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ATTENTION SMOKERS!

Ninjas make great pets

07:18 / 30.03.04

Come one, come alll.. to the emerald Isle.. where we, in our saints and scholars wisdom, have banned smoking indoors..

thereby making it anti-establishment and cool again -yaay- Go Us!

agvvv

07:19 / 30.03.04

Might as well come to norway.. same here in about two months..

Ninjas make great pets

07:27 / 30.03.04

So... If the last cigarette is the sweetest.. go to each country the day before the ban.. chain countrying, I like it!

Grey Area

07:28 / 30.03.04

Better still, come to Northern Ireland, where the UK government refuses to implement a similar ban 'cause of all the potential lost revenue. We'll sit across the border and puff away, beaming smiles on our faces.

"In Northern Ireland, you can still have that cigarette with your Guinness!" <- New unofficial Northern Ireland Tourist Board slogan.

agvvv

07:30 / 30.03.04

Sounds good.. what exactly do you mean by "indoors"? Are we talking fascist regime here?

Ninjas make great pets

07:47 / 30.03.04

all indoor areas that are "public". Cafes, offices.. yadda yadda..

although I was at home yesterday and I could have SWORN the lightbulb was flashing a morse code alert..

Yo! Grey Area.. Grr!
come down here and say that..
(cheeky northerners with their lilting accents and carefree ways -hummf!)

Grey Area

07:52 / 30.03.04

I'm no real northerner to tell the truth. I'm just someone who got stuck here a while ago when I stumbled in, wide-eyed, from the Continent.

But still: Neener neener neeee-ner!!! We get to smoo-oke!!!

Jub

09:25 / 30.03.04

It's not really stopping people though is it? Especially in pubs. I mean fair enough in the town centre weatherspoons or equivalent, but your average village boozer, or bar off the beaten track is not going to bother you if you have a crafty fag will it?

How would the authorities prevent landlords from saying - oh go on smoke! - it just seems mad!!

Ninjas make great pets

09:33 / 30.03.04

awwww.. well.. now . they've been kinda devious about this. If you smoke in a pub and are caught then you are fined, the establishment is fined AND (this is the sneaky part) the manager on duty is fined also. its not just a fiver or fifty or anything ignoreable..

we're talkin 500euro fine smoking on a bus too.

there is a phone line too.. for concerned citizens who see people smoking in cafes etc..

fun fun fun

Grey Area

09:34 / 30.03.04

There's a news post from Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ) here, with further links to older articles covering the issue. Basically, it's up to the landlords to ensure that the ban is upheld. If an inspector comes in and sees people smoking, I think the fine that could be levied is somewhere srounf 3000 Euros.

I don't want to be the poor sap employed at under minimum wage who is sent to ask the plastered rugby team players to please stop smoking.

Ninjas make great pets

09:40 / 30.03.04

you don't ?!

but Grey.. big burly rugby players.. how could you not dream of having to talk to such people..? and oh.. the sweet smell of stale beer.. how manly!

Grey Area

09:52 / 30.03.04

Some people may get off on having abuse hurled at them and being shoved around by drunken oafs who think they're something 'cause they spend hours every day wearing a polyester sports top advertising McNeill's Turf Supply. I am not one of these people. I know this comes as a bit of a shock, but these are the kind of things you need to learn to deal with in the big bad world.

Smoothly

11:01 / 30.03.04

This is obviously great news. It's about time drinkers everywhere were protected from smokers. I've got nothing against people who want to kill themselves in their own homes (as long as there aren't children around, obv.), but I have no sympathy for the whinging addicts who think they have the right to inflict their deadly fumes on normal people. I don't see why anyone caught smoking in a public place shouldn't be charged with assault - attempted murder, even - but at least this is a step in the right direction.

Bear

11:13 / 30.03.04

I'm not sure what I feel about this, I've always felt funny about smoking in restaurants/cafes but I do enjoy to smoke when I'm out having a drink. I don't think I'd protest too much if I was told I wasn't allowed to spark up inside as long as there a places I could go to smoke - like a shed or a large perpex box....

