• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Complete Smoking Ban in Scotland

Hutton Steel

Hutton Steel

Sep 17, 2005
112
1
68
Aberdeen, Scotland
#1
A complete smoking ban in all public places begins in Scotland this coming Sunday 26th March. It's going to be interesting to see how smoke-filled venues react to the new law. Is there going to be a steady stream of folks going in and out of venues for a smoke. Who knows? Any thoughts anybody?
 
#3
My thoughts are that the business owners should decide for themselves whether they want to allow smoking or not. If there are enough people who insist on venues with no smoking, then an enterprising individual will open his or her own smoke-free facility and make the profit off of that group. Otherwise, it is just more of the government telling people and business what they can do with their own property. Non-smokers have the freedom to either choose not to go into a smoking venue, search out a non-smoking venue, or open their own non-smoking venue. BTW, I'm a non-smoker.

What it's going to do is hurt the revenues of the places that are forced to abide by these rules. Is the government going to compensate these venues for this loss in revenue in some way, maybe tax breaks? I doubt it.
 
#5
Diggler said:
What it's going to do is hurt the revenues of the places that are forced to abide by these rules.
Click to expand...

The evidence from Ireland (where the same fears had been expressed) would suggest otherwise. Before the ban in 2004, bar retail sales had been in decline for four years. They've increased since then.
 
#6
dlloyd said:
The evidence from Ireland (where the same fears had been expressed) would suggest otherwise. Before the ban in 2004, bar retail sales had been in decline for four years. They've increased since then.
Click to expand...
Then some entrepreneurs should have recognized that and opened their own bars with no smoking rules. The free market would take care of it. They missed an opportunity.
 
#7
Diggler said:
Then some entrepreneurs should have recognized that and opened their own bars with no smoking rules. The free market would take care of it. They missed an opportunity.
Click to expand...

Some did. A pub I used to work in was refurbished last year and went no-smoking. It's much more successful as a result.
 
#8
Diggler said:
Then some entrepreneurs should have recognized that and opened their own bars with no smoking rules. The free market would take care of it. They missed an opportunity.
Click to expand...


I don't think this necessarily works, as no bar owner wants to be the first to exclude potential smoking customers, who will just go elsewhere - whereas if everybody does it at the same time - as happens with a mandatory ban, then they have nothing to lose!! :)
 
#10
Same thing's happening over here on June 1st. Most bar owners I've spoken too are really happy about it. No more getting smoked out at your own bar I suppose.

I'm happy about it, I don't smoke, and it'll definitely make me go out more. I doubt it'll make smokers stop going out. They'll just stop for a few minutes and start smoking outside.
 
#11
dlloyd said:
Some did. A pub I used to work in was refurbished last year and went no-smoking. It's much more successful as a result.
Click to expand...

Good for them.

Bruce Linfield said:
I don't think this necessarily works, as no bar owner wants to be the first to exclude potential smoking customers, who will just go elsewhere - whereas if everybody does it at the same time - as happens with a mandatory ban, then they have nothing to lose!!
Click to expand...

And why shouldn't the smoking customers have the choice of having a place where they can go and smoke cigarettes or cigars while having a beer? I have a problem with government shoving their regulations down the throats of owners. The government didn't come up with the idea to start the pub. The government didn't take the risk of financing the pub startup. The government didn't work long hours and dedicate their lives to making the pub a successful business. It's the pub owner's business, and the owner should decide how to run the pub.

Besides, smoke eaters have come a long way nowadays. When we used to play out 15 years ago, we'd come back smelling like smoke. Now we go out and play these clubs, and for most of them, at the end of the night, you can hardly smell any smoke in your clothes or equipment.

God, please save me from those who would save me from myself. Amen.
 
#12
Diggler said:
And why shouldn't the smoking customers have the choice of having a place where they can go and smoke cigarettes or cigars while having a beer?
Click to expand...

Well it's not about the customers, but rather about people who work in this industry having the right to work in a smoke-free environment that won't hasten their deaths!

