pan-European smoking resistance movement, from The First Post.

If you hold to the stereotype of Germans as people who love obeying rules, however ludicrous, then think again. Across Europe, a resistance movement is growing to the many draconian bans on smoking, and leading the rebellion are the Germans.

Germany is home to a plethora of anti-ban organisations and smokers' rights groups including the 'resistance' group Smoking Rebels, who record pro-smoking rock songs and rail against Europe's new anti-smoking 'dictatorship', and the Pan-European Association of Smokers, whose purpose is to "achieve reasonable conditions for smokers in all European countries".

Bans on smoking in Germany have been circumvented by bars charging a nominal entry fee and thereby transforming themselves into private clubs, which still have the right to set their own smoking rules. Bans have also been overturned in the courts: this summer the Federal Constitutional Court upheld complaints made by small bar owners in Tubingen and Berlin that the bans were damaging their business.

Meanwhile leading German personalities, including the 89-year-old former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, a life-long heavy smoker, have openly flouted the new laws. Schmidt and his 88-year-old wife Loki (above) were pictured smoking at a theatre reception in Hamburg. A case bought against them by an anti-smoking group, which accused the theatre of abetting the pair by providing them with ashtrays, was dismissed by the city's authorities.

It's a similar story of rebellion in the Netherlands. There, the ban on smoking tobacco (but not, incidentally, marijuana) in enclosed public places, introduced in July, has been widely ignored. In the city of Den Bosch last month, the majority of pubs allowed their clients to smoke in protest against the ban. Around 500 establishments have been fined for breaching the new law, but faced with the prospect of losing their clientele, many bar owners have preferred to allow their regulars to carry on smoking.

In both Holland and Denmark, smokers' parties have been formed. The Danish Smokers Party (Rygerpartiet) has as its first stated goal "to get parliament representation, in order to combat smoking laws". It fights "for the right to diversity and nonconformism" in Denmark and opposes the "daily discrimination, harassment and persecution of tobacco smokers". The party has recently been renamed the 'Party against Nannyism'.

Ironically, the country in Europe where there has arguably been the least resistance to anti-smoking legislation is Britain. The country that stood alone against the Nazis in 1940 is the one which seems keenest to observe laws that were first introduced by the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s. Whatever would the inveterate cigar smoker Winston Churchill have made of that?


UPDATE: You can hear me arguing against the British government's ludicrous ban of tobacco displays, on the BBC World Service's Europe Today programme. My contribution is about two-thirds into the programme.
http://neilclark66.blogspot.com

Number 10 ePetitions: What's the Point?

On 14 February 2006, the House of Commons voted by a majority of 200 for comprehensive smokefree legislation which then came into force in England on 1 July 2007. Its implementation has been hailed as a huge step forward in public health.

Johnson said the smoking ban had been "highly successful" and "heralded by many as the most significant public health intervention for a generation".

He said: "We have seen no significant evidence to suggest that smoke-free legislation either in this country, or in others where similar legislation has been in place for some years, will create any long-term economic problems for pubs or for the hospitality trade in general."

"The significance of the smoke-free laws cannot be overestimated. We expect many lives have been saved."

The scientific and medical evidence is very clear that secondhand smoke kills and that there is no safe level of exposure.

98 per cent of all premises compliant and smokefree;

76 per cent of people in support (and even 55 per cent of
smokers in support);

87 per cent of businesses said implementation had gone well or very well.

Bar workers’ exposure to hazardous secondhand smoke has been reduced by 76 per cent.

The law was introduced to protect workers and public from secondhand smoke. It has also provided a supportive environment for those trying to give up smoking, and according to a report by Professor Robert West of University College London, an additional 400,000 people have given up smoking since 1st July 2007 as a result of smokefree legislation.

Cancer Research UK, which funded the research, said that the momentum now needed to be maintained.

TAG particularly funds research and activities that support:

Smokefree workplaces across the UK and internationally, and other measures to protect against second hand smoke exposure;

Fears cigarette ban may finish newsagents

10 December 2008
By David Coates, Business Reporter
Newsagents fear plans to force them to take cigarettes off display in their shops maybe the final nail in the coffin.
One newsagent in Preston said if his cigarette sales were to drop he would be relying on "meagre" sales of lottery tickets and scratch cards to survive.

Health Secretary Alan Johnston said yesterday supermarkets would be hit first by the ban which aims to cut the number of underage smokers.

He claimed corner shops and newsagents would have to diversify anyone as smoking rates dropped.

David Sturzaker, who has run Cop Lane News in Penwortham, near Preston, for 25 years, said the majority of underage smokers bought cigarettes from vending machines which the government has ruled out banning.

He said: "There are 200,000 kids smoking, what about the five million adults who legally buy cigarettes and we legally sell too?

"We have a strict rule that we do not sell to anyone under-18 anyway, so this is unlikely to have any effect on us anyway and I think these kids will find cigarettes from somewhere if they really want them."

Danny Chauhan, who runs a newsagents on Beech Drive in Fulwood, Preston, said he would wait to see the government's proposals in full but said newsagents were concerned about the impact it could have.

The plans announced by Mr Johnson will ban prominent displays and advertising in shops.

The Health Secretary said: "Advertising has been removed from television, film and newspapers, the only point now where there is advertising is point-of-sale.

"Other countries have found when they banned point-of-sale displays, they reduced the number of young people taking up smoking."

In a written statement to Parliament, he promised a "fully inclusive" implementation with all possible help given to businesses to deal with any impact.
http://www.lep.co.uk

Financial crisis and smoking ban forcing pubs to call time, MPs told
10 December 2008
By Jonathan Reed
THE banking crisis and smoking ban have combined to hit the pub industry and force down the number which survive, MPs have been told.
The number of new pubs opening has "fallen off a cliff" in the past year as bank lending has dried up.

More pubs than expected have also closed because of the smoking ban, industry experts told the Commons Business Select Committee, and last night Chancellor Alistair Darling admitted the legislation had forced some out of business.

Yesterday two of the major pub companies were also dragged before the committee amid concern the conditions they impose make it increasingly difficult to make a living out of running a pub, forcing more to close.

The claims over the impact of the banking crisis and smoking ban were made as the committee investigates the pub industry, which is losing five establishments every day. The recent Government announcement of an increase in alcohol duties to counteract the temporary cut in VAT is feared to make things even worse.

Nick Bish, chief executive of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, said the banking crisis was partly to blame for problems in the past year, with only 403 pubs opening up to September this year, compared to 1,035 in the full year in 2007.

"The banks shut up shop, actually, about a year ago and getting into the business has become much, much more arduous," he said.

Meanwhile the British Beer and Pub Association said it warned then-public health minister Caroline Flint before the smoking ban came in that it would result in 5,000 pubs closing.

Chief executive Rob Hayward said: "I think everything's gone to show it's accelerated that."

Later Mr Darling also admitted the smoking ban was a factor in the decline of pubs as he defended the decision to increase duties, saying he had done it for a reason – to keep the level of taxation on alcohol the same when VAT was cut.

The Chancellor said: "There's a lot of different things going on here. People's drinking habits are changing, people buy alcohol from the supermarkets, the smoking ban has made a difference."

Yesterday pub groups Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns also faced a grilling from MPs, some of whom blame them for making it increasingly difficult for licensees to run them viably.

The British Beer and Pub Association said the industry was experiencing "one of the most severe and sustained periods of pressure on record".

Longer-term trends of people moving away from going to the pub have been "dramatically sharpened" by the economic downturn and exacerbated by tax and regulation changes, it added.

With communities increasingly losing their pub, a lifeline in rural areas, it wants the Government to scrap duty increases, enforce existing laws instead of creating new ones and to offer active support for the British pub.
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk

Cigarette sales forced 'under the counter'

By Joe Churcher, PA
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
The Health Secretary today unveiled plans to force cigarette sales "under the counter" in an attempt to cut smoking by children.


Alan Johnson also announced that the Government was taking on powers to make it more difficult for under-18s to use cigarette vending machines - and may ban them if that does not work.

The move to ban prominent displays of tobacco products and advertising at the point of sale provoked storms of protest from shopkeepers, who argue it will cost them much-needed business during the economic crisis.

The Tobacco Manufacturers' Association warned that the change would hit corner shops hardest as customers buy more of their cigarettes from supermarkets. But Mr Johnson said that the ban will be introduced in supermarkets first, and that corner shop owners would anyway have to "diversify" as smoking rates fall.

The Health Secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Any sane, rational and sensible Government will be focusing on removing what is the biggest public health risk."

Evidence from abroad shows that under-age smoking rates have been cut by as much as 10 per cent, while no retailers have been forced to close, said the Department of Health.

Mr Johnson said that the cost of changing shop layouts to accommodate the ban would not be "horrendous", citing evidence from Canada suggesting it came to about £500 a shop.

Official statistics show that almost 200,000 children aged between 11-15 were regular smokers in 2007.

And the "overwhelming majority" of the 100,000 responses to a consultation on the new measures backed a ban on point-of-sale displays as a good way of protecting these young people from the dangers of smoking.

Mr Johnson revealed that he had ditched a plan to ban the sale of cigarettes in packs of 10, which are thought to be within the range of pocket money purchasers. The consultation revealed concerns that this might erect a further obstacle for adults trying to cut down their intake.

He said: "This is primarily about children - 11 to 15-year-olds. Advertising has been removed from television, film and newspapers. The only point now where there is advertising is point-of-sale.

"Other countries have found when they banned point-of-sale displays, they reduced the number of young people taking up smoking.

"That is the primary concern we have here. Also, having these displays prompts impulse purchases and makes it more difficult for people who are determined to quit to actually quit."

In a written statement to Parliament today, Mr Johnson will promise a "fully inclusive" implementation across England with all possible help given to businesses to deal with any impact.

Vending machines, believed to be the source of cigarettes for up to a fifth of young smokers, will also face a ban or age-proofing measures such as a requirement to buy tokens for the machines rather than using cash.

And there will be a promise of more research on whether forcing cigarette firms to sell their products in plain packaging could further reduce the appeal to under 18s.

TMA director Chris Ogden told Today: "We are in the grip of a recession and it is hardly the time to knock small businesses by measures such as these.

"It is the retailers more than the manufacturers that are going to be hit by these proposals, and we feel a great deal of concern for them.

"They rely significantly on tobacco sales for their income and by losing sales to the bigger outlets, which is the inevitable result of this, they will also lose opportunity sales from smokers such as newspapers and chocolate bars."

He defended point-of-sale displays: "It is a legal product and it allows consumer choice and competition between manufacturers and retailers."

Mr Johnson said: "We will remove point-of-sale display from big supermarkets first."

But he warned that smaller shops will anyway not be able to rely on tobacco to provide a large slice of their income in future: "The number of people smoking is reducing and will continue to reduce so there needs to be diversification because that is going to happen remorselessly."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told MPs last month that it was "not good enough" that smoking rates among children had only been cut from 13 per cent to 6 per cent.

The Government has already raised the age limit for buying tobacco from 16 to 18.
http://www.independent.co.uk

Taxman kills himself 'over smoking ban'

A taxman killed himself after the smoking ban left him a virtual recluse, an inquest heard yesterday.

Lawrence Walker, 61, barely went out when cigs were barred from his local pub.

Friend Robert Lye said: "He felt insulted to have to stand outside and smoke.

"We think the ban killed him. He was so depressed about it he hardly went out.

It made him very solitary."

Mr Walker, of St Columb, Cornwall, leapt to his death from cliffs at Porth beach, Newquay, in June. Coroner Dr Andrew Cox recorded a verdict of suicide.
http://www.mirror.co.uk

Bar shuts as smoking rebel loses court fight

By Paul Fielding
REBEL landlord Hamish Howitt today vowed to continue his fight against the smoking ban - despite a High Court judge ordering him to shut his Blackpool pub.
While Mr Howitt - who has flouted the ban by allowing customers to smoke on his premises - said he would abide by yesterday's ruling, he pledged to use the courts to take his battle to even higher jurisdictions.

He said: "I don't want any more confrontation, but I will continue to pursue this through the courts."

Mr Howitt, 57, ordered workers at his Delboy's Bar on Rigby Road to shut the premises immediately after Judge Denyer, sitting at London's High Court, told him he had lost his licence.

Hamish will be joining us for a live web chat on Thursday between 1pm-2pm only on www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk

After the hearing he said: "I will abide by the decision reluctantly, but I am going to pursue this through the House of Lords and via a judicial review on human rights.

"I'm gutted that I lost and I think it's absurd that smoking is considered part of crime and disorder. Immediately that I got the result I had to phone the bar and tell them to shut it down.

"It has cost me £28,000 in costs and fines, not to mention the damage to my health. So today, of course I'm gutted.

"I'm hoping to re-apply for a licence and will give the council an undertaking that I will never allow smoking on the premises, but in the meantime I will take this through the court of human rights."

Judge Denyer said Mr Howitt was obliged by health and licensing laws to treat smoking in his bar as a crime and prevent it.

The 2003 Licensing Act states that one of the objectives of the licensing regime is "the prevention of crime and disorder".

Blackpool Council decided to revoke Mr Howitt's Premises Licence because of his failure to prevent the "crime" of smoking.

The bar owner argued that, for there to be a breach of his licence, there had to be "disorder", as well as crime.

He argued: "There is no disorder in smoking. I would say my bar is the most controlled bar in Blackpool, and probably the UK."

But Deputy High Court Judge Denyer rejected his argument, saying: "Although not a crime of disorder, permitting smoking in a place where smoking is barred is a criminal offence - and therefore simply as a matter of definition it is a crime."

Blackpool Council leader Coun Peter Callow, said the council had been carrying out its duty to uphold government legislation by appealing against a decision by a district judge sitting at Blackpool Magistrates Court earlier this year, who had ruled that the council had been wrong to revoke Mr Howitt's licence.

Coun Callow said: "Upholding this piece of legislation has been very costly to Blackpool Council, both in terms of legal fees and officer time. I'm glad we can finally draw a line under it.

"We don't have a personal grudge against Mr Howitt. We have merely been enforcing the legislation given to us by Government.

"In Blackpool we take a hard stance against licensees who aren't meeting the licensing objectives. We want Blackpool to be a place where people can enjoy themselves in a safe environment ."
http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk

Official: Scotland sees large rise in hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome in second year of smoking ban

Data released this week by the Scottish government show that emergency hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) rose sharply in the second year of the country's smoking ban.

Much was made of an apparent reduction in the number of patients being diagnosed with the life-threatening heart condition after the smoking ban came into effect in 2006, including a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine which claimed that the ban had caused emergency ACS admissions to fall by 17%.

However, official statistics show that the decline in hospitals admissions for acute coronary syndrome has been greatly exaggerated. The real decline in the first year of the smoking ban was just 7.2% - not 17% - and the rate then rose by 7.8% in the second year, cancelling out the earlier drop.

In the last 12 months before Scotland enacted its smoking ban (April 05 to March 06) there were 16,199 admissions for acute coronary syndrome*. In the second year of the smoking ban (April 07 to March 08) there were 16,212 admissions, slightly more than there had been before the legislation was enacted.

Hospitalisations for acute coronary syndrome in the last 10 years.
Source: ISD Scotland

Hospital admissions for acute coronary syndrome have been declining in Scotland for many years. The new data show that the well-publicised fall in admissions following Scotland's smoke-free legislation was in line with the existing downward trend and was significantly less steep than has previously been claimed.

The belief that the number of cases of acute coronary syndrome fell by 17% after the smoking ban stems from a study of volunteers in a selection of Scottish hospitals between 2005 and 2007. The study - 'Smoke-free Legislation and Hospitalizations for Acute Coronary Syndrome' - has since been criticised for its limited scope and for excluding data from several key months before and after the ban.

If the 2006-07 decline had really been the result of the smoke-free legislation, it would be expected for rates to remain low in subsequent years. The fact that Scottish hospitals have seen an unusually sharp rise - despite the smoking ban being rigorously enforced - suggests that whatever lay behind the 2006-07 dip, it was not the smoking ban.

Hospital data from England and Wales has failed to show a significant reduction in incidence of acute coronary syndrome since going smoke-free in 2007. This new evidence from Scotland casts serious doubts on the theory that smoking bans have a measureable impact on incidence of acute coronary syndrome.

Christopher J. Snowdon is the author of Velvet Glove, Iron Fist: A History of Anti-Smoking

Demonstrators gather in The Hague

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Smoking ban on trial in The Hague

Friday, November 28, 2008

Dozens of cabbies are flouting smoking ban
Published Date: 29 November 2008
By Staff Copy
BLACKPOOL cabbies were today warned they risk losing their licences or paying up to £300 in penalties if they light up in their vehicles.
The Gazette can reveal that since April more than 50 drivers have been fined on the spot after being caught smoking in their taxis.

Those who have not paid the £50 fixed penalty notice (reduced to £30 if paid within 15 days), or who are persistent offenders, have been taken to court.

There have been 12 prosecutions since April.

The last driver to appear before magistrates was fined £150 with £150 costs.

Because the cabs are deemed to be a place of work, drivers are banned from smoking even between pick-ups. One cabbie, who was caught out twice in six days, has been hauled before Blackpool Council’s public protection sub-committee and given a severe warning.

Chairman of Licensing, Coun Henry Mitchell, said: “Under the Health Act, a taxi is considered to be a place of work just as a pub or a restaurant is.

“So the ban is applicable and even if a driver does not have any passengers in the back, he or she cannot smoke.

“They can’t even just wind the window down – they must leave the vehicle. The council has issued more than 50 fixed penalty notices since April this year because of this which is far too many. We need to send out a message that smoking will not be tolerated.

“One driver has already been given a severe warning and if he is caught again he may have his licence suspended. Other drivers could find themselves in the same position if they flout the rules, so we are saying, just don’t smoke in your vehicle.”

The Blackpool Licensed Taxi Association said it did not wish to comment on the issue.

In January this year, a driver was ordered to pay more than £500 by Blackpool magistrates after failing to put a “No Smoking” sticker in his cab.
http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk

Hamilton considers smoking ban in public housing
Proposed ban has raised questions about whether prohibiting smoking in private homes could be a violation of human rights
November 25, 2008

THE CANADIAN PRESS


HAMILTON – This southern Ontario city is considering banning smoking in its public housing.

A report on banning smoking in all public housing buildings, as well as beaches and parks, is expected to be released in June 2009.

The proposed ban has raised questions about whether prohibiting smoking in private homes could be a violation of human rights.

John Fraser, a program director at the Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation in Toronto, said because people with lower incomes are over-represented in the smoking population, imposing the ban could be construed as discrimination against low-income families.

"Social tenants don't have a choice to be there. They're living there because they don't have a lot of other options," he said.

But several tenants in public housing say they would support a city-sanctioned ban on smoking in their homes.

Tracy Woods, a long-time smoker, said she would support the move.

She said she currently smokes in her home, but only away from her kids.

"Yes, it's my right, but at the same time, it's not your right when you're polluting your kids and the people around you."

Maria Rose said she also supports the ban.

Rose is also a smoker, though she already abides by a strict "no smoking in the house" policy.

Afroze Edwards of the Ontario Human Rights Commission said if the city were to go ahead with the ban, it could be challenged on the basis that smoking is a disability "because of the addictive nature of it."

(Hamilton Spectator)

thestar.com

Pub campaigners bid to alter smoking ban
Jim Adams 
CAMPAIGNERS fighting for the future of the Great British pub are today attempting to alter the controversial smoking ban.

Even the government accepts the legislation has had a huge impact on trade and is allowing bars to claim business rate reductions.

The ban is often cited as one of the prime factors killing pubs - and now a campaign has been launched in Suffolk to try to amend the law.

Jim Adams is behind the bid and is urging regulars at pubs all over the country to sign a petition.

“The smoking ban should be replaced with a rule that would require all public houses to have a room set aside for smokers instead of the really stupid overall ban,” said Mr Adams, who runs Jim and Donna's Barbers in Hamilton Road, Felixstowe.

“The ban is killing the pub trade and removing from the English way of life one of the most sought after features for tourists coming here. There is no justifiable reason to stop those who wish to smoke from so doing.

“If there is another part of the pub which is a smoking area then the folk who wish to smoke may so do, and those who want a smoke-free area may have the rest of the establishment - including the food area - to themselves.”

Mr Adams said many pubs used to have a room or bar just for smokers which seemed to work well.

“I will be contacting as many pubs as possible to get them to organise petitions to present to government,” he added.

The Evening Star is highlighting the loss of pubs in the area - more than 100 have closed in living memory - and the threat many are now facing to their future.

Kate Nicholls, head of communications at the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR), which represents pubs and bars, said: “Last summer's bad weather and the smoking ban were to blame for a number of closures.

“People are not going to want to stand outside and smoke when the weather is unpleasant and with extremely cheap supermarket drink deals available it just gives people a reason to stay home.”

Would smoking rooms in pubs be a good idea? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk

COMMENTS:
I personally cant see the problem of each pub having a smoking room. It is so cold at the moment and I know I am not the only smoker who doesnt bother going out because you cannot have a cigarette inside.
cathy clarke

I gave up over 3 years ago but can see how our pubs have been affected, smoking rooms would be a good idea and would lessen the dog ends on the pavement and would allow these businesses to continue, you will never stop hardened smokers unless you ban tobacco and that is not going to happen!
C Smith, Ipswich

It's about time that pubs started to fight back. Even IF there are any problem with passive smoking, separate rooms with proper ventiltion would do no harm at all.
chas winfield

Come on it has worked for many years of having smoking and none smoking parts of the pubs so come bring it back. In the ipswich pub where I drink ( the case is altered on woodbridge road) there are people outside that dont smoke because they want to carry on socializing with there friends. Also because of the smoking ban the landlords are being punished so bring the smoking back denny
Denny Collins

Jim adams there are plenty of places where you cannot do this filthy habit(thank god) such has work areas,i dont hear of people jacking there jobs in because they can't smoke at work ? walk along the main street of our town and see the filthy mess left on top of the litter bins , it looks absolutely disgusting, and its the price of the drinks in the pubs thats killed there trade
Michael Bartlett, Ipswich

Since stopping smoking I feel much fitter, food tastes much better and I have money to spend on better things. It makes good sense. Try it Mr Adams - I can recommend it. Rather kill pubs than people Jim. There are too many of them anyway - pubs I mean!!!
stanley ransome

Price and smoking may be a factor, but also in todays society, many teen/20's would rather sit in wearing a tracksuit, than the old working class ethic of looking sharp and going out!!
Sol Rosenberg

"walk along the main street of our town and see the filthy mess left on top of the litter bins , it looks absolutely disgusting" - by that I assume you mean non-smokers chewing gum?! sarky.
Sarky Sage

If pubs had smoking rooms I would be right back in there, enjoying a social life, just like before. Since the ban I and my smoking and none smoking friends stay at home, we enjoy a drink in the house and lament the fact that pubs are empty and closing everywhere. Bring back smoking - or at least smoking rooms and we'll be right back in there! This cause is absolutely just and way way overdue, congratulations to Jim Adams and his campaigners for finally taking a stand for common sense. I wish them all the luck in the world!
Antony Henstock

This action is long overdue, at long last we have the people who run pubs comming up with a better and fairer solution than the unjust law this robotic goverment brought in. this action has the suport of a lot of people.
clif everiste`

http://www.eveningstar.co.uk

Forest wins BBC apology
17/11/2008
The smokers' lobby group Forest has won an apology from BBC Radio Northampton after a presenter compared smokers to alcoholics.

Bob Walmsley, who hosts the station's consumer affairs programme, made the on-air apology 48 hours after an interview last week with Forest spokesman Neil Rafferty on Redbridge Council’s decision by to ban smokers from fostering.

During the interview Walmsley compared placing a child with foster parents who smoke to placing a child with alcoholics. He also stated that smokers were unfit parents.

Walmsley told listeners: "I gave an opinion comparing alcoholics to smokers. This was an unfair comparison to make and if this has caused offence I am genuinely sorry about that. It was not my intention."

