Pub Smoking Ban

I did have to laugh when viewing on the news last night one determined pub owner who not only said that he will not be enforcing the smoking ban, but that if any health inspector tries to enter his premises he will take out a tresspass order against them. I think he was from the west coast 🙂

The new law does take effect from midnight tonight. I have mixed feelings on it.

From a principled point of view I have sympathy for the impact it may have on bar owners, and there is a lot of logic to their call for the Government to set clear air standards, rather than a smoking ban. On the other hand I do like the quote that having a smoking area within a bar is like having a peeing area within a swimming pool 🙂

There is a very strong argument that if employees choose to work at a smoking bar, and customers choose to drink there, why should the state interfere? But I depart from the libertarians when I don’t think for example you would allow employees to work in a workplace with asbestos everywhere, and that there is a parallel to passive smoking.

At the end of the day, while I have mixed feelings, I personally can’t wait for the ban to apply, simply because I detest being in smoke filled bars, as it affects me quite badly.

Yes I know that I could choose never to go to a bar which allows smoking, or ask my friends not to smoke when we are out at a bar, but the reality is I would have few friends or social life if I did, and hence I put up with smoke filled bars.

So on the basis of purely what is good for me, I welcome the law, even though on an intellectual and political level I don’t really agree with it.

Hey I almost sound like a politician trying to be on both sides of an issue, like that!!