In late 2004, Caterer and Hotelkeeper polled more than a thousand hospitality professionals for their views on the effects of smoking in the workplace. The poll revealed that 95% of respondents said they believed working in a smoky atmosphere damaged their health; and that more than half, 57%, had already noticed side-effects from working in a smoky environment.
As a direct result of this research, we launched our Stub Out Smoking campaign in support of a smoking ban that would safeguard the health of the millions of people working in the UKÕs hotels, restaurants, pubs and bars. Our campaign was instrumental in affecting change: on 1 July 2007, England joined the rest of the UK in banning smoking in enclosed public places.
Two years on, passions surrounding this controversial legislation run as high as ever. Some believe that the ban is to blame for the growing numbers of pub closures we are seeing. Others think this is too simplistic a view.
Ranuld McDonald, Antony Worrall Thompson and other operators are calling on the Government to consider an amendment to the smoking ban, to offer landlords greater freedom to provide sealed and ventilated smoking rooms. Their views have found focus in the Save Our Pubs and Clubs campaign launched by consumer rights organisation and self-professed 'voice and friend of the smoker', FOREST.
Do you agree with them? Should next year's Government review result in a green light for smoking rooms? Or should the complete ban on smoking in enclosed public places still be applied to the letter?
Let us know what you think.
Mark, to put it quite simply the smoking ban has been an utter social and economic failure.
Had this ban been carefully crafted by the supposed 'powers that be', then the carnage we have all witnessed would have been averted. We are all fully aware that the ban was enacted to save the lives of the staff-but is that really the true reason?
Prior to this enactment the hospitality sector was promised all sorts of weird and wonderful things by a government hell bent on health freakery and control-let's look at just one 'spinmiester' statement. "The Clean Air Act will ensure millions of new drinkers will now occupy the pubs & clubs, safe in the knowledge that their health will no longer be under threat from SHS (secon hand smoke)"
Righty ho then Mark, where are these millions of people that never bothered with pubs & clubs before the ban? Why were non drinkers suddenly going to turn into frenzied tipplers? You can lead (entice) a horse to water but you sure as hell can't make it drink! You see mark, what this government didn't tell people was that 68% (Internet based report) of regular pub/club drinkers were smokers-it was they that were the mainstay of the bar/customer spending relationship. Thus, having immediately removed 68% of that customer base where were the hospitality sector to make up that massive number from? To compound the issue, many non smoking friends of the now 'leperised' smokers also denied their local hostelries of their custom. The hospitality sector was doomed from Day 1 !
A simple proof of the above is my local pub in the Midlands. A well appointed and well situated establishment that has boasted excellent turnover figures year after year-until July 1st, 2007 that is. Now? Oh dear me. Customer base slaughtered and now reliant on OAP cheap meals at dinner times. After 9pm there are seldom any customers in the pub yet outside, in an excellent smoking shelter, there is another little world. This is the new world of the leperised smoker, still willing to put up with being ostracised. It is just about acceptable in decent weather, in colder times the pub suffers greatly.
Now let's turn to staff. just where did some of these government 'consultations' come from? All the staff I have spoken to never really gave a hoot about the smokey atmosphere (dissipated with ventilation anyway!), they simply enjoyed their work, the banter with customers and of course, the wage packet at the end of the week. I could now give you 17 names of disallusioned ladies who once enjoyed the above. They curse the smokeban for as they put it "who gives a toss about a bit of smoke, it's part and parcel of the job". The 17 ladies (12 of whom don't smoke) now cannot get their jobs back as their respective pubs/clubs have gone forever. They have found new skills however-signing on and living exceedingly frugally!
Let's look at the implementation of this draconian piece of legislation.
Grandly named "Public Consultations", we were told that 96,000 respondents wholeheartedly agreed with a total ban. Did you or your neighbour or indeed anyone you know get a 'questionnaire'-I doubt it. It transpires that the said number of respondents all came from government agencies known as SmokeFree NE, SmokeFree NW etc, etc An engineered result to suit the government-what a surprise!
"Statistical Evidence" - a grandiose title that basically means nothing, for statistical evidence, especially of the 'cherry-picked' variety, can be utilised to suit any purpose it may be required to be used to support
"Scientific Proof" - exactly what scientific proof was used i ask? The worlds largest studies, including our very own health & safety mob could prove no direct link between SHS & mortality. However, one insignificant and highly dubious study claimed that link, thus "junk science" was employed to bombard the nation with 'incontravertible proof'-oh please!
The biggy! The SCOTH Committee! A committee set up by this government to produce the required result upon which to base the smokeban law upon. When you consider that this 16 body 'committee' (and I use the term very lightly) included 14 bodies from either anti-tobacco, in pay of Big pharma or staunch Labourites, there was never ever going to be but one conclusion. The two poor souls added onto the 'magnificent 14' may as well not even bothered turning up-apart from the fact they got a few quid in wages (consultancy fees )
There was talk of private members clubs being exempted from the ban but then of course that could have given rise to all sorts of legal problems in the future, so after a meeting with the Leicester WMC's Patricia Hewitt, who listened to their concerns and promised her support in London, voted for the total ban. Unsurprisingly her actions have caused her to be banned from every WMC in that district!
Unbelievably we have embraced many cultures in this country yet the smoking of 'shisha (Hookah) pipes' is also outlawed! These pipes are of little tobacco substance drawn through water and fruity flavourings. They have been a way of life for centuries in the eastern world. They have been the way of fathers teaching sons & daughters the rights and wrongs of life. They have kept the youth culture from roaming the streets-but no more. Even this simple social and cultural past-time has been outlawed!
Mark you mentioned the organisation FOREST who have inaugerated the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign and without doubt the like of 'Mr Worrall T' will enhance their long dormant voice but there is a larger, more potent force growing quietly in the background and ready to take this government on with the much needed amendment to this ban. Freedom2Choose.info have a website absolutely chokkablock with data, including the lies of so called 'charities' and government funded bodies set up purposely to force the implementation of this ban. It also transpires from research that Freedom2Choose are not funded by Big Tobacco, nor are they of any political pursuasion-merely an organisation of angry people who see the smokeban for what it really is-an intrusion upon our freedoms. It is also interesting to note that Freedom2Choose have the full support of the WMCIU (some 5 million members at grass roots level).
Having seen the carnage within the hospitality sector Mark, and observed that it will only get worse, it is obvious that the ban needs to be amended forthwith to accomodate smokers and non smokers. The non smokers have had two years to show their appreciation of 'clean air' pubs-they have ignored the invite. The simple solution is to either:-
a).....give licensees the choice-smoking or non smoking
b).....separate rooms for smokers/non smokers; ie, return to the "Snug" old days.
The financial cost of this puritanical healthist freakery is beyond comprehension. The cost in human misery insurmountable. Yet it cannot be proven to have saved one single life-just as SHS cannot be proven to have taken one single life!
Next years review has no option but to amend the smokeban to suit all parties, after all we all deserve the freedom of choice!