Rafferty said: "We're more than happy for presenters to play devil's advocate but Bob Walmsley crossed the line and exposed his own prejudice. His statements were ill-informed and offensive to smokers across the country.

"I welcome his apology and the fact that BBC Northampton dealt with our complaint so promptly and efficiently.

"But sadly, in my experience, too many BBC local radio presenters are breaching the corporation's editorial rules on impartiality, particularly when it comes to the controversial issues surrounding tobacco.

"They are using licence payers' money to further the anti-smoking agenda and that is not acceptable."
http://www.forestonline.org/output/News-Releases.aspx

Shameless mocks smoking laws
Monday, November 17, 2008, 15:31

Shameless layabout Frank Gallagher flouts the smoking ban in the new series of the Manchester drama, which returns to our screens in January.
Series six of Shameless sees a boycott of the local boozer by the Chatsworth Estate residents because of the smoking laws.
So staff decide to let the customers smoke in the pub rather than face financial ruin.
Other controversial storylines tackled in the new series include benefit fraud, brothels, stints in jail and stings gone wrong, fake suicides, cold turkey, joyriding, lesbian romps and lingerie parties.
The show has just won Best Continuing Drama for the second year running at the RTS North West Awards and actor Sean Gilder won Best Performance in a Continuing Drama for his role of Paddy Maguire.
Producer Lawrence Till said: "I am delighted to be making television that I would want to watch. Series six is exciting, ambitious and daring - taking stories into areas we don't know and places we have never been.
"We can delight in the surprising nature of ordinary people with drama that unpeels the enormous emotional complexity of their lives".
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk

Dutch policy going up in smoke: Bars ignoring smoking ban, saying business being threatened
By MIKE CORDER | Associated Press Writer
8:21 AM EST, November 19, 2008
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) _ A growing number of Dutch bar and cafe owners are slapping ashtrays back on their tables just months after a nationwide smoking ban came into force for bars and restaurants, saying the measure is driving hundreds of small businesses toward bankruptcy.

"The minister is leaving bar owners out in the cold," said Lodewijk van der Grinten, after a meeting late Tuesday with Health Minister Ab Klink. "Some 1,500-3,000 bars could go under because of this ban."

Van der Grinten leads a nationwide umbrella group of restaurant owners lobbying the government to either enforce the ban better or scrap it altogether. He also wants the law adjusted to punish smokers instead of bar owners, and for the government to compensate small cafe owners who are hardest hit.

Owners say they are losing up to 30 percent of their turnover since the ban came into force July 1, and the government enforcement agency is handing out a growing number of fines ranging from euro300 to euro2,400($380-$3,000).

This is the first winter that bars and cafes are having to deal with the restriction in a country where temperatures can drop below freezing in winter. The ban also is being imposed at a time of a global financial crisis and grim economic news.

Amid widespread reports that small cafes are allowing smokers to light up again, Klink wrote to Parliament this week to underscore that the government takes the issue seriously.

"Let there be no misunderstanding," he wrote. "In this country, laws have to be respected and that applies to everybody."

In the first months of the ban, bars were given warnings if they allowed smokers to light up, said Astrid Bergman, a spokeswoman for the government's Food and Wares Authority, which oversees the ban.

That changed on Oct. 1, and since then the authority has fined some 500 establishments, Bergman said Wednesday. She stressed that the majority of bars and restaurants are sticking to the ban.

Others are building special sealed smoking areas or providing covered outdoor seating and heaters for smokers.

The Netherlands is one of the last European countries to impose smoking restrictions in public eateries in an effort to reduce the effects of passive smoking.

The European Commission estimates that nearly 80,000 people die each year in the 27-nation bloc from inhaling other people's tobacco.

All EU nations have rules limiting smoking in public places, but they vary from country to country. Some permit exemptions allowing smoking to continue in bars and cafes, posing health concerns for those that work there.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com

Enterprise Inns calls time on 200 pubs
Wednesday, 19 November 2008 

Midlands-based pub giant Enterprise Inns is selling off around 200 pubs because of falling sales due to the credit crunch and last year's smoking ban.

It made the announcement after reporting a 12.6% slump in full-year pre-tax profits. Profits stood at £263 million for the year to September 30, compared to £301 million the year before.

"A vicious economic downturn, last year's smoking ban, a hike in beer duty, poor summer weather and cheap offers in supermarkets have all combined to encourage drinkers to stay at home," said chief executive, Ted Tuppen.

The group currently owns 7,700 pubs, a portfolio which had grown from just 368 when Enterprise was founded in 1991.
 
http://www.talkingdrinks.com

A friend in need-Jon Gaunt

Talksport presenter Jon Gaunt has been suspended - pending investigation - for calling a local councillor a "Nazi" and an "ignorant pig" on air. Gaunt was interviewing Conservative councillor Michael Stark, who was defending Redbridge Council's decision to ban smokers from becoming foster parents.

I wasn't on the show - although I did take part in another Talksport programme on the same subject later in the day - but I can imagine that the debate got pretty heated. And rightly so. The decision by Redbridge council to ban adults who smoke from fostering children is disgraceful and the councillors who voted unanimously for the policy deserve to be criticised in the strongest possible terms.

I would draw a line, however, at describing them as "Nazis". Indeed, the decision to suspend Jon Gaunt demonstrates why Forest treads very carefully when it comes to this sort of emotive language. Even the words "health fascist" should be used sparingly, and I despair when I see - on YouTube and elsewhere - pro-choice activists dressed in Nazi-style uniforms.

Put it this way: the Nazis killed six million Jews. Whatever we think of smoking bans and other policies designed to stigmatise and discriminate against those who smoke, there is no comparison. (I don't care if Hitler was anti-smoking. Given his far more serious crimes against humanity, it barely merits a mention and in my view we don't help ourselves by making an issue of it.)

That said, I believe that Jon Gaunt was speaking from the heart and with the very best of intentions. The very nature of programmes such as his is that things will be said in the heat of the moment - and I read that Gaunt feels strongly about child welfare, having spent his early teens in a care home himself. Writing in The Sun last week, he commented:

    "This is the same warped logic that condemns black children to a life in care rather than let them be fostered by white couples. The same master race philosophy that forbids fat couples from adopting.

    "The SS – that is social services by the way – think the risk from passive smoking is more dangerous to a child than them being left to rot in a children's home.

    "Today it's Redbridge but, unless we all make a noise now, tomorrow it will be a national policy and thousands more children will fall victim to the health and safety Nazis and be left in a home alone."

I couldn't agree more. This is something he is clearly passionate about - and he made his feelings known. There are very few broadcasters and journalists brave enough to take a stand against today's anti-smoking orthodoxy. I therefore urge you to contact Talksport and call for Jon Gaunt's reinstatement.

I have spoken to Talksport press officer Stephen Farmer and he has advised me that we should email him directly (stephen.farmer@talksport.co.uk) and he will forward our emails to Talksport management. Please do it now.

Note: a short, firmly-worded message of support is all that is required. You will do Jon no favours if you are long-winded or abusive. Do not write anonymously or under a pseudonym. Have the courage of your convictions and give your full name and address. I suggest that you also copy your emails to Jon himself (jon@gaunty.com).
http://takingliberties.squarespace.com/taking-liberties/2008/11/11/a-friend-in-need.html

Punch puts Midlands pubs on the block after £80m loss

Beer sales slump causes headache for pubs
Written by: Algy Hall
Third-quarter beer sales figures from the British Beer & Pub Association made for spectacularly grim reading. Beer sales through pubs, restaurants and bars dived 8.1 per cent between July and September. That compares with a longer-term trend of 2 to 3 per cent annual declines as drinkers slowly switch to a wider range of beverages. And the drop was even worse than it first appears because the third quarter of 2008 is the first time the industry has been able to compare sales with a period also covered by the smoking ban, introduced halfway through 2007. The sector had been expecting sales comparisons to improve once the impact of the ban fell out of the figures.

Such dismal industry data is particularly bad news for pub companies after they used the past few years to load up with debt and expand rapidly. They now look particularly vulnerable to trading weakness due to the demands of servicing debt. Many heavily-indebted pub companies run the risk of falling into so-called "cash traps" whereby the distribution of cash flows is restricted in order to service debt obligations should trading deteriorate below an agreed level.

While beer sales make up about half the profits of tenanted pub groups such as Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns, they are not the whole story. The industry has focused on increasing food sales recently and other drinks, such as wine, are also increasing in popularity. In addition, groups with tenants enjoy index-linked rent increases. But with beer sales falling so sharply it seems justified to fear that sales elsewhere may also be affected. And there are increasing signs from tenanted-pub companies that tenants are having difficulty paying rent.
http://www.investorschronicle.co.uk

Smokers face ban from fostering 
 
The council said it would help existing foster carers to quit smoking
Smokers will be banned from fostering children in a London borough, if a council's plans go ahead.

Redbridge Council, in north-east London, said it wants to protect children from "the damaging effects of passive and second-hand smoke".

If the plan is approved on Tuesday, smokers will be unable to foster children from 2010 unless there are "exceptional circumstances".

Redbridge Foster Care Association welcomed the plan as "a good idea".

Under the plan, existing foster carers who smoke will be given support to help them quit.

The council claimed the policy was the result of scientific evidence which showed that "second-hand smoke is a cause of lung cancer and childhood respiratory disease".

Councillor Michael Stark said: "While the council recognises the proven skills and abilities of its carers who smoke, it is essential that the health of our looked-after children is protected.

"Unlike adults, children have little choice about whether or not to be in a smoky environment so I hope the cabinet will take the decision to limit the harmful effects this drug can have on them."

Redbridge Foster Care Association chairwoman Norma Gregory said: "Foster carers in Redbridge think this is a good idea and would support anything that safeguards children.

"However, they have been aware of the impact that passive smoking has on children's health for the past three years and most either don't smoke because they have kicked the habit or, if they do, they don't smoke in the company of children."

Last year the Fostering Network charity advised UK local authorities to ban smokers from looking after children under the age of five.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7699911.stm
 

Smokers ready to flout Sutton play area ban

By Kevin Barnes »

Nicotine addicts in Beddington and Wallington are preparing to defy the first open-air smoking ban in London by refusing to stub out cigarettes in public play areas.

Sutton councillors last week divided public opinion by forbidding smokers from lighting up in playgrounds in the areas.

Smokers’ rights groups are unhappy because the ban is not legally enforceable and pre-empts any future Government proposals.

As prominent signs were readied saying “please don’t smoke – protect your children”, the Forest lobby group said smokers may flout the new rules.

A spokesman said: “This is a completely preposterous bylaw. It is hysterical to claim that passive smoking outdoors can endanger health.

“We would not encourage people to break the law, but it would be understandable if smokers in the area decided they were going to ignore a ban which is an infringement of their individual freedoms.”

James Davis, 26, a regular smoker outside his workplace in Stonecot Hill, said: “I won’t deliberately descend on these public playgrounds, because this is an emotive issue.

“But, if I happen to be passing by, I’m not going to be browbeaten into putting out a fag until someone actually passes some legislation against it.”

Sutton Council has pledged to employ safer neighbourhood teams to ensure public co-operation with the voluntary smoking ban.

Deputy leader Councillor Ruth Dombey said: “The voluntary ban and consultation is an excellent display of local democracy in action, with residents and ward councillors finding the solutions to local issues.

“Our aim at Sutton Council is to build a sustainable community in which all can take part and take pride.

“Our local committees are central to achieving that aim.”
http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk

Landlady fined for smoking breach

By Jo Winrow

A pub licensee has been fined £1,000 for allowing its customers to flout the smoking ban – the first prosecution of its kind in the district.

Kathleen Hall, who runs the Welcome Inn in Grant Street, Keighley, has pledged to organise a whip-round among customers to help her pay the hefty fine and costs of more than £500.

Hall appeared at Bradford Magistrates’ Court today charged with failing to stop customers from complying with the anti-smoking laws, which came into force in July last year.

She pleaded guilty but afterwards criticised the law, which she said could force her out of business, and complained that many of her customers simply refuse to stub their cigarettes out when asked.

Hall told the Telegraph & Argus: “About 90 per cent of my customers are smokers and many of them have been drinking and smoking at the pub for years. They say to me I haven’t got the right to ask them to stop. I’ve even called the police once.

“I don’t think they should be coming after me. What about fining the people who were actually smoking?”

The court heard how Bradford Council environmental health officers, which brought the prosecution, visited the pub in February and found eight customers smoking during the ten minutes they were there.

Solicitor Richard Winter, for the Council which brought the prosecution, said there had been a number of complaints relating to smoking continuing at the pub and warning letters were sent before officers visited.

“During an interview Mrs Hall confirmed customers had been smoking inside when she had been away from the premises and she had not done anything to prevent them,” he said.

Hall told magistrates: “I would like to stress that I pleaded guilty for my customers, not for myself. I do tell them it’s a no-smoking pub and am doing everything possible, but some refuse to stop.”

Speaking after the case, John Major, the Council’s assistant director for environmental health, said: “It is the responsibility of the person in control of the premises to prevent smoking taking place inside.”

It is the third prosecution by Bradford Council under the anti-smoking laws, and the first pub. In June the Markaz Restaurant and Shisha Lounge in Centenary Square, Bradford, was fined for a second time for providing shisha pipes indoors.
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk

Bid to ban smoking in cars

Anti-smoking lobbyists have said the Government should consider banning smoking in cars.

Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) claims the pollution caused by one cigarette in a car is as bad as a pub filled with smoke.

In its report, Beyond Smoking Kills, it states that stopping smoking in cars is "vital in cutting the exposure of children and young people to the toxins in second-hand tobacco smoke".

Ash's director Deborah Arnott said: "It's a serious health issue. Research from Canada shows if you smoke once in a car you get the same pollution as you used to get at the end of an evening in a pub.

"The level of exposure you get in an enclosed vehicle is extremely high and it's not at all good for your health."

She added that Ash was not calling for an immediate ban, but wanted an investigation into whether legislation should be introduced.

"We want a proper debate, not a knee-jerk reaction," she said.

"What we need to do is engage people as to why smoking in cars is dangerous. It's not just dangerous for children, it's dangerous for adults as well.

"We do not call for a legislative ban on smoking in cars. Give smokers access to alternatives. What we'd like to see is if smokers are in the car and desperate, they chew some gum. We need education."

The Beyond Smoking Kills report found that the annual cost to the NHS of smoking had risen from £1.7 billion in 1998 to £2.7 billion this year.

Among its recommendations are the introduction of plain packaging and a ban on shop displays of all tobacco products in a bid to encourage 4.5 million smokers to quit by 2015.

Simon Clark, director of pro-tobacco group Forest, said smokers were facing a "war" and wanted an end to Government interference.

Mr Clark said: "We're strongly against any further legislation on smoking in cars.

"We think parents should err on the side of caution when it comes to smoking around children, but to ban it would be a gross overreaction.

"There's simply no evidence that smoking in cars is a serious distraction and causes accidents. I think this is part of the war on tobacco and I think it would be difficult to enforce.

"A car is a private space and if people choose to smoke in their car, that is a matter for them."
http://www.capitalradio.co.uk



 

Smoking ban killing business, say pubs
By Staff Copy
PUBLICANS have hit back at council claims the smoking ban has been a success in Scarborough.
The borough council's environment manager Steve Reynolds told the latest meeting of the corporate strategy overview and scrutiny committee that anti-smoking legislation had been successful in town, although it had also led to an increase in littering.

However, his words have angered local licensees, who say the ban has cost them business.

Kath Duffy, landlady of the Newcastle Packet and president of the Scarborough branch of the Licensed Victuallers' Association, said: "The council might think the ban is wonderful but we don't. Pubs have lost a lot of trade, the summer's not been too bad but the winter when people have to stand out in the cold will really hurt us. We saw a definite drop in trade last winter. People just aren't coming to pubs like they used to before the ban."

Laurin Mainprize, landlady of the Britannia, said: "I reckon business is down 40 per cent on last year. Smoking isn't illegal and people shouldn't have to stand outside in the cold to smoke. Why can't we have smoking and non-smoking establishments so people can make up their own minds?

"The local pub's a dying breed and the ban's one of the main reasons."

And customers agree.

Lindsay White, a regular in the Black Swan, said: "My husband's a smoker and he just won't come to the pub any more – he says there's no pleasure if he can't have a smoke with his pint."

Her friend Janine Welsh added: "I don't smoke but I still think it's wrong – in winter it's absolutely freezing, why would anyone want to stand out in that?"

The Campaign for Real Ale says 36 pubs close every week in the UK, and though the credit crunch and cheap supermarket beer prices are also causes of closures, landlords are adamant the smoking ban is a major factor.

Campaigning group Freedom to Choose has raised a million-name petition to fight the new law, which was introduced on July 1 2007. Its aim is ultimately to collect between five and seven million signatures.

The group's Helen Daniels told the Evening News it was not just non-smokers who objected to the ban.

"We're not a pro-smoking organisation – in fact a third of our members are non-smokers who think the ban is unfair.

"I cannot agree the ban has been hailed as a success – business failures, unemployment, increased stress, denormalisation of citizens, community groups broken up, the elderly in total social isolation – to name but a few effects of the ban.
Where’s the success in that?”

Scarborough Council’s head of environmental services Andy Skelton said although the ban had been introduced by the national government rather than the authority, as head of the body that enforces it he was in favour of the law.

“The key issue with the introduction of the smoking ban was the protection of the health of the people who work in places where smoking was allowed, who were definitely at risk from smoke,” he said.

“Like most health professionals I am fully supportive of it and this is a view that is shared by three quarters of the population.

“It now seems quite clear that as well as protecting the health of workers the ban has also led to a reduction in the number of people smoking – an estimate suggests that 400,000 people may have quit the habit since the ban was introduced.

“This means more than two billion fewer cigarettes have been introduced and as many as 40,000 deaths will be prevented in the next 10 years. Of course I have sympathy with those businesses who have been adversely affected by the ban but when those concerns are weighed against the public health benefits I am absolutely clear that the Government were right to ban smoking in enclosed public spaces.”
http://www.scarborougheveningnews.co.uk

Pub owners in low spirits
BANGALORE: In Pub City, youths jostle for space as they guzzle draught beer, blow smoke rings and headbang to hard rock. But the spirits are low this weekend at many watering holes.
The ban on smoking was in ample evidence in pubs and bars across the city, with fewer patrons, and owners jittery about their weekend businesses.

At NASA, a pub on Church Street, there were only a handful of persons at 8 pm. Probably, the ‘No Smoking’ boards at the entrance kept a lot of guzzlers at bay. “The ban on smoking has definitely hit the business. Today, we hardly got 10% of our usual customers. On other days, by this time, it would have been full,’’ said a manager.

Many pub managers complained that several customers came in but walked out after seeing the warning boards. Many customers frequently came out for a puff after a couple of drinks.

“Drinks are said to go hand in hand with the smoke. This ban is sure to affect our business,’’ said R S Dharmendhar. manager of Amoeba on Church Street. This place has placed ‘no smoking’ boards at the entrance as well as in the restaurant and bar lounge.

“We have a separate smoking zone. Those want to smoke can use this specific corner. Many customers smoked in their cars before entering the restaurants,’’ he said. The scene was similar in Java City.

At the stairs, one could find a bunch of butts as youngsters smoked outside the cafe before entering. Satish of Java City said, “The ban has definitely affected business. The majority of our clientele are youngsters who come for a smoke and coffee. This ban has hit our business by 70%.’’

Health commissioner P N Srinivasachary, also member of anti-tobacco cell, pointed out that different government departments have been notified about the ban. The BBMP is distributing a copy of the legislation to all these departments. On Saturday, the state anti-tobacco cell and various departments will meet to work out the modalities to enforce the ban.

(toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com )
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

smoking ban is hurting nightclub
Saturday, October 04, 2008, 07:00

THE credit crunch, the smoking ban, a ready availability of 'cheap booze' in supermarkets and a shift in licensing laws have left a Teignmouth landlord hard-hit.
Graham Wilson, owner of Kools nightclub in Teignmouth, has spoken out as his application to lengthen his Sunday night opening hours into Monday morning is due to go before licensing committee members later this month.
The application has already received mounting opposition from residents. Its hearing was adjourned for 28 days from September 26 after the initial licensing advertisement was published incorrectly.
The nightclub is currently open until 12.50am on Monday morning but Mr Wilson wants to extend it until 2am with alcohol being sold until 1.30am.
He said his business was down £15,000 in six months on the same period last year.
Mr Wilson said: "It is terrible for us at the moment. The fact is that, because the pubs are opening longer and people are not coming out until midnight it leaves me only an hour to run my business.
"The problem is people are drinking cheap booze at home which they buy from supermarkets. They are then coming out later and I need to adjust my opening times to accommodate that.
"I wish I could close at 1.30am every day of the week because it's not fun opening long hours but we're being forced in to it."
He said the main thrust behind the change in people's socialising habits are the credit crunch, forcing people to buy cheaper drink and stay at home longer to save money; cheaper drink freely available in supermarkets; and the smoking ban which is also encouraging people to stay at home because they cannot smoke and drink indoors at pubs and clubs.
"We have definitely been hard-hit by the price of a pint rising by 10 pence in the last budget.
"What does the Government expect to happen when they ban smoking and up the price of a beer?
"The pub trade is going through a dramatic change which is why so many of them are closing down.
"I have had the business for a long time but we have still got to cover our overheads and our electric bill was 45 per cent up on last year from £7,400 to £11,105.
"That is why pubs are closing. The smaller pubs used to be for the working man who used to have a couple on his way home.
"You don't get those people coming in anymore. It's because they can't smoke.
"You get a man who's been doing the same thing his whole life, stopping off at the pub for a pint and a cigarette at the bar — and the Government tell him he can't do that anymore."
To the residents who are opposing his application to lengthen his hours, Mr Wilson said: "About 95 per cent of my customers are local people and all of the DJs are local. This nightclub has been here for 26 years and for 17 of those years I have had it.
"In that time we haven't had any problems with environmental health (noise pollution) or the police. I have built up a very good relationship with people."
He said longer licensing hours into a Monday morning would mean customers having longer in the club: "At the moment they are arriving at midnight to 12.15am and by the time they get there and order a drink they are being told to drink up."
http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk

Meeting over future of pubs

Beleaguered publicans have attended a meeting aimed at helping them keep afloat as they battle the impact of cheap sales of alcohol in supermarkets, the smoking ban and taxes on alcohol.

The meeting organised by South Norfolk Council was attended by around 40 landlords and forms part of an initiative to try to safeguard the future of rural pubs in the area.

John Turner, landlord of the Cross Keys pub in Wymondham, said it was a useful event and added: “There was a lot of anger in the room. Basically the trade is getting a battering from every angle and 36 pubs a week nationally are closing. Supermarkets are selling alcohol in many cases less than the price of water. Pubs are part of our heritage and they are disappearing quickly. Once they disappear they will never come back. There is obvious concern from South Norfolk Council and it was very good of them to call this meeting.”

The council has set up a special taskforce to examine the factors leading to the success or demise of pubs and to consider whether the authority can offer any advice or assistance to licensees in the district.

Earlier this year the council canvassed the views of 103 landlords with the survey revealing that publicans blame high rents, supermarket sales of cheap alcohol and taxes on alcohol for damaging their trade.

The conference and buffet lunch on Monday was an opportunity for publicans in the area to network with each other. There were also informative talks on issues identified by landlords such as business rates, trade waste and planning issues.

Suggestions already put forward by the publicans on how the council might help include providing financial training or assistance, organising a pub of the year competition or bringing political pressure to bear on the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) to provide funding for rural pubs.

Keith Weeks, chairman of the task group, said: “We had quite a good attendance and I believe everyone who came got something out of the meeting.”

Mr Weeks said it was hoped the networking aspect of the meeting would prove particularly useful.

“Having read through the questionnaire responses my thinking was that there are some licensees who are doing better than others,” he said. “Every situation is different. Some publicans have found ways of creating that extra footfall and I was hoping we could transfer some of these ideas to other pubs who perhaps have not thought of them.”

