Today, 1st July 2008, it is one year of a smoke-free England.
I am a non-smoker. In 30 years I must have smoked no more than twenty cigarettes. However, I am completely against the smoking ban in public places and I actually think that a law that forbids to smoke in a bar is as much stupid as a law forbidding to have sex in a brothel.
The first issue I have against this law is that, as all bad things, it started in Maastricht. Every single day that passes by, countries lose their autonomy and they follow like sheep whatever the sages of the European Union parliament come up with. The law in fact was applied in many European countries, such as my native Italy, as far back as January 2005. At first I thought the Italians would reject the idea and make a pandemonium, but I was mistaken. Italians are now just like the rest of their European buddies: they do as they are told.
What I always liked about England was that this country never gave a toss about Europe. Europe drives on the right and we keep the left. They get the Euro and we keep the pound. They agree on Schengen and we don't. They cannot smoke in a bar and we bloody do!
But then, things change and because Europe must be right, because smoking is bad, because the society is rotten in political correctness rubbish, we ban smoking in every public place.
Now, many people agree with this law because either they don't smoke or they do smoke but they actually think it's not healthy and civilised to smoke in front of other people.
Being at the same time a non-smoker and against the ban, I am probably a grumpy Neanderthal, a nutcase or probably both. However, controversial it may seem, since the smoking ban was introduced, bars and clubs have lost any soul to me.
I used to like to go in a bar, especially in winter, and be part of a scene where friends and people smoked and drank, with the smoke creating an atmosphere that was as part of the bar as much as the beer in the glasses. To me a bar is where the cigarette was supposed to be enjoyed. Now, thanks to the new law, bars looks like hospitals with drinks and what I also can't stand is to see all these smokers been puked outside bars and clubs like prisoners in their hour of freedom. At the same time though, I see them as being part of a sacred circle. If I was still going clubbing, I will probably become a smoker: now the real excitement is to be out in the street.
Convinced? Probably not.
You see, I was born in very political incorrect times and I thank God for that. When I was a kid and had a fever or was ill, my mother used to bring me to see a GP. He was a big guy with a beard and… he was always smoking. Always. Any time of the year he was keeping the window open and, puffing a cigarette, he used to tell me what I had or didn't have. I grew up with the sight of my doctor smoking in front of me and, forever since, a doctor with a cigarette in his mouth is the doctor I trust the most. I have never met one since and if I do, it will only be in prison.
The other issue I have with the smoking ban is that why cannot people decide if they want a no-smoking pub or a smoking one? Why not let the owner of the pub decide what to do with his own business? People should have a choice, in a free society. I don't see why I cannot decide to be unhealthy, if I want to.
5 comments:
did you realise that it coincide with Holland smoking ban this year? yup... you can no longer skin up using tobacco in a coffee shop... now how about that coming from the most liberal country (in my opinion) in Europe?
And so what? First of all I don't care what Holland does, I don't live there. Secondly, the tobacco ban in Holland is the most hypocritical law ever made. The reason of the law is that Holland wants to conform with the European law but at the same time keep the coffee shops going. So, tobacco is bad and marijuana good... what about cocaine then, can I smoke it?
Caro Valerio, di tutti i tuoi scritti questo, da fumatrice, è quello che più mi ha colpito, proprio perchè scritto da un non fumatore. Cosa dire di quell'aria particolare, di bar o birrerie, ormai dimenticata, dove le confidenze si fondevano con il fumo? Dove le parole assumevano un fascino diverso? Concordo con te, servirebbero degli "smoking bar", si può dire cosi (?), dove un fumatore o un non fumatore può scegliere di farsi toccare da un'atmosfera diversa.
Tutto questo proteggergi da possibili rischi, non ci fa forse proteggere sempre di più anche dal fascino della vita e delle sue "irregolarità"?
Alessia
Valerio i totally disagree with this blog!! I hate smoke on my clothes and pubs have become more family orientated, where there is children and old Ladies...!! would you like your grandma sucking up some smoke will having bangers and mash...!! probably i do not disagree with a smoking section in Nightclubs, but thats it!!
I assume you are aware that the intension of the law is to protect the employees rather than the customers? And as a bar/club owner you wouldn't be allowed to advertise for staff and stipulate 'non-smokers need not apply'. Seems a bit unreasonable but I guess it is discriminatory.
I disagree with your premise that pubs are for smoking in. They clearly aren't. They are for drinking in, and still are. If the purpose of a bar was to sell drink and smoke equally then they would have promoted the smoking more, surely. More often than not you will find the fag machine tucked away in a corner with extortionate prices for a half empty box and nothing more than a stingy selection of cigars (hamlets probably) behind the counter. Smoking was only ever accommodated it wasn't encouraged and smokers were not enticed into bars with promises of 'two packs of smokes for the price of one'.
I don't smoke cigarettes but i do enjoy a nice cigar and some relaxing shisha. But even when smoking was permitted if i flamed up a fat cigar inside a bar people often complained about the smell, cigarette smokers too! I yearned for bars to embrace and promote cigar smoking but bars with a good cigar selection were few and far between and certainly didn’t coincide with the more important requirements when choosing a bar (location, price, presence of attractive women). You probably know that there are restaurants dedicated to shisha, down Edgewere Road for example. And it is a real shame that these guys cannot continue to offer shisha on the premises.
But I hope the ban doesn’t extend any further. I don’t think there is any justification for stopping people smoking outdoors. If the public place you are in is not under a roof and surrounded by walls you should be able to smoke. I bet it happens though. In a few years you’ll only be allowed to smoke on your own property.
And another aspect which may not have occurred to you is that when you have young children there are lots of restaurants and bars that were off limits because of smoke. When you have young children and you are out during the day you pretty much have to take them along. Leaving them home isn’t an option. We used to end up in McD’s or other similarly unappealing places just so we could sit down and eat hot food without having to submit our kids sensitive little lungs to tobacco smoke, (no smoking areas never worked). Living in Islington, when the smoking ban kicked in it was as if a one hundred new restaurants had suddenly opened. It was and still is great.
One final point. As far as us Brits are concerned; you can take away fags, we will adapt. But don’t even think about touching my beer Maastricht; that is sacred!!
PS - Listen to Felipe. He always talks sense that boy!
Daddy Damo
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