Summer's a coming and .....

[Marmora Man]

The skies are blue, the air is warmer, trees are in bud and birds are singing. Time to step outside the pub or restuarant for a seat on the terrace and enjoy al fresco drinking and eating. Except - all the tables are full of bl**dy smokers.

I didn't approave of the smoking ban, despite benefiting from the legislation as a life long non smoker who just hated the smell of cigaratte smoke in pubs, clubs, restaurants and on clothes. I never bought the secondary smoke is really really dangerous argument and I don't like over bearing government legislation.

It would be even more illogical to ban smoking in the fresh air (tho' I understand this is the direction of travel in the US) but how can I enjoy my pint, glass of wine or bowl of pasta in the fresh air when all around me are smokers?

Segregated pub gardens, separate areas for smokers outside? Ideas welcome.

[Brendan]

Have you considered taking up cigarettes?

[Huguenot]

I think that's worth considering.

You're probably too old for the health penalties to be serious, it gives you a bit of a high and you don't notice the smell if your mouth tastes just the same.

[PeckhamRose]

Happy to share my life long sufferance of 2nd hand smoke. My parents were smokers and I was an asthmatic child and their attitude was to blow the smoke in the opposite direction (but in the same room) so I spent a lot of time in hospitals and specialist boarding schools. I have suffered all my life with weak/bad lungs as a result. Smoke is the main trigger for my asthma. I was so happy when the smoking ban came in. And I would say my quality of life has improved a great deal. I would also welcome the ban in all cars (I am so sad when I see people smoking in their cars with kids in the cars), and yet I hate all this legislation! The problem is if there weren't so many selfish stupid people and one 'James May' law "Don't be a prat" we'd all be fine!

I don't care if anyone smokes.

Just don't do it where other people are likely to need to be, ie. anywhere that isn't your house!

(Which THEN prompts the issue of the rights of doctors/nurses/anyone that has to go into your house and breathe in your second hand smoke!) If tobacco had been discovered now, it would be given class 2 drug status. So why aren't we doing that? Because it's taxed, and also I would not want so many of you addicts to be criminalised!

Flame away, good people....

[Brendan]

On a more practical note if you are out for a drink in the sunshine and don?t want to be bothered by too much smoke the Plough and the Herne have the biggest gardens in the area where you are most likely to get a spot away from the smelly buggers.

[Brendan]

But I?m sure you know that.

I don?t like the smell of smoke around me much either, especially when I?m eating. This is all of course up until my 4th or 5th pint when they suddenly become a fantastic idea even if it means standing outside in the snow.

[Huguenot]

I think all your points are pretty good PR. More than that, there's a proven scientific case.

I just think there has to be a threshold of interference, and outside must be one of those. You'd be hard pushed to make a case that sitting outside pubs in the vicinity of smokers for a couple of hours twice a week ruins your health.

In that case you can only talk about it being irritating, and frankly there are loads of things that I find irritating in pubs that lower the quality of my life, including other people. I don't think it's practical to ban those either.

Even if you want to talk about pollution, I know that one of the many things that are fugging the skies and killing the planet are private cars. I've never suggested legsilating to ban car owners from pubs. Even then, I'd probably let them sit outside.

[Jah Lush]

Oh FFS! How about bloody selfish non-smokers?

Are you seriously suggesting a smoking exclusion zone around the pub?

It's a proven fact that having a cigarette with a drink increases your dopamine levels and your pleasure is increased by combining the two. They go together like bacon and eggs. Having a cigarette with a drink is just one of the small pleasures in life. It's bad enough that we have to go outside and smoke our cigarettes in the freezing cold and now summer's here you want to ban us from lighting up outside too. Selfish bar steward!

[woofmarkthedog]

Smokers...

It's like being incontinent, you'll do it anywhere.

I don't hate or blame you for it, I just don't like it ( the smoking ) not you the smoker however, it is really really unpleasant when we ( non smokers ) are in a pub beer garden. The pervasive atmosphere & the ash trays stink, second only to dog sh1t.