Mr Weeks said the council would also be looking in more detail at pub diversification following a presentation at the meeting by the Pub is the Hub organisation.
http://new.eveningnews24.co.uk

Enterprise boss takes swipe at badly run pubs
Simon Bowers The Guardian
Ted Tuppen, chief executive of Enterprise Inns, has said the impact of the smoking ban, poor summer weather and pressure on consumers' wallets is weeding out less able publicans from the industry.

Speaking after Enterprise told investors like-for-like operating profit for the past six months would be down 5%, Tuppen said: "These difficult times will have found out a number of lower-quality lessees, and indeed poorer pubs."

He said the root cause at most underperforming Enterprise sites was the tenant. About 1,300 pubs received £5.5m short-term rental concessions or beer supply discounts from Enterprise for the six months to yesterday, with an average benefit of £4,230. Almost a third of these agreements resulted in the publican's exit.

About one in six of Enterprise's 7,785 pubs is boarded up or leased on short-term agreements, up from 1,100 six months ago to 1,250. The company said a small but growing number of these had become unviable. These properties - many in the north of England that previously enjoyed high volumes - are to be sold.

Enterprise said it had put on hold plans to convert itself into a tax-efficient real estate investment trust because of the market turmoil. It "anticipated delivering earnings and dividends in line with market expectations for the year".
http://www.guardian.co.uk

Chorley landlord could move abroad after losing smoking ban appeal
By Andrew Greaves

A Chorley landlord is thinking of selling up and moving abroad after losing an appeal against his conviction for allowing customers of his former pub to smoke on the premises.

Nick Hogan, licensee of The Swan With Two Necks, Water Street, and, at the time, Barristers in Bolton, was found guilty of four charges of failing to prevent people from smoking in his pubs following a trial at Bolton Magistrates Court in January.

Mr Hogan, who lives in Summerseat, appealed against three counts on the grounds he had not been aware and could not have been reasonably expected to be aware that people were smoking in his pub.

Now, after losing his appeal against the conviction - and a fine of £3,000 - Mr Hogan says he is ready to take the fight to the High Court and, if necessary, the European courts.

He said: “I told the court that I was not in the pub at the time so could not possibly have seen the people smoking.

"I am now bankrupt so the Swan With Two Necks is my wife Denise's pub but I would seriously consider packing up and moving abroad because all I am asking for is fairness.

“Gordon Brown said at the Labour conference that he wanted to create a fair society but he is not doing that with the smoking band.

“They have different rules in places like Spain and they work well but in this country the Draconian measures this Government has introduced is killing the industry.

“Only the UKIP party is willing to stand up for what we believe in and I am fully supporting their political campaign.

"We are now fighting this on a political level because I cannot believe that a Labour government would do this to working class people.”

At Bolton Crown Court, Judge Angela Nield said Mr Hogan’s well-publicised opposition to the ban, would have ‘encouraged’ customers to smoke and he would have known this.

The original fine of £3,000 - £750 for each conviction - that Mr Hogan received still stands.

He was ordered to pay an additional £1,000 in costs, on top of the initial £7,121.
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk

Will Young Launches A One-Man War On The Smoking Ban
Matthew Laidlow

Hey, guess what! Will Young has a new album coming out. How do we know this?

The Pop Idol winner has been thankfully away from our TVs and radio for a good healthy period of time. But now he’s back making all sorts of grand pronouncements. Bum. When popstars aren’t around to annoy us, no-one gives a toss about them. But when albums are released, quotes from press interviews are suddenly given massive importance. Erm… just like we’re doing right now. Bum.

You see, Will Young’s decided to come out (not literally - we’ve had a hunch for a while) with a random statement about one of the main loves in his life – the good old cigarette.

Will Young is one of those people whose main vice in life is to fill his mouth with the sweet taste of smoke. Mmm, if ever there was a sexy thought to cross our minds. Well, the thought of the stubbly lady from the off license is a close second. Sadly for Will and millions of other fag lovers, the government decided to go and outlaw smoking in pubs and public buildings, effectively making sure you can’t light up anywhere.

Hooray! Non-smokers won’t die of cancer from the evil gases that come from cigarettes. We can now wander the street with only the fear of being shot at or being stabbed in our minds instead. God bless Britain.

Some famous folk have decided to ignore the ban on smoking and do radical things like smoking on stage at gigs. But Will Young wouldn’t do that! Oh no. Probably because parents of the under-18 gigs he plays wouldn’t be happy. If their 12-year-old children want to smoke, it should be their choice. Being influenced by a past-it Pop Idol bloke won’t help.

Nevertheless, Will Young is pissed off with not being able to smoke anywhere. He told Now magazine that he’d reverse the smoking ban if he had the power. Something that’s as likely to happen as Jordan not having any more surgery on her tits. Will said:

“If I could pass any law I’d reverse the smoking ban. The amount of times I’m outside a building, in a public place, and someone says: “You can’t smoke here.” And I’m like: “I’m on the pavement; just you try and stop me!”

Yeah! Just try and stop him. What you gonna do? Remember he sang in a competition once and now has more power then you could ever have? Leave him alone. He’s done nothing to you. At least in his mind, he can make a difference. So just go with him before things get tasty and bits of your leg go missing.

We have an idea of how Will can get his fix of smoke for free. We are all financially fucked at the minute, remember. All you need to do is get in your car and have the engine running. The fumes it emits will entice the Pop Idol bod to come and smack his lips right round the exhaust. As he breathes it all in, the option of reversing the car over him is entirely up to you. Just remember, we didn’t plant that idea in your head. Not even if the judge asks.
http://www.hecklerspray.com/will-young-launches-a-one-man-war-on-the-smoking-ban

I'm left fuming

Having been a smoker for many years before giving it up nine years ago, I was appalled to read that they want to ban people from smoking outside a pub in Coalville (Mercury, September 20).
How much longer are people's human rights going to be eroded because of so-called do-gooders. Pubs are already under pressure because people have to sit outside like second class citizens in all weathers. Why not just round all smokers up and stick them in prison and be done with it.
It's enough to make me want to start smoking again – just out of spite.
Brian Heathcote, Aylestone.
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk

Bolton pub smoking ban rebel loses appeal

The former landlord of a Bolton pub has lost his appeal against a conviction for allowing customers to smoke on the premises.

Nick Hogan, who was the licensee of The Swan and Barristers in Bradshawgate, was found guilty of four charges of failing to prevent people from smoking in his pubs following a trial at Bolton Magistrates Court in January.

He appealed against three counts on the grounds he had not been aware and could not have been reasonably expected to be aware that people were smoking in his pub.

At Bolton Crown Court today, Judge Angela Nield said his well-publicised opposition to the ban, including coverage of his views in The Bolton News, a protest in the pub on July 1, the day the measure was introduced, and letters in the pub stating his opinions, would have ‘encouraged’ customers to smoke and he would have known this.

She said: “He made it clear he did not intend to take any action to stop anyone smoking.

“This would have encouraged people to smoke on his premises.

“The appeal is refused and the conviction stands, the sentence is like penalties.”

Mr Hogan became the first pub landlord in Greater Manchester to be convicted of allowing customers to defy the smoking ban.

If he had won his appeal, there could have been major legal implications.

Mr Hogan, who is now landlord of The Swan With Two Necks in Chorley, said: “ The original fine of £3,000 - £750 for each conviction - that Mr Hogan received still stands.

He was ordered to pay an additional £1,000 in costs, on top of the initial £7,121.
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk

Snoop Dogg flouts smoking ban

Snoop Dogg wasn’t bothered about getting in trouble with the law as he openly flouted a smoking ban during a recent trip to Holland.

The Drop It Like It's Hot star - real name Cordozar Calvin Broadus - was performing at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam when he lit up mid-performance.

Smoking was banned in the country in July this year, including at the infamous cannabis coffee shops where you can now only smoke pure marijuana.
http://www.femalefirst.co.uk

Ban on street smoking suggested 
A Leicestershire council is considering whether smoking should be banned from the streets in a bid to cut littering.

Councillor Nick Rushton from North West Leicestershire District Council said he had received a number of complaints about cigarette ends on the street.

The idea to ban smoking on the districts' street is being discussed but no decisions have yet been made.

The Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (FOREST) said the ban would not work.

"I am pretty sure nothing will come of this as it has already been tried...and got howled down," FOREST spokesman Simon Clark said.

"I have a lot of sympathy for the argument about excessive cigarette litter...but local authorities need to do much more in terms of providing cigarette bins and we would encourage smokers to use them."

Weekend rubbish

Cllr Rushton said his constituents were concerned about the litter problem.

"I get a lot of people who don't smoke and who don't like litter...such as cigarette ends on the street on a Saturday and Sunday morning when it's been a busy night in the pubs.

"If this litter is a major driver of public dissatisfaction, it's something which could be improved.

"I get equally as many complaints from people who have to walk through crowds of smokers and that's not just at night."

Mr Rushton said he would consult his fellow cabinet members to see how to best resolve the issue.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/7631197.stm
 

Scottish pub management firm CMC Management has been granted voluntary liquidation.

The move will see a total of 15 pubs closed with the loss of around 100 jobs. The company, based in Grangemouth, said the smoking ban and credit crunch had led to a significant decrease in trade.

"It is our understanding that a general downturn in business after the smoking ban was introduced and the significant reduction in trade due to the credit crunch are the two main factors behind the business failing," Maureen Leslie, of MLM Insolvency, told the BBC.
http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news.ma/article/80664

Huge drop in smokers visiting pubs
8 September, 2008

By Marc Mullen

New research shows half of pubs have sacked staff as a result of the ban

Three quarters of licensees have reported a drop in the number of smokers visiting their pubs since the smoking ban was introduced.

Nearly half of the 912 licensees who responded to a BII and Federation of Licensed Victuallers Association survey said they had sacked staff as a direct result of the ban. Two thirds said smokers were now making shorter visits to the pub.

“The aim of the ban was to stop smokers from smoking, but all that it seems to have achieved is to stop smokers from going to pubs, encouraging them to stay at home and drink and smoke as much as they like,” said John McNamara, BII chief executive.

And Ali Carter, licensee trainer and former BII licensee of the year, added: “A lot of licensees feel they have the rug pulled from under them. The traditional pub, the old-fashioned British pub no longer exists without smokers.”

In June exclusive research by The Publican revealed 52 per cent of licensees had seen a drop in trade since the ban, but the majority said they would not reverse it and blamed problems on other factors such as the credit crunch and cheap supermarket booze.


The results of the latest survey were published on Monday, the last day of the government’s consultation on future tobacco controls.

The BII is urging the government not to bar cigarette vending machines from pubs, which is on its list of proposals.

Vending companies pay licensees between 20p and 25p for each packet of cigarettes sold.

The other options on the table are token-operated or infrared-activated vending machines.

“This is a sledgehammer to crack a nut,” said McNamara. “Requesting proof of age, as our members currently demand, is a simple and effective way of dealing with the issue.”

Survey results

-
• Drink sales have fallen 9.8 per cent since the smoking ban was introduced
• Food sales have increased 0.6 per cent
• 75 per cent of smokers are visiting the pub less since the ban
• 66 per cent are making their visits to the pub shorter
• 47 per cent of licensees have laid off staff as a result of the ban
• The ban has been bad for the pub trade according to 74 per cent of licensees


 Comment on this story

Readers' comments
john 12 September, 2008, 16:45
well as most publicans seen to appove of the ban and would not recind it i guess that is the end of pubs - a slow death of a great british institution.

Twiggins 12 September, 2008, 14:49
Strictly speaking the problem is that when smokers are give the choice between giving up smoking and giving up going to the pub they choose to boycott the pub. If they chose to stop smoking there'd be no problem.

John 12 September, 2008, 06:04
Well its all done and dusted isn't it? I used to spend about 150 quid a week in my local pub and thought nothing of it. I've always worked in a smoke-free environment and so going to the pub aftr work or on days off used to be "Ahh............" , wind down, relax, have a beer and a fag and shoot the bull with the guys. Now I just put my feet up at home with a glass in my hand and a fag in the other and the great thing is that I'm 100 quid a week better off! OK I don't have anybody to talk to but the smoking ban has definitely enriched MY life. Thank you Mssrs Blair, Brown et al for turning me into an non-social alki instead of being a perfectly sociable heavy drinking chain smoking bar fly.

Steve 12 September, 2008, 00:22
I think that idiot Tim Martin should take some blame for this mess. In the run up to the ban,his wetherspoons magazine was opposed to said ban for quite a while. then,suddenly, one issue he was all for it. What happened to change his little mind?(possibly a fairly influential little mind admittedly) Now his shares are going down and his beer is going up.Pillock

James Watson 11 September, 2008, 23:58
Do you know, as other commentators have implied, what really amazes me is that publicans, big and small, who are now windging like mad about their loss of trade, did not band together to contest in the courts the unfairly onerous nature of the requirement that publicans must not ALLOW smoking to occur, and the swinging fines associated with ALLOWING smoking. Hamish (the Blackpool publican) almost got there but seems to have been got at). There are only one or two examples of NOT TO ALLOW that spring to mind. One was, 'not to allow a property to be used as a brothel', but you never see any prosecutions being brought for that offence (if it still exists) anymore. Even with the terrorist threat, I do not know of any law which specifically states that landowners must NOT ALLOW terrorist activities on their properties. The other is, if my memory serves me right, an attempt to prosecute the driver of a car if he failed to ensure that passengers were wearing seatbelts. That fell down when the courts made it clear that it was the duty of an adult to fasten his own seat belt and not the duty of the driver to make sure that he did. Is it too late for publicans to take such steps? I would have thought that it would be worth their while. It seems to me to be almost certainly true that MPs in general had not actually read the Health Act which banned smoking - particularly the defintion of a public place. Of course, no poltician would admit to not knowing what he was voting for. Perhaps MPs vaguely envisaged continental type bars with nice outside areas with clear plastic sheeting to keep wind and rain out. Perhaps MPs would be actually secretly pleased if the courts decided that law is unduly draconian.

www.kentgigs.com 11 September, 2008, 22:37
After 28 years of promoting music in venues in Kent & E Sussex the majority of which were pubs, we were not surprised to see the devastation caused by The "Smoking Ban" But The result has been worse than we feared with former clients going bust, into administration or handing their keys in. We have lost a lot of money this year along with the pub trade we have partnered with but all new accounts now pay on-line up front. The bands and entertainers that traditionally brought trade in, say they don't want to play to an audience of a dozen customers. Council noise restrictions, the price of beer. PPL and PRS licences have all taken their toll and there is not enough spare money around. A once popular pub in Folkestone's "Creative Quarter" last month had a total turnover of 75 one week. Another of our landlords is on Tax credits because he cannot pay himself a wage. We wonder if the weak will survive Autumn. Our view is that the strong and fortunate will survive but the reputation of the good landlord has been soiled by Goverment policy and made it a dangerous business to be in. Is there not room for customer choice? The closures around us settled a little during the Summer months where smokers could use gardens or the street but the cold weather is on the way back and smoking customers wiil not continue to be treated a second class citizens cast into the cold because they smoke. They will not bother to visit the pub at all. Things are bad now for our landlords, just wait for the quiet period. A resounding last call of " Last Orders Please"

Cath 11 September, 2008, 19:56
I am a ex licensee who came out of the business in Oct 2007. I am a licensee among many who did know that it would reflect on my bottom line! , and now paying the price. It is this govenment and companies like Enterprise who are driving businesses to the wall. I worked 11 years in the trade and nearly 8 running my pub which i loved. But it jut got harder and harder being squeezed in every direction. This is no longer a free country or British for that fact. It is about time this country was taken back to being British and having freedom of speech and OUR rights

Z Macbeth 11 September, 2008, 16:51
I see a lot of ranting about smokers boycotting pubs after the ban. I don't see anyone protesting that they banned it everywhere else as well. Are smokers not boycotting government offices or shopping centres as well? It seems a futile way to protest, to boycott somewhere we are never obliged to attend. By creating a ramping system of fines, and laying the responsibility to enforce the law upon the staff and landlords, the Government have neatly sidestepped having to notice protesting in venues. Spark up in the Houses of Parliament en masse, and they might have to...

Michael L 11 September, 2008, 15:14
Hmm, I read htis and the comments and see so many in pure denial of reality. I recall a local licensee who said the smoking ban would never affect his trade and he was all for it. The last time I spoke to him as I was the only person there (!) he tried in vain to blame everyone and everything in total denial the smoking ban might play a huge part in it. Strange that my father foungt in a war for the good and freedom of the country but if another war was to start we'd just keep the lights on. Michael

Cliff 11 September, 2008, 14:31
I am a Publican who has seen his business completely ruined by this government and the pubcos. The Government broke up the big breweries managed houses to promote more competition. Given that Punch and Enterprise own half of the pubs in this country how has this worked. Now we are subject to Property people who have no real interest in the Pub trade. After all if a pub fails knock it down and build on the land. With regards to the smoking ban no one stood up to the geverment becuase there was no one to coordinate it and everybody felt it would come in no matter what. How come no-one points out that in Europe eg Germany they have taken a different approach allowing Bars to choose... what has happened to CHOICE in this country. Can we see the Germans, French etc putting up with a nanny state like this? Duties, increased Beer costs due to stupid attitude towards diesel etc. This Government has not got a clue, it is breaking everything it touches. Not only will it bankrupt every pub in the country but also the country itself. New Labour.. no same old Labour... last time they were in power they bankrupt the country and we had to cap in hand to Europe... nothing changes. I agree with some of the comments nothing was done by the Publicans.. so it is about time we did something. I will be writing to my MP and Councillors telling them that I shall be putting up posters inside and outside my pub highlighting the governments destruction of the English Pub and erosion of choice as well as the economical failures. Lukily I have big walls. I will make it clear that come election time I will actively encourage people to vote anything but labour. They need reminding they represent us not dictate to us. Maybe it is time for the publicans to set up there own coalition to camapign for some justice and compensation from those who could not organise a xxxxx in a brewery.

Chris Gossop 11 September, 2008, 14:23
As the worst kind of non-smoker (an ex 30 a day man!), ex publican and operations manager for a small chain, I have some comments to throw into the pot. I quite like a smoke free environment, clothes not stinking of stale smoke etceteras. Along with thousands of others I've never enjoyed a pub where the smoke took over. I have always maintained that publicans and pub owners have only themselves to blame (on the whole) for the smoking ban. If we had (and the chain I worked for did this) installed proper air filtration systems, thereby getting rid of the smoke and not the smokers, we would have had a stronger argument against the busy body do gooder brigade who believed that smoking, and drinking was/is the curse of all things pertaining to ill health. But now we have the other problem with pub owners. I was out with friends who smoked. We went outside so they could enjoy a smoke but the outside heaters weren't on, nor could they be switched on. Admittedly, in August you would hope that you wouldn't need an outside heater, but we did. They wouldn't. We left. There are a plethora of problems facing all business now and with rising running costs the industry (and individuals) need to do something. My local is often very cold now because doors are left open as a small army of smokers come and go! I don't like to shiver with my pint. This is just another example of a nanny state government that has adopted the delusion that it knows best. The country needs to rebel on a variety of fronts, not just this. Too much CCTV that is only of use if it creates revenue, the thought that speeding is the biggest killer on the roads et al! I live in an area of east London where there is a massive mix of Europeans. They enjoy a cafe bar society. I'm English and we enjoy a pub culture. How many local councils then say you're not allowed to go outside with your drink to have a cigarette? Bl**dy nonsense! The sooner the government realise that their are a variety of cultures in this country and we don't have to belong to the same one the better! Why not allow smoking but insist that certain levels of 'air purity' have to be maintained? If a publican wants to be purely smoker free, because of the particular offering or the demographic then the choice should be theirs and not the governments. Give us back some freedom! I am fast believing that we're living in a dictatorship which we voted in!

Chris F J Cyrnik 11 September, 2008, 11:43
The hospitality trade have to suffer what their smugness deserves. They weren't remotely interested when the ban came in, because they thought it would'nt hurt their bottom line...well now you know different! You made your stinking bed...so you can lie in it!

stevie 10 September, 2008, 16:26
Why is nobody in the pub trade protesting and campaigning against the smokeban? I used to be out 7 nights a week (being a singleton) now I stay in 4 of them. If licensees don't want the ban reversed then may they go out of business, I have no sympathy for them. Turkeys DO vote for Xmas!

PaulD 10 September, 2008, 14:31
"In June exclusive research by The Publican revealed 52 per cent of licensees had seen a drop in trade since the ban, but the majority said they would not reverse it." Fine. Let them run non-smoking pubs and leave the rest to choose. Why should they dictate the behaviour of the entire industry?

jim lawler 10 September, 2008, 14:11
maybe now the industry will get the message and show some fight for a change . twenty million smokers demand action it was the smokers who took revenge on labour in Scotland as they joined the thousands who will not vote labour again.the economy is a shambles. if the ban was changed there would be an immediate surge in trade of that how can any one be in doubt.

Michael Peoples 10 September, 2008, 12:30
Colin is right about publicans going under. I work in insolvency and it is not just the publicans who are suffering but also those who provided entertainment. Again I have no sympathy because these people used the Roy Castle card and were looking forward to playing in a smokefree environment. Now that they are in danger of losing everything they would happily play in Chernobyl if it meant earning a living. The turkeys voted for Christmas and were too stupid or brainwashed by the lies of ASH and their ilk to see it.

Colin 10 September, 2008, 12:21
I am an example of a smoker who stays at home or goes to freinds now. I used to visit the pub 3 or 4 times a week but not now. If I cant smoke with my Pint I will Boycott. If you the licencees had stood up to the Bullies ie NULabour I would have joined the protest and helped. But you didn't. So "happy bancrupcy"!

Chris 10 September, 2008, 09:59
I have been a pubbite for 40 years and this ban has ruined my social life because as a smoker I, like many others, will not pay to be victimised or pay full price for less hospitality. The brewers, pubco's and licensees need to realise that they don't have a right to survive , they have to fight for it. Stop being so soft and take the government bullies on, this is your industry that they are destroying. DONT LET THEM!

Steve 9 September, 2008, 22:57
I agree with the last comment. If publicans dont like the ban - then pull yer fingers out and get protesting about it. The punters protest is simply to smoke and drink cheap booze from tescos at home.

Robert Woods 9 September, 2008, 20:12
This labour government have destroyed the pub trade because of this outrageous and and undemocratic smoking ban. As a non smoker myself and my pals, some of whom where smokers used to go to our local regularly and enjoy a couple of pints together and catch up. It was a good air conditioned pub and cigarette smoke was never an issue at all. Now it is nearly empty most nights with people just popping in for an hour, then home again to drink and smoke in comfort with friends as i do now with my smoking pals, as our once friendly social local is now sanitized, empty and horrible, thanks to this horrendous labour government who are systematically destroying this country with its policies and dictatorship. I will never vote labour again and was once as many of my family and friends where once, loyal supporters!!

Dave Atherton 9 September, 2008, 17:50
Can I echo many of the comments here. Smokers are often the good time Charlies who used to stay the longest, spent the most and had the best time in pubs. As someone who has worked in sales and business for over 20 years, publican's really do have my sympathy. However when the trade and publicans are making no attempt to petition government and express a desrire to have the law changed, my sympathy rapidly dimishes. As a member of F2C I put in a considerable amount of time and expense in doing my best. 15-20 hours a week communicating with people. I am at the Tory Party Conference with Forest on the 29/10 for at least one night, where I will be paying for my accommodation, subsistance and travel, F2C activities, meetings also consume my salary in a similar way too. I just wonder whether I am getting the support from other parties. At the end of the day I can get a nice bottle of Chablis fron Tesco for £8.95 as opposed to European wine lake plonk at £9.99 from my local and do not have to step outside the minute I want to light up. Of course these are my choices and I can stop anytime, but all I want is a smoke with my drink.