As I mentioned, all the time it is up to individual choice there will always be bar-owners who will keep smoking and so their workers will be subject to an unhealthy environment.

It is about the rights of workers to have a healthy working environment. :)
 
#13
Totally agree with you Diggler.;)

As a smoker (by choice, not by addiction), I will stop going onto licensed premises if and when the ban arrives here. Sadly, I'll still need to put up with it in order to play gigs, but again that is a choice I will have to make. Early retirement may be beckoning.:hmm: :hmm:

Personally, I much prefer the smell of stale tobacco to the stench of rank hypocrisy emanating from Mr Bliar and his cabinet.:scowl: :scowl: :scowl: :scowl:
 
#14
Diggler said:
And why shouldn't the smoking customers have the choice of having a place where they can go and smoke cigarettes or cigars while having a beer?
Click to expand...

They do. Outside.

I have a problem with government shoving their regulations down the throats of owners.
Click to expand...

Yep, they should be allowed to short-measure underage kids with out of date beer from cellars that are flooded in water from burst drains.

I'm happy with at least some of the regulations that the government shove down bar owners' throats.
 
#15
It's a great thing.

Here in NY, they've pretty much banned smoking in clubs and bars and it's made it a pleasure to go out again. Smokers still go out, but have to go outside to do their thing. Its really nice to be able to go out and not smell like @$#& when you get home and have the burning eyes and crappy lungs from other people's crappy habits.

Or to quote Diggler, "And why shouldn't the NON-smoking customers have the choice of having a place where they can go and not have the smoke of cigarettes or cigars while having a beer?"
 
#16
And you Europeans think you're so progressive. Here in Canada the smoke free fad kicked off more than a year ago, and I've been living in those cities that have banned smoking the entire time.

As far as I can tell there has been no significant loss of business due to smoker boycotts and, if anything, the main effect has been fewer young people smoking these days. I have a bunch of friends who used the ban as an opportunity to quit, since your willpower is helped out nicely when you have to go stand in -40° weather just to have a drag.

The main problem as I see it is that you usually have to wade through a handful of smokers standing outside the door, but newer legislation is moving them at least x number of feet away from the entrance.

On the topic of individual rights, I have no problem with you smoking, but I also have a right to a certian level of air quality and it should be very much illegal for you to ruin that air quality for me. I could carry around cans of spray paint and I'd be well within my rights to randomly use them on things I own, but people would get awfully upset if I walked up behind them in a bar and decided to do some finish work.

-Nate
 
#18
Diggler said:
I have a problem with government shoving their regulations down the throats of owners.
Click to expand...

1) Yeah, God damn governments telling me how to live! I hate those governments that say I can't take drugs and I can only drive at safe speeds on the roads and I can't kill people who annoy me... Life would be so much better if I could just do what I want and the government didn't tell me what was right and wrong. :rolleyes:

2) The government are the Elected majority, they have the right to rule - because every person over 18 in the UK had the right to vote for who they wanted to govern them. This is only compounded by the fact that in the UK they're the thrice-elected majority. They have the right to "shov[e] their regulations down [our] throats" because we elected them.

3) Whilst the government maybe shoving regulations down my throat, its only going to increace how long I live. Whilst smokers are shoving their smoke down my throat they're shortening my natural life. Which is more fair?
 
#20
BurningSkies said:
It's a great thing.

Here in NY, they've pretty much banned smoking in clubs and bars and it's made it a pleasure to go out again. Smokers still go out, but have to go outside to do their thing. Its really nice to be able to go out and not smell like @$#& when you get home and have the burning eyes and crappy lungs from other people's crappy habits.

Or to quote Diggler, "And why shouldn't the NON-smoking customers have the choice of having a place where they can go and not have the smoke of cigarettes or cigars while having a beer?"
Click to expand...

Yup I agree 100% and can't wait for it to apply to London etc.

One of my work colleagues in the London Office, has had part of her lungs removed and cannot tolerate smoke. It would be really nice to find a pub we could all actually got for a chat and a drink,after work - where she is not "excluded" by the nature of her disability...:(
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back