No all we have to do is get rid off all cars and motorbikes and trains and buses and the air will be great.

Baz Auckland

14:36 / 30.03.04

Whenever they enact bans like this (they're slowly doing it here... soon smokers will be encased in their own glass section) the papers always go on about how all the bars, restaurants, etc. will go under because smokers won't go to them...

...smokers, is this true? Will you avoid eating/drinking out because you can't smoke?

Grey Area

14:48 / 30.03.04

Well, it would certainly affect me...all my friends smoke. They and I wouldn't be able to enjoy a night out without tobacco, and therefore would probably end up either staying at home or constantly ducking outside for a fag, which would do wonders for the group dynamic. I understand the health reasons behind the ban, but surely there's a way to force pubs to have better ventilation systems or something like that? (braces hirself for the inevitable anti-smoker backlash)

sleazenation

15:06 / 30.03.04

Well obviously, as previous threads on the evils of tabacco have concluded, all smokers are weak-willed lung-rapists who are unfit to subsidize the government.

Hieronymus

15:22 / 30.03.04

Wow. Aren't nanny governments adorable?

I'm not a smoker but there's a wealth of junk science that points to uninformed hysteria about passive smoke. And for pub owners that depend on smokers for their business, this should be real interesting to see enforced.

Grey Area

16:40 / 30.03.04

Smokers being business...Taoiseach Bertie Ahern went on record last year as saying that people had the same 'losing business' concern about airlines introducing smoking bans, and they were proved wrong.

I have to say though that I wholeheartedly welcome the non-smoking attitude on airliners now. Memories of the old Frankfurt-Abu Dhabi route are mainly coloured by the fact that you ended up inhaling the acrid smell of the smokers puffing away in the back of the 707. It wasn't uncommon for airliner exhausts to be nicotine stained. Do we want to go back to that? Hell no. So I can imagine that in four/five years' time the Irish will have accepted the smoke-free pub.

The fact that it rains so much in Ireland though (how do you think the Emerald Isle became emerald) makes going outside for a fag a bit more problematic/wet. You don't have that problem in an airliner.

w1rebaby

16:56 / 30.03.04

I'd just like to say the same thing I said about the NYC smoking ban, which is that the measure is prohibitive (you cannot smoke) rather than protective (people must be allowed to be free from smoke should they wish to and staff must not be subjected to it). The latter is always given as the motivation; seems odd to have laws that don't mention it.

Warewullf

19:10 / 30.03.04

When my Dad was employed by a cigarette packing company, I thought that anti-smoking people were bastards, spreading their opinions without stopping to think that some people's (e.g. my Dad's) livelihood depended on this voluntary action (i.e. smoking and smelling vile).

Now, however, his plant has been closed down (because of anti-smoking campaingers? Maybe not directly but still...), he's been forced to retire and I don't care anymore.

So you can't smoke in the workplace. Boo-fucking-hoo.

Some of us have real problems.

Warewullf

19:13 / 30.03.04

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern went on record last year as saying that people had the same 'losing business' concern about airlines introducing smoking bans, and they were proved wrong.

Heh, pubs in Ireland losing business.
People in Ireland would willingly go into a pub filled with zombie ninja sharks if they knew they'd get a pint...

beelzebub jones

19:31 / 30.03.04

give me the second hand effects of cigarettes, cigars, pipes, crack and opium all together and spare me the second hand effects of private automobiles and handguns! these law makers smell something bad because their heads are up their asses.

lekvar

19:38 / 30.03.04

I am originally from the first U.S. city to prohibit indoor smoking and let me tell you, everyone adjusts. Some bars will look the other way, some will establish a nice gardin section where smokers can congregate. The ones that make no concessions will suffer and stand as a warning for the rest.