Michael Peoples 9 September, 2008, 13:20
So the majority of publicans do not want the ban reversed. If that is the case then smokers should contnue to boycott the pubs and let them go to the wall. Even CAMRA who were huge supporters of the ban are screaming because the local pubs and breweries are dying on their feet. Gastropubs do not support small breweries or real ale and already at least one small brewer has closed. I have no sympathy. My wife and I rarely go to the pub anymore and eating out is almost non existant whereas we used to go out at least three times a week and ate out once. We can now stay at home and have a cigarette between courses and enjoy a postprandial smoke with our Irish Coffees. The savings are huge and fund trips away where we can stock up on cheap cigarettes to maintain the cycle. Our friends whether smokers or not regularly visit as the pubs have no atmosphere and people are refusing to pay the prices asked for little or no enjoyment. Until and unless the licensed trade stands up and demands changes to the ban pubs will close. Whether it is already too late is a moot point as I know plenty of people who have stopped going to pubs altogether and who may never return no matter what happens to the ban.

Lyn 9 September, 2008, 11:25
There are none so blind as those who won't see!

fraser 9 September, 2008, 11:00
I will never understand why the industry allowed this legislation to come into place. It's pretty obvious that if you isolate and do not cater for your most loyal pubgoers who happened to be smokers then they would dissappear. They are now at home in the warmth with a drink and a smoke. But don't worry , they are still out there waiting to come back, all you have to do is put your ashtrays back on the tables and reclaim your pubs. Come on , show a little backbone. There is still time,,,but not much! Regards None smoker
http://www.thepublican.com/story.asp?sectioncode=7&storycode=61075&c=1

100 pub jobs lost as firm folds
13 September 2008
By Peter Ranscombe
THE effects of the smoking ban and a downturn in trade caused by the credit crunch were yesterday blamed for the voluntary liquidation of CMC Management, which will result in the closure of 15 pubs across Scotland.

Crawford Mitchell and Gary Colton, CMC Management's directors, said the a significant downturn in trade had made it "impossible" for the pubs to continue trading.

About 100 jobs will be lost following liquidation, which was granted by Falkirk SherADVERTISEMENTiff Court on Wednesday.

Pubs affected by the voluntary liquidation include the Gray Horse, in Edinburgh, the Stirling Arms, in Dunblane, and the Victoria Hotel, in Nairn.

Maureen Leslie, of MLM Insolvency, said: "We were appointed by the court after CMC Management directors applied for voluntary liquidation.

"It is our understanding that a general downturn in business after the smoking ban was introduced and the significant reduction in trade due to the credit crunch are the two main factors behind the business failing.

"In this case, the directors have no further comment to make." Leslie said the directors would carry on with CMC Inns, their other business, which includes about five other pubs on different terms from the breweries, with longer leases.

She added that the units within CMC Inns were better performing pubs.

Leslie said: "We are seeing more and more businesses going into liquidation as a result of the credit crunch.

"Businesses are increasingly finding it much more challenging to make ends meet as people spend less and the cost of running a business increases."
http://business.scotsman.com

MPs barred from Blackpool pubs
 
Nine bars in Foxhall Village have signed a declaration stating they will not allow Blackpool South MP Gordon Marsden or Blackpool North and Fleetwood colleague Joan Humble inside their premises.

The document - signed by the licensees of The Happy Scots Karaoke Bar, Del Boys Sports Bar, The Boardwalk, The Princess, The Jaggy Thistle, The Bierkellar, Sportsbar, Lifeboat and Gaiety Bar - states both MPs are banned from the pubs until "they stop the destruction of the Great British pub".

Smoking-ban rebel landlord Hamish Howitt, who runs The Happy Scots and Del Boys, organised the move after getting fed up neither Mrs Humble or Mr Marsden had given him an explanation of why they voted for the ban on smoking in all public places, which came into force in July 2007.

The 56-year-old, who set up his own political party in opposition of the smoking ban called Fight Against Government Suppression (FAGS), has made numerous court appearances for allowing customers to light up in his bars.

He said: "I have 100 per cent backing of all the independent bars from Manchester Square to the town centre. Every single independent bar signed the barring notice in Foxhall Village.

"We hope it might provoke some sort of reaction from them because they still have not explained why they voted, in a free vote, for the smoking ban.

"They seem to have just kept avoiding the issue. We hope this will send out a message to the Government as well. The smoking ban in a recipe for enforced bankruptcy.

"Everybody I speak to in the industry is on their knees. The traditional pubs were in decline anyway, but the Government out the boot in with the smoking ban.

"If Gordon Marsden or Joan Humble turned up at my pub, I would have to say to them 'I'm sorry, you're barred."

Joan Humble, MP for Blackpool North and Fleetwood, said she was disappointed to hear of the ban.

She said: "I do not often go out to pubs in that area, but when I've spoken to other publicans in Blackpool, many have told me the smoking ban has helped them bring in new customers and have welcomed it.

"We must not under-estimate the pressure on our pubs at the moment.

There is a challenge for the local pubs, but banning Gordon and I is not the way to tackle it.

"Hamish and his colleagues are focusing on one issue, but there are many complex issues, including the fact people can buy cheaper alcohol in supermarkets and drink at home."

The pub industry says it has been hit by a damaging cocktail of the smoking ban, rising food and utility costs, declining consumer spending and cheap alcohol in supermarkets.

Around 60 pubs a week are closing nationally with many publicans blaming the effect of the smoking ban.
http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk

Agyness Deyn flouts smoking ban at New York Fashion Week
Supermodel has a sneaky fag backstage at catwalk show

Agyness Deyn has been snapped having a crafty cigarette backstage at New York Fashion Week.

The supermodel flouted the ban in front of a 'No Smoking' sign as she relaxed in the VIP area at Anna Sui’s catwalk show.

She had earlier strutted the catwalk in a gold leaf-print jacket and chunky accessories.

Agyness, 25, is dating Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr, 28.
http://www.nowmagazine.co.uk

BRAINTREE: Bar battle goes up in smoke

A LANDLORD who single-handedly took on Braintree District Council over the smoking ban has been forced to close his bar.
Paul Keenan, co-owner of Hogs Wine Bar, Bradford Street, repeatedly flouted the ban after the council ruled his outside smoking area, which he built as part of a £200,000 refit, was a noise nuisance to neighbours.
Now Paul blames the "massive" impact of the ban, followed by the "final nail in the coffin" – the credit crunch – for sending his business under.
"Anyone outside the town centre is in trouble," he said. "So many landlords are not going to recover from the smoking ban. At the age of 42, I have to start all over again."
He says he has lost £200,000-worth of investment in the bar, plus £500,000 of equity on the building which he says he "couldn't give away".

Paul's plight is a reflection of a national trend which is seeing pub closures accelerate at an alarming rate.
Fellow anti-smoking ban landlord Brendan Flynn, who introduced electronic cigarettes in his bar, Brendan's, in East Street, earlier this year, said the situation was desperate.
"Pubs are being absolutely destroyed." he said. "I know of four or five pubs in this town alone that may fold in the space of the next few weeks. If the recession gets any harder, I will be in trouble too."
http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk

Protest from Holland. This made our headlines today:

Antismoking organisation pestered by smokers – A Dutch pro smoking website has incited people to send empty cig packets in postage-free envelopes to Stivoro, an important Dutch antismoking organisation. Many thousands of people graciously complied and now Stivoro is being bombarded with envelopes containing empty packets. Of course, they have to pay for the postage and it’s cost them 2500 euros already (or so they claim). Their spokesperson whined to the media: “This is money we cannot spend on helping people to quit smoking. And the stink of these empty packets is just awful.”

Judging by the comments sections on the Dutch news sites, an overwhelming majority of readers support the initiative – smokers and nonsmokers alike. The general opinion is along the lines of: “Stivoro squanders taxpayers’ money and harasses smokers. They had it coming.”

I wonder if these organisations are actually aware of what the public think of them?

September 9, 2008 | Anna
http://takingliberties.squarespace.com

Smoking ban has been bad for business, say pubs one year on
(08 September 2008 16:46)
 
Nearly half of UK pub landlords say they have had to lay off staff because of the smoking ban and three-quarters say the ban has been bad for business, according to a survey.

Just over a year after the UK-wide smoking ban in pubs was introduced, pub licensees have warned of fresh woes for the pub industry if the Government sticks to plans to ban cigarette vending machines in pubs.

Forty two percent of almost 1,000 respondents questioned by the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII), the professional body for the licensed retail sector, and the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations (FLVA), said a vending machine ban would damage profits at a time when pubs are facing their toughest trading for decades.

In 2006, before the smoking ban, 54% of pub trade was estimated to come from smokers, compared to 38% now, the survey says.

John McNamara, chief executive of BII, said: "As an industry we have already suffered massive collateral damage in the war against tobacco. We asked our members before the ban how bad it would be and [they said the ban would be] devestating but the Government took no notice."

"We've now asked them about these new proposals and 42% of our members believe that a ban on [cigarette] vending [machines] will be bad for trade, at a time when many are struggling to preserve their viability as small businesses and vital community assets. Almost no-one thinks that it will help."
http://www.caterersearch.com

Pub trade fallen to 1930s' levels
Monday, September 08, 2008, 15:58


Pubs are closing at a rate of five a day as looming recession and the effects of the smoking ban take their toll on the drinks industry, writes Ian Lyall.
According to the British Beer & Pub Association, booze sales are at their lowest levels since the 1930s with drinkers preferring to stay at home with a supermarket six-pack.
The BBPA's data chimes with the tales of woe last week from Greene King, Punch Taverns and Wetherspoons - three of the UK's biggest publicans.
Punch's dire trading update, and an announcement that it would not be paying a final dividend, wiped 12 per cent off the share price and sent reverberations across the sector.
The smoking ban has forced many local pubs to supplement flagging beer sales with food, although the margins on meals are a lot thinner than those on pints and shorts.

For the smaller watering holes with limited cooking facilities, the smoking ban has been terminal.
The closure rate is up a third on last year when 1,409 pubs shut - more than double the 216 closures in 2006.
The BBPA fears the government's beer escalator tax and a raft of red tape such as statutory codes of pub conduct will hit operators hard.
Its chief executive, Rob Hayward, said: 'Such policies will only drive up costs for pubs and prices for punters. Government needs to work out what is happening in the real world of pubs.'
http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk

Smoking ban bad for pub trade

8/ 9/2008

ALMOST three quarters of pub licensees say the smoking ban has been bad for the pub trade, according to a poll by two industry bodies.

Almost half of those (47%) had laid off staff as a result of the ban, according to BII (British Institute of Innkeeping) and the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations (FLVA).

The groups released the findings to coincide with the closing date of the Government's consultation into future smoking controls, including a proposed ban on cigarette vending machines.

The poll found 74% of licensees said the ban had been bad for the pub and bar trade in their area, with 80% saying they continued to sell cigarettes to try to keep their smoking customers on the premises.

Just 14% believed the ban had been good for trade.

Just over 900 licensees out of the 17,600 who received the survey replied, following a similar poll three months after the ban came into effect on July 1 last year and an earlier poll in autumn 2006.

In 2006 54% of pub trade was estimated to come from smokers, compared to 38% now, the study found.

However licensees claimed there had been "almost no increase" in trade from non-smokers to compensate for the loss, while smokers who did visit made shorter visits.

The poll found 42% of licensees thought a ban on cigarette vending in pubs would further damage business.

Landlords receive between 20p and 25p from every packet of cigarettes sold from vending machines in their pubs.

BII chief executive John McNamara said: "As an industry we have already suffered massive collateral damage in the war against tobacco.

"This study found 42% of our members believe that a ban on vending will be bad for trade, at a time when many are struggling to preserve their viability as small businesses and vital community assets."

Mr McNamara added: "We do not believe that vending in pubs is in any way a significant source of cigarettes for underage smokers and, as with the smoking ban, the effect will be just to drive our customers away."
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Want to Ban Smoking in Cars & Private Homes?

Iain Dale 9:00 AM

Credit crunch: One in six pubs to close by 2012
By Stephen Hayward, Consumer Correspondent
One in six pubs will close by 2012 – hit by the credit crunch, the smoking ban and drinkers turning to cheap supermarket booze.

Thirty-six are already shutting EVERY week, with thousands of staff losing their jobs and many communities losing long-established focal points. In the next four years at least 6,000 more face going to the wall, including 1,320 working men’s and social clubs and 430 nightclubs.

At the same time beer sales will slump to a record low, down from 16million pints a day to 14.7million.

Market research firm CGA Strategy, who carried out the survey, says the smoking ban and the credit crunch have driven many former regulars to stay at home drinking cheaper booze from supermarkets.

And they found that “community pubs” – those which get at least 60 per cent of their income from alcohol – are  the hardest hit of all. Author Phil Tate said: “It’s the survival of the fittest – the weakest operators will cease to exist.”

Campaign For Real Ale spokesman Iain Loe said: “This is the death of a centuries’ old British institution.

“In many cases the pub is the only place where people can gather as a community – and when the local closes it loses all focus in that area.”

But there is one of ray of hope for landlords. The number of “gastropubs” is predicted to rise from 11,442 to 14,334 over the next four years.



At the start of the 20th Century there were more than 80,000 pubs in Britain. By 1980 there were 69,000 and now there are less than 57,000.

Last year more than 1,400 pubs pulled their last pint – seven times more than in 2006 – and the rate of closure is now 36 a week.

Two per cent of all pubs in urban areas have put up the shutters in the last 12 months.

Beer sales are at their lowest level since the 1930s and only half the beer bought in

Britain is now drunk in pubs, down from 90 per cent in the 1970s. Beer sales in pubs fell by six per cent in the last year alone.

Pubs currently employ 600,000 people.

Eight out of 10 closed pubs are demolished or converted into private homes.
http://www.mirror.co.uk

Say No to the Nanny state
The Government is proposing to ban the display of tobacco in shops. This is unlikely to stop people smoking but it will hit many small shops and inconvenience millions of consumers.

This is another measure from a government obsessed with dictating how people live their lives. The country faces profound issues likes violent crime and recession, and the government wants to hide tobacco under the counter! (What next? Alcohol? Fizzy drinks? Sweets?)

If you think this is another example of a government out of touch with ordinary people,
say No now!
http://www.thefreesociety.org/say-no/

Half of UK Fertility Experts Would Deny In-Vitro Fertilization to Smokers if They Do Not Quit Smoking; Some Hospitals Already Refusing IVF for Smokers

The Government's 'denormalisation' of smoking is Orwellian

Next Monday, September 8, is the closing date for submissions to the Government's consultation on the future of tobacco control in Britain. Barely a year after the introduction of the public smoking ban, the Government now wants to prohibit the display of tobacco in shops and outlaw cigarette vending machines.

Incredibly, these proposals are being considered at a time when the country is facing a stagnant economy, a surge in the cost of living, and genuine fears over violent crime. It suggests a government that is not only failing in its responsibility to focus on the major challenges, but a government obsessed with dictating how we live our lives.

Despite this, the proposals have met with relatively little comment. Small retailers are up in arms, as you would expect. (It's their livelihoods, and their security, that are at risk.) But among the general public there's a mood of resigned acceptance. Apathy rules OK.

But, it's not OK. I am passionate about this issue, and I don't even smoke. This Government could win a gold medal for unnecessary meddling: why should they force retailers to spend thousands of pounds redesigning their shops, or expect shop assistants to rummage under the counter, inconveniencing millions of shoppers (smokers and non-smokers alike)?

How patronising to assume that people are so weak that the very sight of a packet of cigarettes will have us reaching for our wallets; ow dictatorial to deny consumers the right to choose from a range of brands on open display.

There is no evidence that these policies will cut youth or even adult smoking rates. What is really driving these proposals is the government's declared policy of "denormalisation", an Orwellian-style process in which a significant minority of the population is bullied and shamed into giving up a legal consumer product that, lest we forget, contributes billions of pounds to the Treasury every year.
Simon Clark The Free Society
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/

This month the conservative party have released plans for what they are calling the "Freedom Charter".

The Charter will seek to restore civil liberties by;


      Overturning the fox hunting ban
      Scrapping the idea for ID cards
      Amending the national DNA database idea to discount those who are not convicted criminals
      Curb the activities of Health and Safety
      Allow exemptions to the smoking ban
      Lift the smoking ban for private members clubs



We ask that as individuals you all write or email Conservative head office in support of the Charter. Give details of your own experiences or local problems caused by the smoking ban. Please remember to give your name and city so that they know these are genuine letters.

You can write to them here;

Correspondence
Conservative Campaign Headquarters
30 Millbank
London
SW1P 4DP

or email them directly from their website here;

http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=contact.us.page

Please also encourage as many friends as possible to do the same thing; the more letters they get, the better.

WETHERSPOON SET TO TAKE A TUMBLE 
Wetherspoon blames the smoking ban for falling profits
Sunday August 31,2008
By Geoff Ho and Emma Vickers JD WETHERSPOON is expected to reveal pre-tax profits have fallen about 11 per cent to £55million due to the smoking ban and rising costs.

Revenues are expected to have grown because of increased food sales, but Wetherspoon will say on Friday its profits have fallen sharply, due in part to the smoking bans imposed in England and Wales last year.

Wetherspoon, led by chief executive John Hutson,  above left, with finance director Keith Down,  right, will also say it has been hit by higher taxes and increased energy, food and labour costs.

Wetherspoon’s pub rivals, Greene King and Punch Taverns, will update the market this week and are not expected to have good news to report. Broker UBS expects Tuesday’s first-quarter trading update from Greene King to reveal a drop in like-for-like sales at the Suffolk brewer’s managed pubs of 3 per cent.

The UK’s largest pub company, Punch Taverns, will deliver its pre-close trading statement on Wednesday.

In June, Punch said its 7,500 leased pubs had suffered a 3.4 per cent fall in underlying sales, while its 860-strong managed estate showed a loss of 3.6 per cent. Broker Morgan Stanley believes trading has slipped further since then.

Pubs warned over flouting of smoking ban
TWO pubs in York have been issued with a written warning from City of York Council for flouting the smoking ban, the authority has revealed.

The council said its officers had dealt with two incidents, one at each pub, where landlords had allowed smoking in their premises. The authority said it was unable to say which establishments it had issued the warnings to, or confirm how many people had been smoking in the pubs on those occasions.

The authority said no further incidents of smoking were believed to have occurred at the premises. The spokeswoman said the council would only take enforcement action against an establishment if it ignored a written warning. The authority also said individuals had smoked in the Rougier Street bus shelter and the portico at York Station. It said: "The problems at Rougier Street seem to have been largely overcome through the provision of prominent signage. There are still occasional breaches at York Station and the matter has been raised with the management at the premises."

However, the council, which had employed two smokefree enforcement officers to raise awareness and understanding of the legislation – who visited almost 2,000 premises after July 1 last year – said the officers found a high level of compliance with the law.
http://www.thepress.co.uk

Smokers hit by 'seven screws' ban 
 
The gazebo was put up in the pub's garden to cater for smokers
A York pub landlord has been told to knock down a gazebo put up for smokers in his garden because of seven screws.

Robin Watson built the facility in The Shoulder of Mutton's beer garden after the introduction of the smoking ban.

He used the screws to secure the gazebo to the ground, but York Council said the move breached planning rules.

Because it is fixed to the concrete and has been in place for more than a year, it requires planning permission, said a council spokeswoman.

Such a structure is deemed "permanent", she explained.

Mr Watson said he was sent a letter from the council which gave him three choices: Apply for planning permission, take the structure down, or be liable for a £20,000 fine.   The council seem to see it as a way to make more money out of businesses

Mr Watson said: "They know how many pubs are closing down at the moment. I can't understand why they are pressing on with something so petty as this.

"If you did this in your own back garden there would be no pressure whatsoever.

"We pay all our council rates. The council seems to see it as a way to make more money out of businesses."

A spokeswoman for York Council said: "The council's planning enforcement team has written to the owners of the property asking them to take the structure down or apply for planning permission."
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk

RAOB Club set to appeal fine
Andy Passant, Evening Gazette

A CLUB prosecuted for flouting the smoking ban has lodged an appeal after losing its court battle.

The RAOB Club in Middlesbrough became the first corporate body in the UK to be taken to court for breaching the ban.

It was prosecuted by Middlesbrough Council after a club member was allegedly caught smoking not long after the legislation was brought in last July. It resulted in the club being fined £1,000 with £1,415.50 costs and club secretary David James being fined £500.

Club officials reacted angrily to the prosecution, claiming it was an attack on the working man by the “bully boys” of the Government.

Now the Wilton Street club is appealing against the court’s decision. Mr James said they had lodged an appeal but added: “It could be two to three months until we get a date.”

Solicitor John Wilkin, of law firm Punch Robson, said: “We have taken counsel’s opinion on the merits of our prospective appeal. We are cautiously optimistic.”

Mr James said the club had received support from its members and from other clubs. “We have had calls from other clubs. We have had backing from every member in this club. We haven’t had any member turn round and say you are wrong.”

Mr James had denied allowing people to light up in the club but the prosecution case was found proved at Teesside Magistrates Court.

The trial was told that a club member had been caught smoking by a Middlesbrough Council enforcement officer last October.

Mark Wagstaff, a public health enforcement officer, said he found member Christopher Farrow in breach of the ban. Mr Wagstaff also claimed ashtrays and seats had been put at the back of the building to form an illegal smoking shelter.

Middlesbrough Council began investigating following an anonymous tip-off from a member. The council says the case shows they will pursue those who allow the smoke-free laws to be broken.
http://www.gazettelive.co.uk

Kettering Hospital does U-turn on smoking


Smoking U-turn
A hospital has been forced into a U-turn over its no smoking policy after being unable to legally enforce a ban on visitors and patients.
Kettering General Hospital banned smoking anywhere on its grounds last year, meaning staff and patients had to leave the site if they wanted a cigarette.

But following complaints that patients were flouting the rules, the hospital has had to relent and spend £25,000 putting up four smoking shelters.

Staff are still banned from smoking on the site and can be disciplined if they break the rules.

The hospital's chief executive said they understood some visitors crave a cigarette in times of difficulty or stress.

Dr Mark Newbold said: "Smoking has been illegal inside hospital buildings since July 1, 2007, in the same way it is now illegal in pubs and restaurants. However, the law does not extend to the grounds of the hospital, where we are only able to request patients and visitors refrain from smoking voluntarily.

"We do know people who blatantly smoke in front of hospital buildings cause annoyance to other patients and visitors and to our own staff.
"They also set a poor public health example to impressionable children and younger people.

"However, we do appreciate many people find it difficult to refrain from smoking, particularly at times in their life when they may be under great stress and concerned about their own, or a loved one's health. Because of this we have tried to strike a sensible balance to accommodate the differing needs of our patients and visitors."

Dr Newbold said the shelters have been sited away from main entrances, near Rothwell Road, the pathology department, the maternity block and beyond the main entrance.

Carol Darnell, from Wellingborough, is an out-patient at the hospital and said the use of the smoking shelters must be enforced.

She said: "I am against smoking and when I was at the hospital a couple of weeks ago, a workman who was clearing up cigarette butts was saying he shouldn't have to do it. The smoking shelters seem like a good idea providing they are enforced – I think it's money well spent.

"It could help the hospital save money in the long run if it means they don't have to pay people to clean up all the cigarette ends.

"I don't think it was too ambitious of the hospital to try for a complete ban on its grounds but I understand people enjoy smoking."