If I'm eating my mood is driven to a near violent haste

I have stopped going to certain places for that very reason & I'm not some oversensitive pratt, MrsW**F likes a ciggie,but not in my airspace & never near me

Sorry but you've got to get over it, crying like spoilt children over a silly bit off killer weed you insist on sharing by default with others

Why the heck should you be able to inflict that on others, it's wrong and your days are thankfully numbered ( in more ways than one )

I love you, but I don't love your habit

So endeth......

Amen

W**F

[Huguenot]

I hate experiencing people eating with their mouth open, much as our canine friends do ;-)

I can see it, but more importantly I can hear it - all that greasy slitching. Indoors or Outdoors.

I even dumped a girlfriend over it, which would say on an evidence basis that I find it more disturbing than you do smoking...

As with smoking outside, it's not injurious to my health, it simply attacks my senses. It makes me speed finish and leave.

Unlike many though, I'm too embarassed by my intolerance to admit to it publically, or run a campaign to have gape-jawed slunchers banned from restaurants.

[Mick Mac]

Jah Lush Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> It's a proven fact that having a cigarette with a

> drink increases your dopamine levels and your

> pleasure is increased by combining the two.

Excellent - I might try that tonight.

Is that the selling point Jah - It makes you feel better, then after a few years, you might die a bit of a slow death.

[woofmarkthedog]

Well...

I actually dumped a girlfriend over smoking, never regretted it either

And personally I only "bite" with my mouth open

"Like watching a washing machine go round" my awful Mother used to say of people eating Huguenot

She'll front your campaign, the old bitch

W**F

[Mick Mac]

PeckhamRose Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Happy to share my life long sufferance of 2nd hand

> smoke. My parents were smokers and I was an

> asthmatic child and their attitude was to blow the

> smoke in the opposite direction (but in the same

> room) so I spent a lot of time in hospitals and

> specialist boarding schools. I have suffered all

> my life with weak/bad lungs as a result. Smoke is

> the main trigger for my asthma. I was so happy

> when the smoking ban came in. And I would say my

> quality of life has improved a great deal.

I agree with all of that - same for me - I have asthma too - I love drink and hate cigarettes :))

[Huguenot]

Ha!

Maybe you're right Woof. I should up arms and put my protest where my mouth is.

How do I get in touch with that brawny warhorse? What a steed indeed.

[Ladymuck]

I wasn't going to comment...but...

I used to have asthma...the trigger was cigarette smoke...don't get it any more, which means that I now spend much more time in pubs ::o. I have banned smoking from my house too (though I do permit the poor little poppets to use the garden - snow or no snow).

[Mick Mac]

Ladymuck Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

I do

> permit the poor little poppets to use the garden -

> snow or no snow).

It stunts their growth you see - that's why the little poppets are little...

Jah is quite tall - he obviously grew before he smoked.

[Brendan]

How about in the summertime we let people smoke inside and make the beer garden non-smoking?

[Mick Mac]

I was thinking just that Brenada - and when it gets cold post 10pm, we have to swop and the smokers have to go outside again.

[Brendan]

Or we could get one of our intrepid party leaders to add to their election manifesto that if elected they will have the NHS make cigarettes good for you again.

Along with immediately repealing Sod?s Law.

[Narnia]

Just think...........all smokers were once non smokers. Can all non smokers make a similar but opposite claim? Put that in your pipe..........and tell me what you conclude!

[PeckhamRose]

Well I was a second-hand (remote) smoker for the first 19 years of my life except for when I was at boarding schools for sick kids, then when I left home I became a non-second-hand-smoker. Ha!

[Jah Lush]

Mick Mac Wrote:

> Jah is quite tall - he obviously grew before he smoked.

I've smoked most of my life. I started inhaling at 12. I'm 6ft and have been since I was 14. I worked it out the other day I've probably smoked half a million cigarettes in my lifetime. I could do with one now but I'm still in the office and of course it's banned.

[Huguenot]

It won't hurt you ;-)

[legalbeagle]

I smoked for about 15 years, and I can honestly say i really enjoyed it and hated the whiny anti smoking brigade with all my heart.

Then one of my friends died of lung cancer at the age of 37.

I don't smoke anymore.

There but for the grace of god..........

[Ladymuck]

Jah Lush Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>I worked

> it out the other day I've probably smoked half a

> million cigarettes in my lifetime.

I'm intrigued...what possessed you to do that?