The Smoking Ban

Seeing as no one has asked for my opinions on this matter I thought I'd share them with you anyway. If you've been living under a rock or in a tree for the last few days (or don't live in the UK) then you should have heard that the government have passed a bil stating you can't smoke in enclosed public places (unles you're an MP cos the Houses of Parliament are classed as a Royal Palace so are not covered by the ban). The definition of an enclosed public space is pretty wishy-washy and will need some work but other than that it's fairly straight forward: It will be illegal to smoke in a pub, club, restaraunt, hire-car, company car, bus, taxi, ice rink, bus shelter, portaloo etc etc etc.

Initially I thought 'huzzah' cos people will be healthier as they'll all obviously stop smoking and join the gym and Britain will be a lot less smelly. However, thinking a bit more about it, are the people that smoke really going to stop just cos they're more limited in where they can smoke? MaFt thinks not! Why? Cos it's an addiction that's hard to break; especially if you don't want to in the first place.

I think it'll lead to worse health for most smokers in the UK. Instead of going t'local and spending a tenner on 4 pints and having a few fags they're more likely to nip t'co-op and spend a tenner on 12 cans (about 10 pints) and drink themselves to a stupour in the comfort of their own home. You may say "well MaFt, that's their own health they're ruining so nothing has changed" but I say what about smokers with kids? If they're in the house more often smoking more for fear of persecution and/or prosecution hwo will that affect the health of the children and others in the house? It can't be better for them... surely?

Still, it's probably too late to change and remember kids, the government knows best.

MaFt