A recent Freedom of Information request revealed three members of hospital staff have been reprimanded for smoking on the hospital site since it went smoke-free.
http://www.northantset.co.uk

A real drag if cigs have to go under the counter

DERBY shopkeepers have expressed concern about a proposed ban on displaying cigarettes for sale.
The Department of Health is putting forward new laws to restrict the display of tobacco products, which could mean shopkeepers having to take down wall-mounted cigarette cabinets.
If the proposal gets the go-ahead, shops will have to keep cigarettes under the counter and provide a list of brands and prices for customers to choose from.
Satnem Shanan, who owns The Sandwich Shop, in St Peter's Churchyard, said the legislation would have a damaging effect on his trade.
The 37-year-old said: "Tobacco products are what bring a lot of people into my shop and I'd say about half of my business comes from them.
"They are not the biggest money-maker but it's what a lot of people come in for."
Katherine Graham, campaign manager for the Tobacco Retailers Alliance, a coalition of 16,000 independent retailers, said: "Forcing retailers to keep tobacco under the counter would be very costly and highly impractical for small shops."
But Chris Reader, who works in Market News in the Guildhall Market, said: "If people want to smoke then they will do so whether cigarettes are on display or not. A lot of customers already know what brand of cigarette they want by the time they come here so it wouldn't really stop them.
"If we had to stock cigarettes underneath the counter and keep bending up and down every time someone wanted a packet of cigarettes it would be a bit of an inconvenience."
The proposal, which is in the consultation phase, follows the introduction of the nationwide smoking ban, which came into effect in July last year.
Anti-smoking organisation Ash hailed that ban as a success and it believes the removal of shop displays could stop young people becoming addicted to smoking.
A spokesman said: "About 400,000 people gave up smoking in the UK last year and 70% of smokers want to do the same today. Tobacco companies rely on recruiting new smokers in their place and they do this by packaging their products in bright, eye-catching boxes."
But a spokesman for pro-smoking group Forest said the action would be damaging to the rights of smokers.
He said: "Forcing people to buy cigarettes from underneath the counter could make smokers feel ashamed of themselves and in a free country it should not be possible to make people feel like social lepers."
http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk

Noisy smokers put club licence in danger
A club owner fears he may lose his license because of the noise smokers are making outside his club since the smoking ban was imposed.

Steve Cottingham, owner of Cromer's private members club, Blazers, is to appear before the North Norfolk District Council licensing committee following a series of complaints made about the club, which include grievances about the noise from smokers in the street.

Despite employing a bouncer to try to keep the sound levels from smokers in check, he does not know what else he can do to prevent the complaints and fears the law could spell the end for Blazers club, which has been on the Surrey Street site for many years.

On a quiet back street in Cromer, Blazers has faced complaints from local home owners about the noise from the club from loud amplified music and the noise caused by clubbers in the street since no smoking legislation was introduced.

To remedy the problem Mr Cottingham has cancelled all his live bands from the end of August and rearranged his speakers.

He has also spent £12,000 soundproofing the building.

But he said he had breached a noise abatement notice because of the recurring problem of people smoking in the street.

He said that the smoking ban had not been thought through and the government was not protecting the licensee from smokers who make noise outside their pubs and clubs.

Sisters Simone and Leona Hopwood who run The Wellington in Cromer town centre said the smoking ban was also causing problems for them.

Simone said they had lost customers because of the smoking ban as they have to come down heavily on them and tell them to move on if they are smoking in the street.

“By imposing the no smoking ban it is the government who have created the noise on the street”, she said.

A spokesman for North Norfolk District Council said: “There are a handful of businesses we are aware of where there is a recurring problem with noise from smokers outside.

But that is a handful out of 500 licensed premises in Norfolk.

If these problems do continue then one option is to review their license and put conditions on it.

“Landlords are trying to bend over backwards to accommodate these concerns though”, he said.

He advised people to talk to the district council for help.



Blazer's premises license will go before North Norfolk District Council licensing committee on September 3 at 10am.
http://new.edp24.co.uk

£3.7m up in smoke as 47% fail to quit after seeking NHS help

The NHS has spent £3.7 million on helping West smokers who were unsuccessful in their attempts to kick the habit following the introduction of the public ban last summer.
The first statistics on smokers since the public smoking ban came into force in England in July last year showed that in the past year, 53 per cent of the 61,962 people in the South West who tried to give up smoking, actually succeeded. In the year before the ban, 55 per cent of the 55,110 who tried to kick the habit successfully quit.
NHS South West spent £129.20 per smoker helping them to try to give up last year, amounting to a spend of £4.2m on those who were successful.
But it means £3.7m was spent on people who did not manage to stop smoking.
Dorset Primary Care Trust (PCT) had the highest success rate, with 69 per cent quitting, while smokers in Herefordshire brought up the rear with just 45 per cent giving up.
A total of 70 per cent of those setting a quit date received Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), such as nicotine patches, gum or nasal spray.
Keith Williams, the health programme advisor for Dorset PCT, said the key to their success was choice in their SmokeStop Service.
"The fall in the year of the ban may be down to those people who thought it was a good idea to stop because of the ban, but in reality it wasn't the right time for them," he said.
"We were anticipating a rush in people contacting us just after the ban came in, but it actually came before the legislation came in.
"Our advisers set a date with smokers where they work out when the best time is for them, when they are not likely to be stressed out or have a lot on.
"We have advisers all over the county and I think the reason that we are successful is that we make the service accessible.
"Instead of people having to go to a medical setting for a support group, they can go to a group in a pub, a library or a sports centre. And we also offer one-to-one support for people who want that."
Mr Williams said the cost of services designed to help people stop smoking is offset by the advantages of a society whose health is much better in the long term. He said: "When a smoker becomes ill, there is a huge cost to the NHS and so for future health needs and demands on the NHS, it is cost effective."
Almost all businesses in the region are enforcing the smoking ban and a recent survey revealed almost two-thirds of pub landlords support it, despite more than half seeing a drop in trade since July 2007.
Dr Gabriel Scally, regional director of public health at NHS South West, said: "It is encouraging that so many people in the South West have gone smoke-free in the past year. Quitting is not easy, but the support of family and friends can make a real difference to help people to quit smoking for good. You are four times more likely to quit with the help of NHS Stop Smoking Services."
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk

Shisha cafe fined £5,000
Paul R Taylor
A SHISHA café where customers were allowed to flout the smoking ban has been fined £5,000.

The Al Baghdady Café, on Wilmslow Road in Rusholme, Manchester, was visited five times by council officers and on each occasion they found people openly smoking the Middle Eastern water pipes.

Its owner Saad Kharufa claimed his café was an Arabic cultural centre and so should be exempt from the ban.

But no such exemption exists under the law.

Mr Kharufa, director of Al Baghdady Café Ltd, had failed to turn up at Manchester magistrates' court after Manchester council brought a prosecution against the business.

The company was found guilty of five counts of failing to prevent smoking in a public place. It was fined £1,000 for each offence and ordered to pay £2,194 in costs - a total of £7,194.

Jim Battle, the council's deputy leader, said: "The smoke-free legislation applies to everyone and the council will not hesitate to prosecute if the law is broken."

Council officers had visited the premises several times before the ban on smoking in enclosed public places was introduced on July 1 last year to ensure Mr Kharufa had been given information about the ban.

He was also invited to a council presentation last May, intended to explain the new smoking regulations to representatives of Manchester's shisha businesses but he did not attend.

When council officers visited the café five times between February and May this year they found people smoking shisha on each occasion.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

A small victory for common sense, but the battle goes on
Saturday August 2, 2008
A ruling by a top court in Germany offers some hope to smokers, but it could yet end in tears. Joe Jackson reports.

You may have heard that a couple of days ago, the Federal Constitutional Court in Germany declared smoking bans unconstitutional and ordered them to be partially reversed. Unfortunately this is not quite the case, though the ruling is a provisional victory of sorts.

The situation is this:

(1) The Federal Government conceded the power to ban smoking to the 16 individual States (Lander). They all came up with different laws, which mostly went into effect in January 2008. Most of them, including the city-states of Berlin and Hamburg, allow separate smoking rooms (so long as they are not the ‘main room’). In Bavaria private clubs are exempt, so thousands of venues have just turned into ‘private clubs’.

(2) There has been great resistance to bans – not only bars etc defying the law but some city and state officials saying they won’t enforce it. Enforcement in Berlin has been pretty lax. Nevertheless business has gone down by at least 30% in nonsmoking bars, and unlike in, say, the UK, where the mainstream media and politicians declare the ban a great success even though pubs are going out of business, in Germany everyone seems to know about it. Thousands of customers are going across the borders to Poland or Belgium, where bars still allow smoking. Public opinion also seems to have been on the side of the small bar owners who have been most affected.

(3) A group of small bars, mostly from Berlin, forced a Judicial Review, on the basis that the ban was unfair on bars which were not able to have a separate room. The Constitutional Court has just ruled in their favour. BUT …

THE DOWN SIDE:
(a) The ruling is basically that there should be a ‘level playing field’: either let the small bars allow smoking or have a total ban everywhere. Thus this can be seen as opening the door to an even worse situation later.
(b) The antismoking fascists now have another year and a half to bombard us with propaganda and push for a more comprehensive ban.

THE UP SIDE:
(a) The states now have until the end of 2009 to re-write their laws, and until then, smoking is allowed.
(b) The rights of bar owners and the fact that smoking bans hurt business, have been officially recognised.
(c) It demonstrates that action can make a difference.
(d) We have another year and a half to fight the antismoking fascists.

In the meantime, I’m off to the corner pub for a beer and a fag.

Joe Jackson is a writer and musician
http://www.thefreesociety.org

German smoking ban declared unconstitutional
By David Snook
The smoking regulations in Germany, which were likely to decimate the country's 75,000 AWP machines located in pubs, has been declared unconstitutional in two key Länder, or states.

There is now a 15-month gap during which the lawmakers must revise the regulations. The German Federal Constitutional Court on July 30 decided that some provisions of the smoking regulations were unconstitutional in Baden-Württemberg and Berlin.

The landmark decision will now be automatically applied to the rest of Germany's 17 Länder. The court had another 13 complaints under the constitutional law to consider and, following the July 30 decision, these can now be decided without hearings.

Losses mount at struggling clubs
Aug 16 2008 By Jenny Waddington

WORKING men's clubs in Coventry have seen a loss in sales since the smoking ban was introduced - leaving many fearing for the future.

According to bosses across the city some clubs have been hit hard by the ban, which was introduced nationwide a year ago.

It is believed that some of the bigger establishments have seen a loss of £2,000 a week.

Kenneth Green, the new secretary of Wyken Working Men's Club, claims that several clubs face the threat of closure.

The 74-year-old from the club in Ansty Road said: "I know a couple of clubs are struggling and could close because of a loss in trade.

"The main cause of this is the smoking ban. Working men's clubs have a lot of customers who have smoked their whole life and they won't come in if they can't smoke.

"We are fortunate that Wyken Working Men's Club is doing well, but some of the bigger clubs have seen a drop in sales of between £1,500 and £2,000 each week.

"It is very sad when a working men's club closes because they are not just somewhere for people to have a pint, they are part of the community."

The claims come after Coventry Working Men's Club - the oldest in the country - closed this month after accumulating £26,000 of debts.

Bosses of the Whitefriars Street building went to the High Court in London in May and persuaded the judge to give them longer to find the cash.

But time ran out and the club closed its doors for the final time on Friday, August 1.

Fred Barnett, secretary of Bell Green Working Men's Club in Roseberry Avenue, added: "The smoking ban has affected some clubs and is causing problems. We are lucky because our customers are sticking with us.

"Unfortunately it is the law and you have to make allowances for a loss in trade."
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net

BATHWICK PUB SHUTS

The licensees of a Bathwick pub have shut it down after their profits slumped following the national ban on smoking.
The tenants of the Castle in Forester Avenue say they are very sad to be leaving the pub, which has been their home for seven years, but claim they had no choice.
Landlord David Skelton and his wife June said their profits had plummeted since the smoking ban last year and their business was no longer profitable.
The pub, which is in a cul-de-sac, does not benefit from passing trade and Mr Skelton said it had not been well supported by the locals.
Mr Skelton said: “We have tried everything to stay here, we have even tried to serve food but we do not have a commercial kitchen and to make all the renovations would cost too much money.
“We have loved living here and are obviously very sad to leave.
“We hope to stay in the city but do not wish to return to the pub industry.
“Of course we feel bad for the handful of really loyal customers but unfortunately we cannot continue with so few loyal people.
“The pub culture in Britain has changed and the smoking ban has hit us terribly.”
The couple, who have run the on their own over the years, have had just one day off since they opened the premises.
And Mr Skelton has also been juggling a second job as an engineer, to supplement the income from the pub.
The Chronicle has been unable to contact the building’s owner.
http://www.thisisbath.co.uk

Alcohol-free hotel bar owner seeks to reverse smoking ban
PADDY CLANCY

THE WOMAN with Ireland's first alcohol-free hotel bar has launched a campaign to reverse the smoking ban in pubs.

Ann Sweeney said the first mission for her one-person New Ireland party is to seek to have luxury smoking rooms attached to pubs.

Ms Sweeney has issued a rallying call to smokers throughout Ireland to get in touch with her at her Carraig Rua hotel in Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal. She plans weekly meetings of supporters and aims to take the issue as far as the European Court if necessary.

She is encouraged by a recent judgment in Germany that partially overturned bans on smoking in bars.

Ms Sweeney reckons that the Irish law that says smoking can only take place in shelters with two sides open to the elements is unconstitutional. She said: "The Irish public thought it was great to get smoking out of pubs and I agree 100 per cent. But I find the Government's double standards fascinating. If it insists on raising revenue with heavy taxes on tobacco products, then there is an obligation that smokers be treated the same as drinkers and proper facilities should be put in place for them."

She said they were entitled to have their own enclosed smoking area, with big crushed velvet couch and leather armchair. She said: "They should not be exposed to the Atlantic gales, which is what happens in Donegal . . . Why can't we have an extractor system in a very comfortable smoking room that would do the same job?"

Ms Sweeney, who also owns a licensed pub, said pub trade in rural Ireland has fallen by two-thirds since the smoking ban.

She formed her New Ireland party after gardaí seized all alcoholic drink in her hotel and pub because of a licence dispute. The drink was returned on a court order and the pub resumed business, but she accepts her hotel must remain alcohol-free until a complication over its drinks licence is resolved.
http://www.irishtimes.com

Welcome to Nannyfornia
Could the frenzy of puritanical edicts from California's politicians - banning everything from trans fats to plastic bags - be a foretaste of what Barack Obama's America will be like?Chris Ayres
It was one o'clock in the morning. John Lutz had just left the Grand Palace Stadium cinema complex in the wealthy LA suburb of Calabasas and was standing next to his Mini, smoking a cigarette. As he did so, a massive SUV - the kind that does 10mpg - pulled up alongside him. The driver opened his window, leant out, and said: “Hey, buddy, you can't smoke here.” John, a staff writer for a popular American TV show, was unaware that an hour earlier, at midnight, the Calabasas Comprehensive Secondhand Smoke Control Ordinance - the most restrictive anti-smoking policy anywhere in the world-had gone into effect.

“You don't read the news?” chided the SUV driver, wagging his finger. “You can't smoke outdoors anymore. Put it out.” John paused for a second, unable to believe that his decision to smoke a Camel Light in an empty car park in the wee hours of the morning was of so much interest to a complete stranger. He exhaled slowly. He balled his fists. And then he told the driver - using language not suitable for publication in this newspaper, that no, actually, he wouldn't put it out.

Welcome everyone, to Nannyfornia: Birthplace of the Ban, Capital of the Clampdown, Mecca of the Moratorium. Or you could just call it the new Mild, Mild West.

The outdoor smoking ban of which John Lutz ran foul is just one example of a frenzy of puritanical edicts from California's politicians that in the past few weeks has outlawed trans fat in all restaurant food, prevented LA supermarkets from handing out plastic bags, and put a halt to fast-food joints opening in the suburb formerly known as South Central. Other recent bans -and attempted bans - have challenged such monumental threats to human wellbeing as helium balloons, camp fires, circuses, swearing, texting while stopped at traffic lights, anything made from a dead kangaroo, dogs sitting on drivers' laps, homeschooling, rodeos, unordered tapwater in diners, spanking, nude beaches, and (this is true) the use of sexually-discriminating terms such as “Mom” and “Dad” in school classrooms.

Of course, some of these things deserve to be discouraged. But criminalised? “It's becoming almost like an arms race as to who can ban more things,” says Jim Ross, the veteran California political consultant who managed the campaign to elect Gavin Newsom as Mayor of San Francisco. “San Francisco bans plastic bags, then LA bans plastics, then everyone else has to. It's ironic, because the US was founded as a reaction to the colonists telling them what to do. I mean, hey, when are we gonna start banning alcohol again?” It is true, of course, that the Golden State has always had a reputation for well-intentioned meddling - hence the reason they call it “the Left Coast”. But until recently, with Arnold Schwarzenegger serving as the Republican governor, California seemed to have avoided many of the worst examples of nanny-stateism inflicted on, say, Britain. For example: California's ban on smoking in restaurants and bars was largely avoided when establishments built outdoor decks. Schwarzenegger himself built a “cigar tent” outside his office in Sacramento, the state capital.

California remains more laidback than Britain in other ways, too. People in LA still drive after a glass or two of wine. Tax on petrol isn't designed to punish you for not wanting to get on a bus. Speed cameras remain unheard of, and CCTV is so rare that when you land in London from Los Angeles you feel as though you have been transported from the 1970s to a dysfunctional 22nd-century dictatorship.

But things began to change a couple of years ago - around the time the Democratic Party seized control of the US Congress. The Left's confidence has grown exponentially since then with the astonishing rise of Barack Obama, and even Schwarzenegger - whose popularity has vanished along with Californians' home equity - appears to be giving in to the Democratic Party's belief that only enlightened politicians can save the idiot masses from themselves.

Take California's ban on trans fats, which essentially turned puff pastry into public enemy No 1. “We are taking a strong step toward creating a healthier future for California,” declared Schwarzenegger, a man whose very appetite for the unhealthy things in life - cigars, Hummers, marijuana, badly scripted movies involving the gratuitous use of automatic weapons and explosive devices - endeared him to the US public and ultimately won him the governorship that he is now using as a tool to prevent people from eating chicken pot pies. And this week, a new law will be introduced that intends to force restaurants in LA to display the number of calories of each item on their menus.

All this raises a disturbing question, of course: is Nannyfornia providing us with a glimpse of what Obama's America might look like? After all, Obama is a classic banner. He recently proposed banning all toys from China. He banned his own staff from wearing green clothing during his recent trip to the Middle East (green is the colour of the Hamas flag). He banned the New Yorker magazine from his press plane after it depicted him as a terrorist in a political cartoon. He wants to ban “excessive” profits by raising capital gains tax. Why? Because he thinks it's fair. No matter that the state's revenues from the tax have always gone up whenever the rate has been lowered.

Jot Condie, president of the California Restaurant Association, is one of many Americans who fears all this prohibition is going too far. “The Government here in California is banning a food product simply because it's not healthy,” he complains. “What do you ban next? Bacon fat? The possibilities are limitless.”

But is it all the fault of emboldened Democrats? Without a doubt, he says. He describes the Democratic-controlled legislature in California as “an activist government that thinks it knows what's best for us”.

“It's not just trans fat,” he says. “They're banning fast-food restaurants in parts of LA because they think we're too fat and therefore they're gonna help us.” Not that he thinks trans fat is a good thing. “Trans fat raises bad cholesterol and lowers good cholesterol so, yeah, it's a double whammy,” he says. “But in two years' time, it's gonna be a thing of the past, not because of the Government but because consumers are voting with their feet. You don't need to criminalise it. The Government has created a dangerous precedent.”

John Lutz, the cigarette smoker, says the real problem with bans is that they tend to be selective - and they usually focus, conveniently, on the vices of other people. “The people who think they have the right to tell you what to do are usually the exact same people who drive around in SUVs and drink bottled water every day,” Lutz says. “I'm pretty sure both of those things are very worst things you can do to the environment. Yet they'll go crazy if they see me stubbing out a cigarette butt in my own backyard.”

The double standards are sometimes even more dramatic than SUV-driving, health-Nazis. Take Calabasas: it might have successfully outlawed tobacco use practically anywhere within its city limits, but it was happy to be home of the headquarters of Countrywide Financial, now the subject of a federal investigation into its lending practices during the mid-2000s real estate bubble. Countrywide was at one point making so much money from home loans that there was a Ferrari dealership located almost directly across the street.

Aside from the accusations of hypocrisy, however, isn't there just something inherently un-California about trying to ban everything that's allegedly bad for you? After all, this is a state that has always faced the prospect of imminent annihilation from earthquakes, fires, floods, droughts and a multitude of other natural catastrophes. Indeed, it's often hard for Britons to understand the attitude in LA that you enjoy the good times while they last, and when things go catastrophically awry - as they always tend to do, every so often - you tough it out, you learn, and you wait for the good times to come around again. Hence the fact that in London people are convinced the credit crunch is the next Great Depression, while in LA people are just as likely to be worried about missing out on the next pre-bubble investment opportunity.

So why does California feel the urge to micro-manage people's lives - to the point were helium balloons were almost made illegal because every now and again they get caught up in power lines? Shouldn't Californians know better than anyone that a life without risk is no life at all?

“I think there's actually a little bit of one-upmanship going on,” explains Jim Ross, the political consultant, adding that West Coast politicians like to think that radical bans help them to pioneer national trends. For example: because California is the largest purchaser of school textbooks, when it passed a Senate Bill requiring “nondiscrimination” against sexual orientation in classrooms (conservatives say this essentially bans the use of the words “Mom” or “Dad”), publishers began to change the wording in all US textbooks. But Ross thinks the system has a knack of stopping things getting out of hand.

“The moderating effect of a democracy will always stop bad laws from happening,” he says. “A great example of that was when the speed limit was rolled back to 55mph. It got to the point where if you were sticking to it, you were the slowest person on the road, and you'd be creating a hazard. If a law is going to work, people have to live up to it. There's a great quote from Calvin Coolidge [the 30th President of the US] that good laws are not made, they're discovered.” In other words, says Ross, a good law is never the result of a politician feeling holier-than-thou - it's a result of the overwhelming will of the people being served.

Lutz prefers to quote that other hero of American politics: Jesse Ventura, the ex-Navy SEAL turned professional wrestler turned Governor of Minnesota. Whenever a particularly meddlesome piece of legislation turned up on his desk, he would dismiss it with a line that went on to become his personal catchphrase. “You can't legislate against stupidity,” he would say.

It's a lesson that Nannyfornia - not to mention Barack Obama - might do well to learn.
http://women.timesonline.co.uk

'We just want a fag with our beer'

Members of Lee Working Men's Club in south-east London were outraged at the ban on smoking at private clubs.


"It's about basic human rights," said Phil Sullivan, 46, an unemployed former environmental services manager for the council. "This is supposed to be a free country, but the words 'nanny state' spring to mind. Who are we disturbing by having a cigarette tucked away here?" He said that the Labour Party had alienated its natural supporters "yet again".

The club secretary, Duncan Hamilton, said 80 per cent of members were smokers, and he expected some might choose to drink elsewhere. "We will have to close," said Mr Hamilton, 62, a Dunhill in one hand, a pint of John Smiths in the other. "It would only take revenue to drop by 5 per cent and that would be it," he said. "Good night, for good."

That would mean an end to £2 pints with the darts, bingo, live bands, afternoon tea dances, pool matches and televised sport throughout the week.

Roger Chappell, 67, a retired decorator puffing his way through a pack of Royals, added: "A ban on smoking by the do-gooders will be another nail in the coffin. [Working men's] clubs are closing all over the place already." He said that MPs should have exempted private clubs as "a special case". Referring to the pub chains, he asked: "Why should we be classified in the same way as the big money people, who have tens of millions to throw at pubs? We're the little working men of the country. We don't make a profit. None of us earn fortunes. We don't have mansions we can invite our friends to. We just want to have a fag with our beer."

Death of the working men's club

They used to guarantee a cheap pint and a good night out but, as more close every month, a bastion of British life is now under threat

By Ian Griggs
Sunday, 10 August 2008

Working men's clubs have been a bastion of the British entertainment scene for 150 years, blooding young comedians and crooners before unforgiving audiences and setting them on the long hard road to stardom or the short cut to obscurity. But now there are fears the clubs themselves are facing an even tougher audience – their creditors.