If you think this will be the end of your collective social lives, think again. When I still smoked I could rely on the fact that I could go outside to smoke and have a calm conversation with a group of strangers that I shared something in common with, with no bar noise to interfere. Instant conversation-starter, too.

Just think of it as separating the wheat from the chaff.

Warewullf

19:54 / 30.03.04

Excuse me? Wheat from the chaff? Are you implying that because I don't smoke I'm not worth talking to?

pomegranate

20:42 / 30.03.04

smoking on buses...woah.
it always makes me laugh to see old movies or tv shows where people are smoking in, like, hospitals and libraries. that hasn't been allowed in the states in a loong time.

lekvar

20:49 / 30.03.04

Warewullf, one thousand pardons to you and your non-smoking bretheren, of which I am one. No insult was intended, I was merely trying to calm the poor smokers, bereft of the comforting shelter of their favorite dens of iniquity. I am no longer a smoker, but I had to deal with nearly 10 years of having to go outside in order to feed my addiction. My point was that life does not have to end.

Warewullf

21:15 / 30.03.04

That's ok, then.

And while I do sympathise with the smokers, I must say it'll be nice not to come back from a pub smelling like an ashtray.

w1rebaby

21:46 / 30.03.04

To be honest I don't think it will affect trade all that much. I understand the figures dip for a bit then go up again. Smokers go to pubs for the same reasons as non-smokers, they just like to have a fag while they're there. The draw is going to be the same.

I must say though that it is incredibly frustrating not to be able to light up when you're drinking. No problem with smoke-free workplaces or other public areas where you're not usually pissed. I'd be quite happy with legislation that said a certain proportion of an establishment had to be non-smoking, there had to be certain ventilation etc - pubs play an important social role and I don't think it's fair to have everyone breathing smoke - but I'm finding it hard to think of a good reason why one should never be allowed to smoke indoors outside of one's home.

lekvar

22:13 / 30.03.04

fridge-
Never is a mighty long time. Here on the left coast it was determined that private clubs could allow smoking indoors, and in most cases, the price of membership to this most privileged of establishments is the cost of a drink. Look to the letter of the law, there will be loopholes.

In the end, some bars here are simply known to be "smoking" bars. It works on the principle that if you mind the smoke you're clearly in the wrong bar and you can move along, thank you very much. Yes, they are usually dives, but dives are good.

w1rebaby

22:38 / 30.03.04

Side note: You know, when I came to the US I was under the impression that smoking was relatively uncommon there (and I still have Brits say to me "god, it must be terrible, you must not be able to smoke anywhere") but I've found that actually, loads of people smoke like bastards. Whenever I go out, people are there chuffing away. It feels like it's far more condemned in the media than is actually reflective of the population's habits. That's not a very hard thing to believe of course.

lekvar

23:08 / 30.03.04

One in four people in the U.S. smoke. The media would have you believe that there's maybe five or six smokers left in the States who want to give everybody cancer.

Conversley, the media would have us believe that everyone beyond our borders smokes like a chimney. Any statistics from our non-U.S. brethen?

adamswish

07:15 / 31.03.04

The thing that gets me about the rumblings the British government are making about banning smoking in "public places" is they will still be charging the same amount of tax on the prohibited product. No idea what the level of tax is in Ireland (haven't been back to Dublin since they got the Euro), but it does strike me as silly, if not a tad scandalous (maybe the wrong word there) that the tax issue stays the same while the amount of places people can smoke reduces. Almost as if they are charging you taxes for something that is slowly becoming illegal.

As for smoking on buses it is my personal believe that the £500 fine (and have you noticed it's cheaper if you're caught smoking on trains) is responsible for the amount of people smoking cannabis on board. Who wants to be hit with a large fine just for smoking a Camel Light (sorry I should say Camel Blue, not allowed to refer to those brands as "light" anymore).

Jub

11:00 / 01.04.04

I thought this was an April Fools at first but John Deasy has been sacked for smoking!
BBC
The Times

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