Fondly lampooned by Peter Kay in the series Phoenix Nights, they are struggling to compete in a world of DVDs, cinema multiplexes and arena concerts – and not even their reputation for a cheap pint is enough of a draw. Last week, one of the oldest working men's clubs in the country brought down the curtain for the last time.

Coventry Working Men's Club first opened its doors in 1862 and enjoys the reputation of being the only such club ever to receive a visit from the Queen, who went there in 1977 as part of her Silver Jubilee celebrations. Now the working men of Coventry will have to go elsewhere for their entertainment, after the club's committee blamed a combination of debts, cheap supermarket booze, the smoking ban and the credit crunch for its demise.

Graham Shields, the club's secretary, went to the High Court in May and persuaded a judge to give it more time to clear its £26,000 debt. But the management was unable to turn its fortunes round in time.

"It is a tragedy," said Mr Shields. "Years of history have disappeared at the stroke of a pen. We've had dire times before but we have always managed to pull something out of the hat... Finance is more important than history, it seems."

A similar fate has befallen many other clubs in the UK, with as many as two closing every month. The Working Men's Club and Institute Union has seen its number of affiliate members halve from a 1970s heyday of 4,000 to 2,300 today.

Kevin Smyth, general secretary of the union, said the Coventry club's problems stemmed from the post-war rebuilding of the city when people were rehoused away from the area.

Clubs were closing all over the country, he said. "The movement is in decline and it's very sad. Where will working people go to socialise? Will they become confined to their homes?"

Dr Ruth Cherrington of the University of Warwick, who is researching the subject, said the effect of closures on communities was devastating: "If you are old and you have been going to one of these clubs all your life, you have nowhere else to go. They were also places which brought the generations together."

Dr Cherrington said the clubs developed because the working classes did not feel there was anywhere for them to go, so set up places where they would be in charge. "They were owned and run by the men themselves and, because they were private members' clubs, the police could not simply barge in," she said. "They also fulfilled a charitable function before the emergence of the welfare state."

But the invention of television and the erosion of the working class itself have helped put paid to a long tradition. "I'm sad to say this, but we're likely to see many more closures," said Dr Cherrington.
http://www.independent.co.uk

Irish Republic-Convictions for flouting smoking ban on the rise

CONVICTIONS obtained under the smoking ban have jumped threefold, new figures reveal.

According to the figures, supplied by the Office of Tobacco Control, 16 convictions were obtained in 2004, with this figure hitting 49 in 2007. The smoking ban was brought in by former Health Minister Micheal Martin on March 29, 2004. Similar bans have since been introduced in countries such as Denmark and France.

Last year more than six convictions relating to incidents such as people smoking in front of publicans. Eleven related to people, like bar managers, permitting smoking in non-compliant outdoor smoking areas.

Twenty-nine were for permitting smoking in places such as a bar counter or within a pub or taxi.

There were also two convictions for obstruction and interference with an authorised officer, while another related to the failure to display the required signage.

Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) carry out prosecutions under the Public Health (Tobacco) Act.

There are more than 540 Environmental Health Officers dealing with environmental issues and tobacco control, a number which has not changed significantly since the introduction of the ban.

Fine Gael Health Spokesman, Dr James Reilly, last night branded the increase a "worrying trend".

"It an extremely serious public health issue. There are clearly people prepared to flout the law.

"Those who do this should face the full rigours of the law."

However, a spokesman for the Office of Tobacco Control last night defended the rate of compliance, insisting it was 95pc.
http://www.independent.ie

Outside smoking banned at pub
By John Harrington

A licensee has been ordered to refuse service to customers who smoke on the street outside her pub.

Back to article list
This message must be carried on signs at the entrance and on street-facing windows as a new condition of the licence at the Horse & Jockey in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire.

The unusual conditions were imposed at a review, called after a resident asked for the premises licence to be rescinded — and tenant Janis Harmer removed as designated premises supervisor (DPS) — due to noise from within the premises and from smokers outside.

The signs, which must be at least A4 in size, say: “Customers must not smoke on the street outside these premises. Any person failing to observe this condition will be refused further service at the bar upon re-entry.”

The Punch Taverns pub is also banned from using TVs or amplified music outside after 9pm.

Despite the restrictions, Harmer said the council’s decision was “a big relief”, adding, “I thought something would happen to the premises licence or I would be removed [as DPS]. That’s the pressure I was under.”

Harmer said the outdoor smoking ban had had a “marginal” effect on trade. However, she is making it clear that the decision is not hers, but “on the order of the council” according to the signs.

Morning Advertiser legal editor Peter Coulson said the outdoor ban appeared to be “unreasonable, but it’s the kind of condition that can be imposed at a review”.

He said: “The alternative is to go to the magistrates to say this condition is difficult to enforce, so can you think of one that’s more reasonable? But to appeal at the magistrates costs £400, which is a deterrent.”
http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk

MP barred for backing smoking ban 
 
Landlord Roger Hantulik has put posters up outside the pub (Pic: MEN)
A Greater Manchester MP has been barred from one of his local pubs for supporting the smoking ban.

Roger Hantulik, landlord of the Prince of Orange in Ashton-under-Lyne, has put up a poster telling Ashton MP David Heyes he is not welcome.

Mr Hantulik said he had lost half his business since the ban came in.

He said: "Heyes agreed with the smoking ban and he has not given us the chance to have a say in the matter. The ban is killing the trade."

However, Mr Heyes did not seem too concerned when told of the ban.

He joked: "That is tragic news. Let me get one thing clear - I have not set foot in the Prince of Orange for eight or nine years."

"The majority of people who I know object to smoky atmospheres in pubs, I would vote for a smoking ban again if I had to."
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk

Hotel owner prosecuted for smoking on her own premises
A hotel owner has been prosecuted for smoking a cigarette in her property while nobody else was there.
 
By Chris Irvine
Patricia Coupeland was given a 12 month conditional discharge by Blackpool magistrates after she admitted smoking on a smoke-free premises.

Ms Coupeland, 50, of the Cheers Hotel in Blackpool, told a court the hotel was closed at the time and not taking in guests.

She said: "I was in the dining room doing my paperwork and having a cigarette. It was closed as a hotel at the time and was therefore my private home. There were no guests. I only had a friend stay. The health officer came across as vicious and a person with attitude."

Victoria Cartmell, prosecuting for Blackpool Council, told the court that on February 1 environmental health officer Alan Taylor arrived at the hotel to carry out a hygiene inspection.

She said: "The defendant returned from the kitchen with a cigarette which she continued to smoke in the bar area.

"The defendant confirmed it was a smoke-free hotel, but said it was her own home and she was free to smoke in her own home.

"The officer said smoking in her private quarters was okay, but not in the bar."

Ms Coupeland was issued a £50 on the spot fine, which would have been reduced to £30 had it been paid in 15 days, although the penalty was not paid.

Last month, a painter and decorator was left "dumbfounded" after receiving a £30 fine for smoking a cigarette in his own van.

Gordon Williams, 58, of Llanafan, Aberystwyth, says he had popped to the shops when he was pulled over by Ceredigion council officials.

He said: "I am dumbfounded - the van is only insured for private use and to get me to and from work.

"It's not my place of work - I decorate houses not vans."

Rules defining when a vehicle can be treated as a place of work are complex.

While company cars in which passengers are carried are classed as one, there is confusion over private vehicles depending on whether thay are mainly used for work.

Last year, the Rolling Stones were not prosecuted despite repeatedly flouting the smoking ban when performing at the O2 Arena in London - Greenwich borough council said nothing could be done because fans at the venue had not objected.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

There's no smoke without ire - that's the real outrage
Victoria Coren The Observer, Sunday August 10 2008
Britain is gasping in sympathy with Linda Buchanan, the hapless Kent commuter who was pushed on to a railway track by two men she had 'ticked off' for smoking. Everyone is shaken by the idea of this ghastly, nightmarish experience. We are all standing closer to walls as we wait for trains. Poor, terrified Linda Buchanan.

Having said that ... On a bad day, I'd have shoved her off the platform myself.

Of course, this is a horrible story. But not just because there are people who push other people on to railway tracks. This was not a meeting of good and evil. It was a meeting of bad and worse.

Mrs Buchanan, who was helped off the track with a hurt wrist, has been hailed as a hero in the press. Shouting at the smokers, she did 'what any good citizen might do'. She is 'a woman unafraid to intervene when something is wrong'. She 'highlights what ordinary people risk by confronting thugs'.

Bollocks. This woman is not a Ben Kinsella (stabbed to death trying to break up a street brawl) or a Philip Lawrence (killed trying to protect the children at St George's school, where he was headmaster, from a gang of bullies), although one newspaper had the tasteless nerve to compare her to both. Mrs Buchanan wasn't being a hero, she was being a busybody.

People who step in when others are being attacked or threatened are not aiming purely to uphold the law. That's why it's so pointless and unhelpful for the police to advise us 'not to take the law into our own hands' in these situations. It is not about the law. It is what the law's about. Social responsibility, morality, right and wrong. If you see somebody in danger, you don't just walk past and leave them to their fate. Legal, illegal, who cares; it's morally wrong to ignore someone who is terrified, alone and needs help.

Easy for me to say, as a woman. I have twice got involved in situations where I thought somebody was about to get hurt - or, at least, was being terrorised - once when a biker was thumping on a female motorist's car after a skirmish at a traffic light, and once when a man in the street was trying to yank a baby from the arms of a woman (I assume his wife) and she was literally screaming for help.

It's much easier for a woman to walk up and try to calm the situation; you do it in the fairly confident assumption that you're not about to get attacked yourself. If it happens, it happens (better than going home, putting the kettle on and idly wondering if anyone got murdered), but in my experience so far it hasn't. This is statistically more dangerous for men. My father was always a one for: 'Leave that woman alone!' and: 'Give you my wallet? You'll have to kill me first!' and I hated it. I thought, one day, someone might.

Philip Lawrence and Ben Kinsella, and all men who put themselves at risk to protect others, are heroes. Not so a commuter who bustles up to unleash the sharp end of her tongue on a guy having a quiet cigarette while he waits for a train. He's not the bully; she is.

Non-smokers have won, do you understand? We, the weak and addicted, with our revolting habit, who will waste money and lose lovers and die young in our stupid helpless pursuit of small nicotine comforts, have lost the war. You, the strong and healthy and pure, have taken all your land back: you've got the aeroplanes, the cinemas, the theatres, the restaurants, the pubs, you've got the inside of the whole world.

And we stand outside, cold and miserable and addicted and embarrassed, on the naughty step, hunched over our desperate little 'treats'... and still you come scurrying over to shout at us. Outside railway stations, in the street, outside restaurants on the three days a year we can comfortably eat there; you lean across to revel in your power, demonstrate your superior self-denial, and tell us how disgusting we are. The powerful sneering at the losers.

Unfortunately for Mrs Buchanan, she picked the wrong victim. She inadvertently ticked off someone truly horrible, who exacted the inexcusable revenge of pushing her off the platform a couple of days later. Appalling, indefensible, I hope the police catch up with the man, or men, and throw away the key. (Assuming they have locked some sort of door with it first.) But that doesn't make Linda Buchanan right.

Have you seen the train platform at Farningham Road, Swanley? It's a great long stretch, completely open to the sky. It is a huge, airy Serengeti of space. Mrs Buchanan might just as well have trekked across the Sahara, shouting criticism through a megaphone at a distant farting nomad.

Since we have a priggish, disapproving, bullying, absolutist government, which refused to bring in a (good, correct) smoking ban by stages, the Farningham smokers were technically breaking the law even by having a crafty snout on an outdoor platform. But why was this Mrs Buchanan's problem? Anyone who didn't like it could have moved further down, in the fresh air. Nobody was getting hurt but the smokers themselves. They weren't breaking the Ten Commandments.

There's nothing heroic about 'ticking off' a smoker whose air you're not obliged to share. That's like 'ticking someone off' for parking on a yellow line, or for swearing in a private conversation: not doing something right, but something self-righteous. It is done by those who look around the world in smug disapproval of everything, who make personal remarks, who bitch and criticise, who feel superior. It's rude.

Poor Linda Buchanan, who suffered such a horrible assault. I'm very glad she is on the mend. But I'm even gladder that she doesn't live next door to me.
http://www.guardian.co.uk

Britain's oldest working men's club closed by twin woes of credit crunch and smoking ban
Britain's oldest working men's club has been forced to close its doors after 147 years after falling victim to the smoking ban and credit crunch.
 
By Nick Britten
Last Updated: 2:35PM BST 07 Aug 2008

For years, Coventry Working Men's Club formed the hub of the community, with workers from manufacturing, predominantly within the car industry, packing the place.

Opened in 1862, it remains the only club of its type in Britain to be visited by the Queen, who went in 1977 as part of her Silver Jubilee celebrations.

But on Thursday its doors were locked for the final time as the reality of modern day living took hold.

Cheap supermarket drink, the smoking ban and credit crunch were all blamed as factors that left the club operating at a loss and £26,000 in debt.

The management had gone to the High Court in May to seek help to clear the debt and were granted more time to find the money, but Graham Shields, the Club secretary, said there was now no other option.

He said: “It is a tragedy because 147 years of history disappeared on in the stroke of a pen.

”I have been secretary since 1993 and I didn't want to be the last secretary at Coventry Working Men's Club.

”We've had dire times before but we have always managed to pull something out of the hat and we didn't think this would be it.”

He said the only realistic way of keeping the Club open was for the trustees was to put up their own houses as a guarantee.

He said: “We held a meeting for members last Tuesday night because we still thought there was a chance we could fight closure.

”The official receivers called us on Friday morning - it seems finance is more important than history.”

Coventry is the latest Working Man's Club to close as clubs around the country suffer. It is believed around 400 have shut in the last year.

In its heyday of the 1960s and 70s, Coventry Working Men's Club, in its original location of Cox Street, had 4,000 members on the books.

And it wasn't unusual for people to queue outside at weekends, waiting for the doors to open.

Its membership dwindled to 850 by the year 2000 when it moved to its current location in Whitefriars Lane the vast majority of whom belonged to the club for more than 25 years. By this year, membership had dwindled even further.

Like many clubs nationally, it lost a generation of sons following in the footsteps of their fathers.

Dr Ruth Cherrington, from Warwick University, said historically working men's clubs had thrived in Coventry, providing a release for the stresses of life and helping people relax during hard times.

She said: “Coventry Working Men's Club was once the largest venue in the city but declined in recent years.

”Councillors had the task not only of quickly rebuilding large parts of the city but also of planning new estates and expanding those began in the 1930s.

“People needed houses to live in, and quickly, but they also needed somewhere to go in their free time.

“And they needed to feel a sense of community, which was particularly important on out of town estates where new residents could easily feel isolated.”

Kevin Smythe, general secretary of the Working Men's Club and Institute Union, said: “This is a sad day for the Working Men's Club organisation. Coventry Working Men's Club was a great venue with a rich history.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

LOCK, STOCK & TWO BARRELS
EXCLUSIVE Movies with cig scenes to get X cert
By David Collins D.Collins@Mgn.Co.Uk
Children should be banned from watching ANY film showing stars having a smoke, top doctors claim.

They fear kids are encouraged to light up when they see their screen heroes puffing away.

And they are demanding all movies featuring smoking scenes should get an 18 certificate in cinemas - just like films awash with explicit sex and violence.

That would mean kids could not watch the new Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight, which is a 12A.

And it would even put children's classic 101 Dalmatians - starring Glenn Close as evil fag hag Cruella De Vil - in the same X-rated category as gangster comedy Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels.

The crackdown plea comes in a Royal College of Physicians' report which was commissioned after a US survey found HALF the teenagers who smoke started because they saw movie stars having a drag.



Docs reckon the only exceptions to their ban would be films about the risks of tobacco or newsreel footage of historical people who smoked.


And college expert Prof John Britton accused films like last year's schoolgirl comedy St Trinian's - starring Mischa Barton and Cheryl Cole - of glamorising smoking.


He said: "I was disgusted it had a 12A classification.


"Seeing smoking in films makes kids more likely to do it."


But actors' union Equity hit back: "This is a form of censorship - we can't just pretend no one smokes.


"How could you depict Churchill without an actor smoking a cigar? The very idea is ridiculous."


And the British Board of Film Classification - who decide a movie's certificate - said: "We'll end up with the bizarre situation where perfectly acceptable films get an 18 just because an actor has a cigarette."
http://www.people.co.uk

German smoke ban to be partially overturned, court rules
30 July, 2008

By James Wilmore

Small pubs to be permitted to allow smoking

Germany is to be forced to reverse its ban on smoking in small pubs, the country’s top constitutional court has ruled.

The court said a ban on smoking in small one-room bars in two states – Berlin and Baden-Wuttermberg – was discriminatory as similar pubs that had extra rooms were legally allowed to offer one for smokers.

The situation differs to that in the UK where a total smoking ban covers all public places, meaning a level playing field for all businesses.

Smokers should also be permitted to light up in one-room venues, the court said.

The ruling is likely to set a precedent for other German states.


In an emailed statement, the court said: “Lawmakers could totally ban smoking in all bars and restaurants. But if they decide to allow exceptions for some barkeepers, then these exceptions must also apply to small pubs which are most hit by the ban.''

The ruling upheld a complaint lodged by the owners of two small bars in Berlin and a disco operator in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, who argued the ban had cut their revenues by more than 30 per cent.

Hans-Juergen Papier, the court's president, said the law would need to be redrawn by the end of next year.

He said until then, smoking should be permitted in bars and restaurants of less than 75 square metres that lack a separate smokers' area.

About one third of Germans smoke, which is one of the highest rates in Europe.
http://www.thepublican.com/story.asp?storycode=60652

Pub landlord waits on smoking appeal

A PUB landlord who became the first in Greater Manchester to be convicted of defying the new public smoking ban last year deliberately set out to flout the law, a court heard.

Nick Hogan, former landlord of The Swan Hotel and Barristers Bar in Bolton, was found guilty in January of failing to prevent people from smoking on his licensed premises on four separate occasions last July.

He is appealing against conviction and sentence on three of the charges, on the grounds that he had not been aware, and could not have been reasonably expected to be aware, that individuals had been smoking in his pub.

Judgment in the case, which was heard at Bolton Crown Court, has been adjourned to a date yet to be fixed.

If the appeal is allowed, it could well have major legal and political implications, affecting thousands of other licensees.

Mr Hogan told the hearing he had not agreed with the anti-smoking legislation and believed it to be unjust.

He told the court that his stance had been to tell staff to explain the new legal position to customers, but said that if anyone lit up in his pub, they would not be thrown out.

Mr David Travers, prosecuting, said Mr Hogan had made his position clear when he hosted a protest meeting against the new law on the day it came into force last summer.

Mr Travers said it was `breathtaking' for Mr Hogan to claim he had not known people were smoking, when he had abandoned any responsibility placed on him under the law.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

Punch calls for rural rate relief
By Paul Collins

Punch Taverns says it is focusing on small and rural pubs in attempts to get reductions on business rates.

These pubs have been hit hardest by the smoking ban, said property and strategy director Neil Griffiths. Applying for rate relief for pubs undergoing refurbishment is another priority, he said.

Griffiths said: “Our business rates service helps rural pub licensees apply for rate reduction of up to 50%.”

He said many such applications had been successful, but exact figures were not available.

Griffiths pointed out that pubs closed for a short time to undergo changes can get rate reductions for up to three months. “It is something that is important for us to achieve for the licensees,” he said.

The MA asked pub operators about experiences of the rate relief process after it was highlighted at the Community Pubs Inquiry in Westminster earlier this month.

Kate Hempsall, spokeswoman for Bedford operator Charles Wells, said around three quarters of its 250 pubs are receiving some form of assistance.

“The biggest impact of the smoking ban has been on the wet-led pubs and we offer assistance of how to get rate reductions because of it,” explained Hempsall.

Rob Jones, director of Lincolnshire-based Bateman, predicted turmoil when the 2010 ratings list is made public next year.

“No doubt the rates will be increased to add more pressure for pubs,” he said.
http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk

Pubs report tough times following smoking ban

21 July 2008
By JACKIE TURLEY
PUBS and clubs anticipated tough times ahead when the smoking ban was introduced.
And a little more than three months on, pubs have reported a difficult transition.

Nigel Dobson, landlord of the Liverpool Arms, in Main Road, Baldrine, said that, as expected, trade was down on this time last year.

He said the drop could be down to a number of factors — last year being the TT's centenary year, prevailing economic conditions or the smoking ban.

'I have not heard anyone saying business is booming this year,' he said.
Mr Dobson, based on what he has seen in pubs in the UK, predicted a drop in trade over the first year.

He said that trade in pubs that were able to adjust and survive would then pick up in two or three years' time.

In order to deal with the drop he has been promoting food and has invested money in this side of the business.

An outside area was opened just in time for the TT and he said this was being used mainly by people eating.

The pub has lost some regular customers, but Mr Dobson thinks the 'real test will be during the winter when it is not so comfortable to stand outside for a cigarette'.

Colin Moore, manager of Legends Nightclub, Peveril Square, Douglas, and Macbeths, Victoria Street, Douglas, said the smoking ban was 'a nuisance' at the nightclub 'because it is another area we have to police, as well as the rest of the club'.

He predicted Legends would be insulated from the ban because it had an outside area, and he said this seemed to be the case.

At Macbeths, he said there was a downturn in trade when the ban was first introduced but thought business was picking up again as people got used to it.

He said: 'We are lucky in that our regulars are very loyal — they have kept coming to the pub and live with the fact they have to go outside to smoke.

'It's not the fact we are losing regular customers — it is more the fact people are coming out less often.

'Rather than spending many hours every night in the pub they will go home earlier and be out fewer nights.'

Mr Moore said that although there was no space for an outside smoking area, they were in the same position as a lot of Douglas pubs.

'We are confident we will weather the storm,' he added. 'It is an inconvenience and it always will be but we are faring as well in the trade as anyone else.'

Bushy's Brewery boss Martin Brunnschweiler said the firm hadn't experienced too much of a downturn in trade since the smoking ban was introduced.

He said: 'I think the Rovers Return in Douglas and, I suppose I can speak more for the Bay in Port Erin, I don't think we have been too badly affected.

'I think where the problems are going to be is in the winter. The mild weather means that it hasn't been too big a problem to go out for a smoke.

'I think people will think twice about going down the pub when there's the wind and the rain's horizontal.'
http://www.iomtoday.co.im

SMOKING BLUNDER BY AM RHODRI
Gaffe prone AM Rhodri Glyn Thomas reportedly fears his job could go up in smoke after walking into a pub with a lit cigar.The Heritage Minister (picture above), who campaigned for a ban on lighting up in public, was seemingly unaware he had made the mistake when he wandered into Cardiff boozer The Eli Jenkins.

The pub is frequented by journalists, politicians and staff at the nearby National Assembly.

It is the second faux pas the Plaid politician has made this month, after reading out the wrong name when announcing the winner of a literary award.

By the time Mr Thomas corrected his error, runner-up Tom Bullough had made his way to the stage at the Wales Book of the Year ceremony.

Now after Wednesday night's mistake, questions have been raised over Mr Thomas's political future.

He cancelled his appearance at the opening of the Sir Kyffin Williams gallery last night, and sources say "he does not expect to be in his job by Saturday".

An Assembly Government spokeswoman added: "We are neither confirming nor denying these allegations."
http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk

Thou shalt not smoke
A bar is trying to get round the ban on smoking introduced in Holland this month by declaring itself part of the One and Universal Smokers' Church of God.

This allows it to appeal to European human rights legislation on freedom of religion.

"Converting people was not easy," the Church's founder commented, "until the smoking ban started." The Church is sending a missionary to Britain. Here he will find attitudes very different.

advertisementBritish churches have been obliged by law to stick up ugly red signs at the door declaring: "It is against the law to smoke in these premises."

Never mind that, by custom and courtesy, no one ever smoked in a church. The signs must go up in the ecclesiastical "workplace".

There is no appeal to freedom of religion. Compliance is the new religion. The bureaucrats' next target will no doubt be candles and incense.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
 

Reporter: Mary Rinzel
It's been two weeks since smokers in Eau Claire had to snuff out. So far the Tavern League say no formal complaints have been filed at City Hall and the City County Health Department hasn't issued any citations. But this is a tale of two bars… in two cities.

"Business is down about 23 percent," says Tina Wesner, a bartender at the Five O’clock Club

"We've seen a large increase in business," says Brad Windeshausen, the owner of Whiskey Dicks.

Whiskey Dicks and the Five O'clock Club: They're only a few blocks apart, but owners say they're business is heading in opposite directors.

"We’re seeing a lot of different faces. A lot more people are making this their new habit,” Windeshausen says.

But, that new home is in Altoona and outside the smoking ban's reach. That's a fact Windeshausen is letting people know about with a series of radio ads aimed at bringing in smokers.

"We’re looking at a choice. Non-smokers have Eau Claire to go to. People who do want to smoke can come here," he says.

"That's definitely the kicker,” Wesner says. “You can smoke across the street."

Wesner says the outside, smoke-friendly patio at the Five O’clock Club is a plus. But, she says the ban is tearing people apart.

"Non-smokers are very upset because their friends smoke and people are getting separated. They come in as a group and they want to stay as a group," she says.

Wesner says the ban is already making it hard to make money. She says right now their hope is with the Tavern League and reversing the ban.

"That's what we're here for,” Wesner says. “Cocktails and cigarettes."

"I was hoping for a statewide ban,” Windeshausen says.

Windeshausen says he feels bad for bars caught up in a city ordinance. He says Eau Claire should've waited for the state to take action.

"You won't have that border jumping,” he says.

Windeshausen says people might stay home at first and have a beer and cigarette there. But, says they'll come out eventually for the social aspect.

And in the meantime, he says they're more than welcome at Whiskey Dicks.
http://www.weau.com

Landlords fined over smoking

By Jeni Harvey
TWO pub landlords who flouted the smoking ban, complaining that it had affected their businesses, have been fined by magistrates in Chesterfield.


This comes after Chesterfield Council received complaints that Michael Churm, of the Yellow Lion in Saltergate, and Mark Breen, of the Poolsbrook Hotel, had been allowing customers to smoke on their premises.

As a result the council sent them letters warning that they were breaking the law and asking them to comply with the legislation. However, on January 26 Churm, 50, was seen smoking in the pub by a council officer.

He told them he did not agree with the smoking ban, which had caused a downturn in sales and left his business struggling, but apologised for committing the offence and went on to plead guilty at magistrates court.

He was fined £130 and ordered to pay £300 costs.

Breen, 44, pleaded guilty to failing to stop a customer from smoking in the Poolsbrook Hotel on April 6.

That night, council officers saw Breen standing next to a customer who was smoking in the lounge area. Breen said he had barred the customer from the premises following the offence, but only for one week because he could not afford to lose the trade.

He was fined £500 and ordered to pay a contribution of £300 towards the council's costs.

Both men were also ordered to pay a victims' surcharge of £15.

Coun Ian Openshaw. of Chesterfield Council, said: "These cases demonstrate that the smoke-free legislation is effective and that the council is committed to ensuring the law is not broken."
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk

Drinks suppliers on the smoking ban
16 July, 2008

By Adam Withrington

Adam Withrington finds out what they make of its impact on trade

It is not an exaggeration to call the smoking ban the biggest and most significant piece of legislation to hit the pub trade since the Beer Orders.

Yet ask suppliers across the industry their views on how it has impacted on trade and the response is really quite inexact.

Undoubtedly, the impact of the smoking ban is difficult to assess as so many factors cloud the issue, particularly weather and the impact of changing social trends.

But it would be less difficult to decipher if there were more data available – have brand owners simply not been tracking performance since July 1 last year? You would think not, so little clear statistical information is available.

As one industry insider put it to me, “maybe they don’t want to know”. But suppliers should want to know – they are the people responsible for bringing innovation to retailers and pub companies. They are the people that can try to drive growth back into the trade. Let’s hope if we ask the same people in another 12 months, responses are more revealing.

However, what we have gives a fascinating insight into drinking trends in the on-trade. Unquestionably lager has suffered – something backed by research undertaken by Pernod Ricard.

The research suggests opportunities exist in other sectors of the drinks market. But the performance of cask ale proves that all is not lost for beer.

Coca-Cola Enterprises

Paul Grace, head of on-premise

“There has been a general impression that since the smoking ban, there has been a change in the type of visitor coming to the on-trade, with more frequent family visits. There is a big opportunity within this for licensees, particularly in relation to soft drinks.

“Our research shows a growing number of on-trade drinkers believe people should not be allowed to smoke in pubs and bars. Growth in on-trade soft drink sales is expected to continue as a result of the smoking ban, as pubs increase their food-led offer and consequently extend soft drinks ranges.”

Coors

Paul Hegarty, director of communications

“The on-trade is facing unprecedented pressure – last year’s terrible weather, the credit crunch and the smoking ban. Politically, no party would want to be seen to support smoking, so it is very unlikely the ban will be reversed. The government needs to find creative ways to relieve the pressure on Britain’s pubs. One suggestion is a lower rate of duty on draught beers.”

Fuller’s Beer Company

John Roberts, managing director

“I think that it is near-impossible to isolate the smoking ban from the other factors that have affected the trade during the past year. The credit crunch, poor weather, football, off-trade prices and duty rises have all had an impact.

“Lager sales appear to have been hardest hit, and the people re-discovering pubs following the ban (who perhaps were put off previously by smoke) tend to be more discerning and more likely to drink cask beer and eat in those pubs.

“From Fuller’s perspective, it’s good news and cask ale grew its share of draught beer in pubs. Premium cask ale grew volume driven by well-supported, quality brands such as London Pride, which had another great year.”


“I would say, subjectively, that the ban has played a big role in this success for cask. But so too has the generally improved quality of cask beer, driven by the larger regional brewers’ investment in cellars, beer dispense, training, brand support and glassware.”

Wells & Young’s

Nigel McNally, managing director

“The smoking ban was, of course, inevitable. But what the best pubs did was plan for it with good quality smoking shelters. Charles Wells Pub Company, for example, invested over £1.25m in smoking shelters and provided marketing advice and support to make sure the transition ran as smoothly as possible for their tenants. With regards to the resurgence of cask ale, it’s hard to put the reasoning down to one factor such as smoking. But with consumers wanting more from their pub experience, they are looking for something they can’t get at home, and cask ale is unique to the on-trade. A cask ale drinker will continue to visit pubs because they simply can’t get the real thing at home.

“Plus, cask ale plays on all the senses. With no smoke in pubs, it means that the rich, full flavours and subtleties on the nose of cask ale can be much better appreciated, which further adds to the enjoyment of the pint.

“I am absolutely confident that cask ale will continue to thrive – with or without a smoking ban.”

Percy Fox

Jon Luke, on-trade director

“The nationwide smoking ban has accelerated the existing trend of footfall decline in the on-trade, with the fourth-quarter decline worse than previous quarters. But while [market research programme] AlcoVision is showing a decline in visiting among non-smokers, the decline cannot be blamed solely on the ban. The key group claiming to have changed their behaviour the most since the smoking ban is the 50-plus male lager drinker. This group accounts for a huge amount of lager volume, hence the performance of beer in the on-trade. My take is therefore that beer alone is not the answer to growth.

“We see the opportunity in groups that are expanding post the smoking ban. Women aged 18 to 35 are increasingly important to the on-trade, with visiting holding up better than for older groups. Overall, female share of occasions has increased to 37.4 per cent and they are also driving growth in food occasions. We detect from our research that on-trade-specific occasions involving appropriate brands are necessary to capitalise on this opportunity.”

Pernod Ricard

Dan Reuby, customer development director

“Pernod Ricard UK has commissioned some bespoke, smoking-ban focused research, through AlcoVision (January – March 2008). We have identified trends that are being driven by longer-term issues facing the on-trade, rather than the smoking ban alone.

• Consumers are claiming they will continue to visit the on-trade as regularly as they did before the ban, or more.

“The analysis shows there are roughly 1.75 million fewer on-trade visits per week versus the previous quarter last year. However, according to HIM! On Track 2007 research 73 per cent of non-smokers claim they will continue to visit the on-trade as frequently as they did before the smoking ban, and 20 per cent claim they will visit more.

“This suggests that on-trade visit declines are likely being driven by economic pressures as well as home cooking, DIY, home technology/entertainment trends and poor weather, rather than simply the smoking ban in isolation. Additionally, although the research showed the average number of alcoholic beverages served per occasion is also slightly down (driven by the fall in the number of beer-drinking smokers), spirits are showing the highest number of serves per occasion among smokers.”

• Traditional pubs are enjoying the largest share of on-trade visits from both smokers and non-smokers.

“The survey suggests that the number of smokers visiting traditional pubs has not declined dramatically and that these outlets have also been particularly successful at increasing the number of non-smokers who were initially attracted following the ban. To prolong this success, they should continue to focus on what they are good at; they may want to consider offering a simple selection of food versus gastro options that may not fare as well among regulars.

“Any reported trends or declines are not being driven by the smoking ban alone. Smokers typically visit the on-trade most frequently and consume the highest average number of alcoholic beverages per occasion, so remain a very important consumer group. However, pubs must not stop at simply providing comfortable smoking areas. They should also examine if they are doing enough to tempt both smokers and non-smokers out of their homes in a way that encourages repeat visits, since a smoke-free environment is clearly not enough on its own for either group.”
http://www.thepublican.com

20,000 PUBS IN DANGER
THE PEOPLE INVESTIGATES THE DEAD LION How this ban.. and this man.. threaten the death of a great British institution
By Marc Baker And Tom Latchem Marc.Baker@People.Co.Uk
The great British pub is in its worst-ever crisis with an astonishing 20,000 facing closure.

This centuries-old institution is on its knees with four shutting EVERY DAY - most forever - and a shocking FORTY PER CENT of all boozers are heading for the bitter end.

Today, as millions of responsible drinkers face the grim prospect of life without a traditional community pub, The People investigates this sorry state of affairs - and pinpoints FIVE overwhelming reasons...

1 THE SMOKING BAN

Contrary to most predictions before the ban was enforced last summer, it has had a devastating effect on pub trade.

When the ban came into effect one year ago this week, polls were claiming that up to 80 per cent of all adults were more likely to visit a pub. But hardly any of that horde of new customers has materialised - while regulars have vanished.


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Last July one health insurance giant predicted: "The ban will enable village and town pubs across the UK to play an even more integral role in community life."


Today that boast raises a hollow laugh as village after village and town after town lose their pubs.


Research by the magazine Publican shows that only one in three licensees has attracted new customers since the ban.


And at least 78,000 bar staff have been sacked because of a drop in business caused directly by the ban, according to the trade magazine Morning Advertiser.


The British Beer and Pub Association told The People: "The smoking ban was a huge change for pubs across Britain and it has had an adverse affect.


"We have seen a £100million investment by large pub chains with outside smoking areas. But traditional pubs struggle because they cannot afford to make the changes."


2 THE TAX HAMMER


The pub world was stunned when Chancellor Alistair Darling slammed an above-inflation 6 per cent overall tax rise on alcohol in March.


Although the industry had pleaded for a duty CUT in the face of declining sales, Mr Darling was under pressure from Gordon Brown to screw as much revenue as possible from drinkers.


The Chancellor extracted £1.56billion by slapping 4p on a pint of beer, 14p on a bottle of wine and 55p on spirits - and warned that above-inflation rises in duty would continue for years to come. When the 4p rise filtered down to pub drinkers it was nearer 25p as brewers and pub companies piled on their extra costs too.


The Campaign for a Fair Pint reckons that out of a pint selling at around the nationwide average of £2.60, 75p goes to the Government, 26p to the brewer and 91p to the pub company, with pubs trying to survive on the 68p left.


3 SOARING COSTS


Brewers are struggling to cope with huge increases in the price of raw materials. The cost of malting barley - essential in brewing - rose 66 per cent last year because of poor harvests and farmers switching to more profitable bio-fuels.


Hops went up 45 per cent.


The price of aluminium for barrels has rocketed because of demand from China and India.


Landlords who lease their pubs also face the same soaring energy and water bills as their dwindling customers. Cashstrapped landlords are now being forced to pay suppliers up front because they cannot get any more credit. If they can't stump up the cash, the pub shuts.


Former licensee David Morgan, who runs a helpline, said: "In the last year we have seen a tenfold rise in the number of calls from landlords who have gone over their overdraft, maxed-out their credit cards and taken out loans to survive and simply have no money left."


4 CHEAP SUPERMARKET BOOZE


Pubs faced further agony last week as supermarkets declared war on each other with drastic price cuts including booze.


Tesco advertised four bottles of Gaymer's cider for £1.68 - less than a pub could charge for ONE bottle. Pubs cannot absorb cost increases like the big supermarkets.


The British Beer and Pub Association says: "The smoking ban, combined with increased prices, has pushed regular customers out of pubs and into supermarkets where there has been a sharp increase in the number of people buying alcohol to drink at home."


5 THE NEW PURITANS


Pubs have been unfairly caught in the backlash against binge-drinking and 24-hour licensing, making it easier for the Government to ramp up alcohol duty and listen sympathetically to medical experts who want even higher taxes.


Since licensing passed from magistrates to local councils in 2005, pubs have become one of the most closely-regulated drinking environments in the world. Most still close at 11pm during the week and only open until midnight on Saturdays.


Bbpa chief executive Rob Hayward said: "The latest pub closure figures of four a day show the stark reality of the pub trade in contrast to the hype surrounding the myth of '24-hour drinking' and extended pub opening hours.


"Pub closures at this rate are threatening an important hub of our social fabric and community history."


And helpline boss David Morgan warned: "There are 56,000 pubs in this country.


Thirty per cent are doing well, another 30 per cent are doing OK and 40 per cent are really struggling.


"That's nearly 22,500 pubs in serious financial trouble at risk of shutting down.


It's so sad. I love pubs and everything they stand for and it breaks my heart."


THE FARMERS ARMS, SKEWEN


Drinkers in Skewen near Swansea, south Wales, are struggling to find a watering hole after a string of village pubs closed.


Five - The Farmers Arms, The Smiths, The Cross Keys, the Rock and Fountain and The Harp - have called time for good.


Two others - The Hope and Anchor and multi-award winning Colliers - are up for sale.


Six of the boozers apart from The Cross Keys are understood to belong to pub giant Enterprise Inns.


Farmers landlord Martyn Broad (above) believes the company is partly to blame for the closures.


Martyn, 35, said: "It's gutting. I've been here for four years and sold my house to do so. I've lost everything. It's not just me.


The Rock is closed next door to me and The Harp closed just recently. I feel the pub company is partly to blame."


Martyn said the amount Enterprise charged him for beer and rent led to him closing. "I don't feel they do anything to help," he said.


Martyn, who plans to return to singing in clubs, does not believe the smoking ban is to blame. He added: "I haven't lost any customers since it was introduced. I think it's the prices the brewery is selling beer to us for, compared to its price in supermarkets and off-licences."


Although Skewen RFC Supporters' Social Club has stepped in to quench the thirst of those who are left without a pub, locals say the closures have hit their community hard.


Councillor Arthur Davies said: "The closures will have a traumatic effect on the social life of the village."


'I sold my hometo get this boozer and now I've lost it all'


Most popular pub name is The Red Lion - there are 759 in the UK. The Royal Oak is second most popular with 626 nationwide. UK pubs serve over 1billion meals per year. The pub industry employs 600,000 people. The Halal Inn which opened in Oldham, Lancs, in December is Britain's first Islamic pub. It has a pool table, darts and sells pub snacks but not alcohol.


FARMERS ARMS, CHESHIRE


While some traditional pubs have closed in upmarket Cheshire, others see exotic nosh as the way to survive.


The Northgate Arms in the heart of the walled city of Chester is a recent casualty.


Rural pubs like the Fox & Hounds in the villages of Tilston, Market House in Malpas and the Nag's Head in Farndon have all gone to the wall.


But others have been transformed from "Olde Worlde" pubs to eating houses to survive.


Traditional establishments are switching from the ploughman's lunch of cheese and pickles to gastro food and Thai, Chinese and Indian cooking.


The Nag's Head in Bridge Trafford near Chester started selling Thai and Chinese 18 months ago.


Assistant manager Jan Splaine, said: "Before moving in the pub wasn't really doing any business.


"It was really empty. But it is picking up again, touch wood. We have tried to keep it as a pub but we also do Oriental food."


Landlord Stuart Turner of the Farmers Arms in Huxley, Cheshire (pictured), believes landlords can see out the storm with a package of "good healthy food, good beers, keep it friendly". He said: "It will be a hard year and people will vote with their feet. Costs are rising and pubs are having to try harder."


A survey of 1,500 licensees for the trade magazine Publican shows that one in five inns has attracted more women customers and families since the smoking ban by offering more food and catering for children.


Of those pubs who had not targeted these new customers, the magazine said: "This is where closures are at their most prominent."


'We must Thai harder to survive with trendy bar food'


Beer sales dropped by almost 10 per cent last December, normally the busiest time of the year. Total profits of Britain's four biggest brewers fell by 50 per cent last year to just 0.7 pence per pint. Thirty-six British breweries have closed in recent years, with the loss of around 2,000 jobs. A further 44,000 beer supply chain jobs were lost between 2000 and 2005.


Is future a bank that likesh to shay yesh?


Drinkers at one pub can now do their banking and boozing all in one go.


When a blaze ravaged a Barclays branch in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight, manager David Redstone came up with an ingenious solution - move to local pub The Vine.


And with the support of customers, the bank is now running a limited service from the pub on weekdays from 10am until 2pm. David said: "We have got quite a few elderly customers. I had a call from a 101-year-old lady and I couldn't tell her she would have to go to a branch much further away if she wanted to use the bank."


He approached The Vine, one of the bank's customers, and less than a minute's walk away, and they offered the use of the snug. He said: "It's got its own entrance if people don't want to go through the main part of the pub, but we won't be stopping customers having a drink.


"We're not allowed to drink on the job, but it will make things a bit easier when it comes to going for a pint after work."


Landlady Paulette Herbert, 39, who has run The Vine for the last 12 years with husband Mac, 45, said: "We live in a town where everybody knows everybody. The bank is as central to the community as the pub so it is only right we should help each other out.


"The fire left a number of people at a loss as there is no decent public transport."


Cashier Sue Bell, 41, who has swapped her desk for a pub table, said: "It is a bit like the good old days because it is all paper-based rather than relying on computers. All of our customers have a smile on their face."
http://www.people.co.uk

£8,000 pay-out for smoke ban breach
By Ewan Turney
A Norfolk licensee couple have been forced to pay out more than £8,000 in fines and costs for flouting the smoking ban.

Martin and Karen Turver pleaded guilty to allowing smoking at the Dog and Partridge in East Wretham.

District Judge Philip Browning also imposed a two-year conditional discharge on the couple.

In defence, the couple said they had suffered a 30% drop in trade since the ban came into force on 1 July last year.

The couple have said they may now close the pub and apply for conversion to alternative use.
http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/

Braintree bar flouts smoking law

THE LICENSEE of a wine bar fined for allowing smoking in the premises says he will continue to let customers light up – even if it lands him in jail.

Paul Keenan, 42, of Hogs Wine Bar in Bradford Street, Braintree, has become the first person in the district prosecuted under the new smoking law since it was introduced last July.

He slammed the law as “ludicrous” after being ordered by magistrates to pay fines totalling £1,500 and £750 costs.

After spending £150,000 on refitting the premises, including setting up a smoking area outside, he was not allowed to use it because Braintree District Council considered it a noise nuisance in a residential area.

He tried for six months to abide by the smoking law and reach a compromise with the district council, which suggested allowing two people outside at a time, but the business is now losing £2,000 a week.
Click here!

“We have one bar non-smoking and one bar smoking. It's fully air-conditioned and I feel the law is absolutely ludicrous,” he said.

Legislation had a massive financial impact as 80 per cent of the customers at the music venue were smokers, said Mr Keenan.

“I am happy to go to prison over this,” he said. “We will be closing down soon because we have lost so much money over the smoking ban. With the credit crunch we can't fight it off. I have no funds to pay the fine.”

He said other European countries did allow modifications of the smoking law in certain areas. Mr Keenan also joined other concerned publicans at a meeting with MPs in Westminster

He said: “How can the Government call the smoking ban a 100 per cent success when four pubs a day are shutting down because of it?”

Chelmsford magistrates fined him for allowing patrons to smoke on the premises on February 15, April 25, May 10 and May 24 contrary to the Health Act 2006 .He was also ordered to pay a £15 victim's surcharge.

Cabinet member for the environment Roger Walters said: “We are very pleased with the way most premises have complied with the new smoking legislation, yet in this case so many repeated warnings were ignored.

“This case shows that we are prepared to prosecute where people persist in allowing smoking to take place.”

A spokesman added: “The outside smoking area does not comply with legislation while it has a canopy cover or is more than half enclosed.

“It's a wine bar in a residential area and, when there is live music, customers tend to go outside all at once, talking loudly and lighting up at the same time. This is not good for the neighbours and needs to be better managed.”
http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk

Arnie: Don't stub out movie smokes
Cigar-loving Arnold Schwarzenegger says children need to be warned often about the dangers of smoking, but Hollywood should not feel pressured to ban cigarettes and cigars from films aimed at youngsters.
Despite research that shows big-screen scenes of tobacco use can tempt kids to light up, the Terminator star-turned California governor said film-makers needed artistic freedom, particularly in historical settings.

He scoffed at the notion that someone would play Winston Churchill without his trademark stogie in hand.

"I personally don't believe that we should erase cigarettes in movies. I don't believe that we should erase it when someone smokes a cigar in a movie. I think that we should remind people and kids all the time about the dangers of smoking," the Republican governor said.

"To suddenly tell actors not to smoke a cigarette in a movie when they portray a character is ludicrous. I think this is going too far."

The governor's comments came at a news conference where major studios announced they would include anti-smoking announcements on millions of youth-rated DVDs of motion pictures that included smoking scenes. The public service announcements will appear on films rated G, PG and PG-13.

Disney began including anti-smoking messages on certain DVDs earlier this year. Other studios joining in are Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros.

The agreement involving the studios and the state of California was brokered by the Entertainment Industry Foundation - a philanthropy. The state developed the 30-second announcements for the DVDs, which will appear in the opening minutes.

Austrian-born Schwarzenegger began his love affair with cigars on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the 1970s, where he smoked with his father-in-law. However, he warns his four children not to follow his example.

"Even though you see me every so often light up a cigar, I let them know not to ever try it," he told reporters.
http://www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk

Pubs suffer a year on from smoking ban

By Georgina Smith
Pubs are counting the cost following the introduction of the smoking ban last year.
Former landlady Susan Crichton blames the ban as the catalyst which led to the closure of her pub The Victoria Inn, in Deopham, on June 14.

She said: “About 95 per cent of my customers smoked. By September people started leaving earlier or coming in later and not drinking as much.

“We reached a point where takings were halved.”

Despite following pub guidelines and introducing pub food and entertainment, customer numbers continued to fall.

Mrs Crichton also blames rising brewery fees and fuel costs for reduced customer numbers.

At the Fox and Hounds in Great Moulton, Paddy McManus agreed.

He said: “Pubs have got quieter because there is just not the money about anymore. Taxes are going up – you’re looking at £4 for a pint by Christmas.”

He added his customer figures had fallen despite a smoking area where people can sit outside during good weather.
http://www.dissexpress.co.uk

Smoke ban rebel: Byelection a disgrace
By Ewan Turney
Smoke ban rebel Hamish Howitt slammed the Haltemprice and Howden byelection as a "disgrace" after polling just 91 votes.

Howitt came 12th out of 25 candidates – finishing one place below David Icke – in the election won by Tory David Davis.

Howitt, who has became infamous for his crusade against the smoking ban at Delboys and Happy Scot bar in Blackpool, stood as a candidate for his party Freedom4Choice in a bid to publicise his opposition to the ban.

"It was an absolute disgrace," said Howitt. "I tried to withdraw from the election once I saw what a circus it had become.

"I was hoping for a serious debate with David Davis but there were so many lunatics going around it was embarrassing.

"There is so much apathy in the country these days I honestly think that it will not be long until they limit alcohol consumption to 4-6 units each and we all have to drink from plastic glasses."

Howitt now plans to stand in the Glasgow byelection. "At least there are proper political parties there," he said.

"I want to clear one thing up – I do not want everyone to smoke. In fact I would rather that everyone stopped smoking.

"But what is wrong is humiliating and punishing those that do smoke."
http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk

Rebel smokers flout ban on Westage Run
smoking campaigners flouted the law in several city centre pubs during a protest which was filmed and put on the internet.
Videos posted on internet site YouTube showed a group of 50 people visiting various pubs on the Westgate Run.
The footage, which included audio commentary, shows several people openly smoking inside the pubs – something which was made illegal on July 1 last year.
They claim their protest was about fighting for their freedom to smoke, and they found some support from landlords struggling financially in the wake of the smoking ban. However, other publicans refused to serve the group and branded them "aggressive".
The two films appear to show people smoking in The Swan with Two Necks, The Elephant and Castle, The Clothiers Arms, The Talbot and Falcon and The Scarborough Arms on Sunday, June 29.
Landlord of The Talbot and Falcon, Mick Eastwood, refused to confirm or deny he allowed the protesters to smoke in his pub. But he said if he caught someone smoking he would ask them to put their cigarette out or leave.
He said: "I understand why the group was protesting and agree with the campaign. The ban is killing trade but it is important to comply with the law."
Julie Earnshaw, landlady of the Scarborough Arms, said: "They did smoke in my pub. I asked them not to smoke and informed them it was against the law.
"I have seen my takings drop because of the ban. Especially with the weather at the moment, people don't want to go outside to smoke, they'd rather have a drink at home where they can smoke inside."
The Elephant and Castle and the Swan with Two Necks, both on Westgate, said they did not want to comment. No-one was available to comment from the Clothiers Arms, on Dewsbury Road.
Other pubs, including The Jockey, Henry Boons, the Waterloo and the Smiths Arms, refused to serve them.
Jackie Hardy, chairwoman of Wakefield Licensees' Pubwatch and landlady of the Jockey, said: "They were very aggressive. I think it was absolutely appalling.
"If they had done a peaceful demonstration, I would have supported them, but there are ways and means and their attitude was wrong."
Alison Lund, landlady of the Waterloo, on Westgate End, said: "They phoned us a couple of weeks ago to let us know they were planning to do this, and we told them they couldn't smoke in the pub, but they still turned up.
"They were quite insistent and used bullying tactics but we just told them to leave."

Barman Craig Brooks-bank, from the Smiths Arms, on Westgate End, said: "They came in and lit up and we told them it was against the law, but then they turned a bit aggressive, so we refused to serve any of them."
Tom Hunt, barman at Henry Boons, on Westgate, said: "At first they tried to persuade me with legal reasons, but then they started getting intimidating. Eventually I had to shout because they were all shouting at me."
Mark Harrop, one of the protest organisers, and a member of smoking ban protest group Freedom2 choose, confirmed he had smoked in the pubs. Mr Harrop distributed leaflets in the weeks before the protest to gather support and on the day all the campaigners wore t-shirts printed with the slogan Light up and be counted.
He said: "It's the principle of the matter. We don't expect to be allowed to smoke anywhere and everywhere, just to have the choice.
"There are a lot of people who just accept the ban and put up with it. We are saying that people should have the choice if they want to smoke."
Mr Harrop, of Industrial Street, Horbury Junction, said he was aware of the implications of flouting the ban, but was prepared to face the penalties.
When the Express informed Wakefield Council of the protest, a spokesman said any available evidence would be reviewed and, where breaches were identified, further action would be taken.
The council's service director for environment, Jerry Spencer said: "Compliance with the smokefree legislation is exceptionally high and the council has worked with businesses to help and to monitor compliance, including the Westgate area.
"We are therefore disappointed if certain individuals and licensed premises have chosen to deliberately flout the law."
An online poll conducted last week on wakefield express.co.uk showed 90 per cent of respondents wanted to see the smoking ban reversed.
http://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk

SEVENTH CITY PUB FORCED TO CLOSE
Lincoln's seventh pub this year has closed - with its landlady blaming the smoking ban and cheap supermarket booze.

The Monson Arms in Skellingthorpe Road, Lincoln, is closing and its landlady Erica Stroem is filing for bankruptcy.

Ms Stroem (52) said: "I think the main reason for these closures is the smoking ban. It started up the whole problem but then there's the added issue of the cheap booze in supermarkets.

"I can understand the theory behind the smoking ban in that the government is trying to stop youngsters from smoking, but it's forcing so many people out of business."

Ms Stroem, who has run the Monson Arms for two years, has seen a reduction in profits by more than £1,000 a week since the introduction of the smoking ban.

The pub, which costs Ms Stroem £1,266 a week to rent and set her back £400 a week in rates, will now remain closed until a new tenant is found.

The Monson Arms is the seventh Lincoln pub to be driven out of business since the start of 2008. Other casualties include the Parklands Hotel, Portland Arms and the Millers Arms.
http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk

Just in, attempted murder in the House of Commons bar!
Shocked witnesses stood by open mouthed as two terrorists carried out a violent and desperate attack on staff in The Stranger's Bar at the palace of Westminster today.

Without any warning they drew two weapons and ignited them before discharging poisonous fumes indiscriminately around the room. The weapons, known as 'cigarettes' produce a substance on ignition known as 'smoke'. According to informed sources, this 'smoke' is ten million times more deadly than Zyklon B.

All the other people in the room must have been immediately incapacitated or killed, as absolutely no attempt was made to stop or apprehend these inhuman monsters. At the time of writing, they are still thought to be at large. Along with the rest of the fucking crooks.


Deep gratitude to Saint Trixy the Brill...
http://more-to-life-than-shoes.blogspot.com/
http://dunhillmonster.blogspot.com

Anti-smoking hysteria reaches new heights
Neil Clark
A campaign that wants to limit media portrayals of smoking but ignores depictions of violence has lost all sense of perspective
 
Neil Clark guardian.co.uk, Tuesday July 8, 2008 Article historyComplaints to the BBC after Top Gear presenters lit up pipes containing herbal tobacco in a light-hearted RAF parody scene. A pub stormed by riot police after a customer refused to put out a cigarette. A threatening letter and a £75 fine sent by a local council to a woman who had dropped a cigarette butt.

Thought the current wave of anti-smoking hysteria sweeping Britain couldn't get any sillier? Then think again. At the BMA's annual conference earlier this week, Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the organisation's head of science and ethics, urged film censors to give "pro-smoking" films an 18 certificate. Dr Nathanson cited the film Independence Day, in which hero Will Smith celebrates victory against aliens by lighting up a cigar as an example of a pro-smoking film. And if smoking has to be portrayed on our TV screens, Dr Nathanson would like to see storylines being developed that show the damaging consequences.

If Dr Nathanson and the BMA get their way – and in the present tobaccophobic climate it is a reasonable bet that they will – a classic children's film such as 101 Dalmatians would need an 18 certificate all on account of Cruella de Vil's penchant for puffing on her cigarette holder. And smoking soap characters would have to be shown going through the agonies of emphysema/lung cancer/bronchitis and all the other dreadful illnesses which smoking can cause, just so viewers don't get the wrong idea.

We live in a society in which we are bombarded with images of violence at the cinema, on television and on our computer screens, and yet Dr Nathanson thinks the biggest problem is Will Smith lighting a cigar. Never mind the number of violent deaths in Independence Day; it's the celebratory cigar that causes the offence.

In truth, Dr Nathanson doesn't have too much to worry about: film and TV programme makers are already bending over backwards to appease the anti-smoking lobby. Ian Fleming's James Bond is a 60-a-day man (Balkan and Turkish with three gold bands on the filter), but in the latest Bond film, Casino Royale, 007 is a smoke-free paragon – a man fully in tune with the rather strange morals of the first decade of the 21st century. "I can blow off someone's head at close range and splatter blood, but I can't light a good Cuban cigar," says the film's star, Daniel Craig. In the 2004 film version of Thunderbirds, that hitherto most stylish of smokers, Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, was deprived of her trademark cigarette holder. And in last year's BBC production of Sherlock Holmes, the world's most famous detective was, for the first time, sans pipe.

How different things were 30 or 40 years ago. Back then, even the contestants on University Challenge were allowed to smoke. In Joan Bakewell's famous Late Night Line Up interview with Harold Pinter, both interviewer and interviewee smoked freely; today they'd both face fines and censure.

No one is disputing that smoking constitutes a health risk. But a society that gets into more of a strop over fictional characters puffing on pipes, cigars and cigarette holders than people blasting each other to kingdom come, is surely one which has lost all sense of perspective.
http://www.guardian.co.uk

Bar owners seek ways around state smoking ban
Walk up the stairs above Frankie's bar in Olympia, and it's like stepping back to 2005.

By RICH ROESLER

The Spokesman-Review

OLYMPIA, Wash. —
Walk up the stairs above Frankie's bar in Olympia, and it's like stepping back to 2005.

Bar patrons are talking over tall mugs of beer, nothing unusual about that. But there are ashtrays - ashtrays! - on the tables. And a slight smoky haze hangs in the air, as people happily puff away on cigarettes and cigars.

Three years after voters overwhelmingly approved Washington's toughest-in-the-nation smoking ban, a handful of bar owners, clubs and others continue to seek ways around it.

Among their recent efforts:

-An American Legion post in Bremerton has a case before the state Supreme Court, arguing that the ban was never intended to apply to private clubs.

-Frankie's owner Frank Schnarrs has been in court for two years, arguing that his upstairs bar is actually a members-only club, and that the servers are volunteers.

-Cigar fans gathered tens of thousands of signatures this year in an unsuccessful effort to restore smoking in cigar stores and smoke shops.

"This is not about smoking," Schnarrs said. "This is about freedom of choice."

In Spokane, Churchill's Steakhouse owner Bill Alles estimates that he spent half a million dollars equipping a large room for cigar-smoking members. The room's heating, air conditioning and ventilation system is separate from the restaurant's. A fan draws any escaping smoke back into the room, which is separated from diners by a 28-foot-long corridor. No employees would work in the area. About 100 people wanted to be members, even with the $1,000 membership fee.

But local health officials have refused to allow the smoking room, Alles said. After deciding a legal fight is too expensive, he's now trying to convince state lawmakers to change the law.

"The county said as soon as we opened, they would force us to close," Alles said. "And the interesting thing is if I had filed suit, the county would have used my tax dollars to defend their position."

Three years ago, Washingtonians approved Initiative 901, a strict ban on indoor smoking. Before that, people could smoke in some restaurants, bars, bowling alleys, fraternal clubs and similar public places.



I-901 banned smoking within 25 feet of doorways, windows and air intakes in most public places and most places with employees. It made an exception for hotels, allowing up to 25 percent of rooms to have smoking. And the state law cannot regulate smoking in tribal casinos, where it remains widespread.

Despite predictions of a wave of bar and tavern bankruptcies as smokers stayed home, the state Department of Revenue says its tax data indicate that the industry has recovered from any effects of the ban. The industry's taxable receipts say it earned 20 percent more in 2007 than in 2006, when the ban took effect.

"Perhaps patrons are just returning to their favored places because the alternatives were not as convenient," Stephen Smith, a state economist, said last month.

The initiative's proponents say it's popular and has worked very well.

"It passed in every county by over 60 percent," said Erin Dziedzic, a lobbyist for the state chapter of the American Cancer Society. "This is a movement by the people."

She said she's heard nothing from lawmakers to suggest that they're having second thoughts about the ban.

No longer, she said, are employees forced to work in a haze of secondhand smoke. The 25-foot rule is effective. And restaurants and bars seem to be doing well.

"It's working effectively," Dziedzic said. The clear health benefits, she said, shouldn't be set aside "just because someone wants to have a scotch and a cigar."

Smokers' best hope for an exemption may be the American Legion case in the state Supreme Court.

In May 2006, Kitsap County health officials told Post 149 in Bremerton that if it had employees, it needed to snuff out smoking in the club.

The post sued, citing a sentence in the law saying that it's "not intended to restrict smoking in private facilities."

"The smoking ban is contrary to the traditions and expectations of the Post and its members who expect they will be allowed to associate, drink and smoke," member Robert Kucenski wrote to the court. Navy veterans at the post, he said, had successfully fought the Navy's own attempts to make ships smoke-free.

Kitsap County and the state attorney general's office say that having employees means the ban applies. And any constitutional challenge is absurd, state attorneys say.

"Smoking is not a 'fundamental right' " under either the state or federal constitutions, the state told the court.

The case was argued last fall in the state's Temple of Justice. The court has not ruled yet. But in Round One, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Gary Tabor sided with health officials, upholding the smoking ban. In court, Tabor quoted Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins."

In Olympia, Frank Schnarrs says more than 800 people have joined his Friends of Frankie's club, paying $10 a year to use the upstairs bar. He estimates that 90 percent of his business comes from the smoking club.

Still, he says, business is down 60 percent since the ban.

"I had to challenge the law," he said. "How could they all of a sudden turn the lights off in my business?"

Schnarrs has been in court half a dozen times over the smoking ban, he said, and the last round didn't go well. He was declared in contempt of court for allowing smokers to have $1 "day passes" to his "club."

Still, Schnarrs argues that he's carefully complied with the letter of the law. His servers who have food and liquor credentials from the state sign paperwork saying they're volunteers, not employees. And he's trying to work with county health officials to get approval for his ventilation system.

"Frankie's desire from Day 1 was to establish a designated smoking room," said his attorney, Shawn Newman. "I think we can do that. We're just trying to work out the details."

Schnarrs is less optimistic. The battle feels more like a war of attrition to him. Customers can easily go to smoke in tribal casinos the law cannot touch, he says, while he's spending time and money with health officials and in court.

"It's really sad," he said. "But I don't know how you can own a business and not fight for it."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com

Pete Robinson: Unhappy birthday for the smoking ban

4 July, 2008

The smoking ban is barely a year old yet for the past week the media has been buzzing with dubious statistics allegedly proving it's success.

For a start it seems I'm wasting my time here because, according to CGA Strategy, the majority (64%) of you publicans support the ban. And a similar number "would not overturn the ban" even if they had the power to do so. Is that what you really believe?

Of course not! If every British publican were in a big room and we asked for a show of hands the true depth of feeling would be obvious. Surveys such as this cut corners by polling larger, city-centre 'pubs' that are today merely licenced food halls. The 'trick' is in the wording of the questions. Other trade research showed that 77% of licensees think trade has suffered as a result of the ban but 78% of consumers are pleased with the ban.

They must be the 78% of consumers who have never used pubs and still don't. I suppose it's all academic anyway because ASH and the NHS tell us most smokers have given up as a result of the ban, or are in the process of doing so.

As you might imagine a great many of my friends and acquaintances are smokers. Hand on heart, I honestly don't know a single person who is giving up. Far from it. For most of us any vague, future notions of quitting we might have once held went directly out of the window last July when New Labour took nannying into a new dimension.

The reality is drastically different to the reports. These days whilst pubs are empty I'm getting invited to more parties than ever, where I rub shoulders with previous non-smokers who have taken up the habit to assure an invite. Personally I hate to see that because I'm not pro-smoking, I'm simply pro-choice.

But what about the improvements in health? CRUK say that 40,000 lives will be saved over the next ten years, although a similar number of our forgotten elderly die unnecessarily over just one year's cold winter. These figures vary so widely it's hard to say who will live or die thanks to the ban.

The TUC say it's 700 lives a year, the same figure claimed last year for Wales alone. That '700 lives' figure is quite significant because in each country where a new ban is introduced it will always save 700 lives, no matter what the nation's demographic.

Heart attack miracles follow the same pattern. A year after a smoking ban figures are released confirming ever increasing falls in heart attacks, only to be discredited when the genuine statistics are revealed. Yet it's the bogus heart figures that always live on.

In the national papers ASH are still quoting Prof Pell's shameful press release trumpeting a 20% fall in Scottish heart attacks as if it were gospel, although to this day she refuses to release the study. The real statistics, you may recall, were consistent with previous pre-ban years. ASH know beyond doubt they are spreading misinformation, but that's their game.

Not to be outdone our NHS is squandering precious resources on attempts to hoodwink the public with claims of up to a 40% fall in heart attacks, an unfeasible stretch of the imagination and yet another gross insult to genuine medical research.

Oh yes, and the Govt survey showing the overwhelming majority of the public support the ban, and are demanding even more stringent action? Hardly surprising to learn it was commissioned by ASH who were paid more handsomely than most other authors of fiction.

If you are daft enough to give credence to any of this raft of figures just cast your mind back to the statistics being pushed before July last year. The polls 'proved' an estimated 18 million 'new' non-smoking customers were poised, ready to invade and occupy your pub from July 1st until eternity. Your existing non-smokers would not only remain completely loyal, but most "intended to visit pubs more often" to enjoy the new healthy, clean aroma of second-hand farts.

The same statistics clearly demonstrated most smokers either supported the ban, intended to give up smoking anyway or would "visit pubs more often" after the ban for the privilege of squatting in a draughty, semi-open hovel in the backyard.

Didn't really work out that way did it? Around 2000 pubs already closed in just the first year, some 10,000 jobs lost within the industry, with the promise of a lot more pain to come. Yet still our industry leaders live in complete denial, like the captain of the Titanic appealing for calm.

Strangely there's just one thing missing from last year's propaganda. In the run up to the UK smoking ban we were constantly being bombarded by comparisons to Ireland's allegedly 'successful' smoking ban. Today it's as if there's been a complete media blackout regarding the emerald isle.

I'm sure you don't need me to explain that the truth is out over there, that their ban has directly led to a significant rise in the smoking population following many years of decline. The last thing we need right now is the truth. The antis would never permit it.
http://www.thepublican.com

BMA urges tougher tobacco rules 
By Nick Triggle
Health reporter, BBC News, Edinburgh 
Over a fifth of adults still smoke
Doctors have called for a range of measures to rid the UK of smoking in a report launched at the British Medical Association conference in Edinburgh.

The BMA said it wanted to see tough restrictions on the sale of tobacco and new rules to limit the impact of films.

The report said such measures, with a particular emphasis on targeting young people, would make ensuring the UK was tobacco-free by 2035 a realistic aim.

Slightly more than a fifth of adults smoke - half the level of the 1970s.

The report said the young were particularly susceptible. It pointed out smoking habits developed in the teenage years were often carried into adulthood.

In particular, the report called for all films and TV programmes which portray positive images of smoking to be preceded by an anti-smoking advert, and for film censors to take into account pro-smoking content when classifying films.

It also said that although the UK had quite restrictive tobacco legislation in place already, young people were susceptible to creative marketing strategies such as elaborate point-of-sale displays, attractive pack designs and brand imagery.
 

The BMA said a no-nonsense approach was needed - banning displays, insisting on plain packaging and setting minimum price levels.

Meanwhile, retailers should be regulated through a licensing scheme, it added.

The report comes after the age of sale for tobacco was raised from 16 to 18 last year in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland is to follow suit this year.

The respective governments have also proposed banning vending machine sales and the use of small packets, while bans are already in place across the UK on smoking in public places.

'Robust marketing'

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA's head of science and ethics, said there had been a "number of encouraging developments", but more action was still needed to end the era of smoking.

"The long-term trends for people quitting have slowed down in recent years so it is essential that further action is taken to promote a tobacco-free lifestyle that deglamourises smoking.

"Young people are surrounded by positive images of tobacco - from smoking by parents and peers, to celebrities and role models they see in the media.

"They are also exposed to robust tobacco industry marketing - all this serves to reinforce the habit as being forever cool."

Professor Gerard Hastings, of Cancer Research UK, who contributed to the report, said children would only be truly protected when "tobacco promotion and marketing in all its forms ceases to exist".

The Department of Health said it was looking at a number of measures.

A spokeswoman said: "Protecting children from smoking is a priority - taking away temptation is one way to do this."

But a spokesman for the pro-smoking group Forest said removing cigarettes from public display made "absolutely no difference" and could make it the situation worse by making smoking seem more taboo and attractive to rebellious teenagers.

He said the authorities would be far better to make vending machines credit card operated, while the measures for TV and films were tantamount to censorship.
http://news.bbc.co.uk

Sly smokers spark more pub inspections
By Murdo MacLeod
Political Correspondent
PLANS to scale down smoking inspectors are to be scrapped after new research suggested many pub customers are lighting up during lock-ins.
Health officials had hoped that the ban on smoking in pubs and clubs would become self-policing.

The study on the effectiveness of the ban – introduced in Scotland in March 2006 – was carried out by a team of academics from Stirling, StrathclydeADVERTISEMENTand Central Lancashire universities. Over 18 months, they sent secret observers to eight pubs to check whether drinkers and staff were keeping to the law.

Three pubs were in deprived urban areas, three were in affluent urban areas and two were in poorly-off rural areas.

The study found:

Lock-ins for smokers going on in both the rural pubs and in one of the deprived urban bars;

One of the rural bars allowing smoking after early closing;

One of the rural pubs, and one each of the other categories of allowed smoking before the official opening time;

• Staff smoking in a rural bar and a deprived urban one.

The study also found a case of a bar allowing older customers to light up in a cellar when it was raining.

But it showed that the smoking ban was enforced during peak hours when managers feared being caught out.

Douglas Eadie, of the Centre for Tobacco Control Research at Stirling University, led the study. He said: "This does make clear that there is a small proportion of premises which are allowing their locals to smoke."

Sally Haw, of NHS Health Scotland, said: "In the immediate aftermath of the smoking ban there were a large number of inspections, and that has been scaled down somewhat to a lower frequency as people have become used to the change in the law. It was hoped that it would become effectively self-policing and inspections might not be needed. But it's clear from this that we need to maintain inspections at their current level."

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said the authority had no plans to scale back enforcement of smoke-free premises, which was felt to have "an important role in the successful implementation of the legislation".

Gordon Greenhill, head of community safety at Edinburgh City Council, said: "Breaches are few and far between due to the overwhelming support for the legislation in the city. However, we continue to remain vigilant and anyone suspecting a possible breach is urged to contact us."

Neil Rafferty, the spokesman for smokers' lobby group Forest, said: "The fact that there are lock-ins just shows how stupid and unfair this law is. If people are locking the doors to have a smoke then they are exercising freedom of will.

"People know the dangers of smoking and should be left to choose for themselves."

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "Although it is disappointing that there were some instances of non-compliance with the smoking ban in this particular study, we are very pleased that levels of compliance remain very high throughout Scotland."

A spokeswoman for the Confederation of Scottish Local Authorities said: "Councils are determined to ensure that the anti-smoking legislation is appropriately enforced."

Public smoking ban hits pubs' beer sales
The Observer, Sunday July 6, 2008
Pubs have sold 175 million fewer pints in the past year as a direct result of the smoking ban, according to market analysts AC Nielsen.

Jake Shepherd, marketing director AC Nielsen, said: 'The winter months were particularly bad. Sales fell nine per cent through November to January when smokers would have been reluctant to stand outside in the cold to have a cigarette.'

Sales of wine were not hit as hard, dropping four per cent after the ban. Shepherd said: 'Wine has held up somewhat better than other drinks, benefiting from the increasing importance of food and women to the trade.' Cigarette sales have dropped 6 per cent since 1 July last year with smokers buying 2 billion fewer cigarettes between 1 July 2007 and April 2008.
http://www.guardian.co.uk