Last gasp as the smoking ban kicks in

[Scottish Mag 3]

THERE was a whiff of the last chance saloon on entering the Cumberland Bar, in Edinburgh's New Town.

 

Smokers and non-smokers huddled together, their final legal cigarette in a pub just a few hours away. In one corner, there was confusion as a man announced the air smelled clearer, assuming the ban was already in place. He was swiftly informed from a smoker in the corner that the carnival was not yet over.

 

Call it psychosomatic but the air did smell cleaner. "The nasal passages are just getting ready," a smoker said from the corner with a knowing smile as he lit up.

 

Two non-smoking friends propped up the bar supping their pints. "It's the start of a nanny state," said local drinker Neil Innes. "I'm a non-smoker, but it's a choice thing. If I was a smoker then I'd like to think I could smoke where I liked."

 

His drinking partner agreed. "I'm a bit concerned about what will happen to the pub culture, with some people drinking inside and others nursing their pints outside. We just have to take each day as it comes."

 

In the corner, Jackie Nelson, a 29-year-old sales assistant, suggested the ban was a good excuse to drink more. "You get so used to using smoking as a break from drinking, this way I think I will just drink far more.

 

"Even as a smoker I think it's a positive thing. Who knows maybe we'll start having lots of house parties?"

 

Her drinking partner, Barry Davidson, hoped the ban will encourage her to cut down. "Two people at my work stopped smoking in anticipation of the ban and I think a whole lot of people will stop as a result of it."

 

Cumberland barmaid, Susan Henry, a non-smoker, revealed that the response had been remarkably low key from local drinkers. "In the last few months it has been discussed, but I think everyone is just waiting to see what the reality will be," she said. "I only had one man last week who was opposed to the ban."

 

Owner Ray Simpson did, however, voice concerns about the long-term implications. "There was no democratic discussion," he said. "It feels a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I think in the long term the country has got to have a good look at itself. What's the next thing going to be: anti-drinking?

 

"My main concern is the fact that we have to really police it ourselves. In this pub I'm not concerned because we get nice, civilised clientele but if I had a pub in Pilton or Craigmillar, I would be concerned."

 

By 11pm the smoke was thicker than ever in Edinburgh's Barony Bar. Regulars said the packed pub was three times busier than a usual Saturday night.

 

While the smokers drew heavily on their cigarettes at the bar, non-smokers scrabbled to open windows and even the more hardened regulars had to go outside for some fresh air.

 

In the toilets, metal plaques setting out the new non-smoking rules were already hanging in place.

 

One smoker said: "I have had more than 20 cigarettes in the last hour. I'll have to reassess my social life after tonight."

 

Elsewhere, the atmosphere was one of merriment. In Nice'n'Sleazy in Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street, the general consensus was to "let things happen as normal and see what happens in the morning".

 

More than one of their tipplers admitted that they had been to a so-called Last Drag party over the past week.

 

Susan, a Glasgow-based student, from London, held a fancy dress party on Friday.

 

"People came as cigarette packets, Marlboro lights and cigars," she said. "The most imaginative was someone who arrived dressed as a nicotine patch. I guess supplies of them will be in greater demand now."

 

In Stirling, the William Wallace pub was worthy of the man himself. A drinker wandered in wearing a kilt and saluted the passing of the ban with a stiff dram, before confessing that his wife had ordered him to give up his pipe as a result.

 

"Ach, needs must," he mused before walking back out.

 

Staff and customers at the Kirkgate bar in Aberdeen went out fighting with a cigarette-themed disco.

 

Regulars danced the night away to tracks by Smokey Robinson, then Oasis' 'Cigarettes and Alcohol' brought the house down, while the Platters favourite 'Smoke Gets in Your Eyes' was the smoochy number.

 

Bar owner Colin Campbell said the ban was a good excuse for a party.

 

"The DJ dug out all the songs he could think of with smoke or cigarettes in the title and we have done it to make a bit of fun out of this thing," he said.

 

"It is a change in culture and will take a while to get used to."

 

Meanwhile, landlord of the Grampian Bar in the Torry area of Aberdeen, George Robertson, was holding a wake.

 

The cigar smoker wanted to mark the occasion with his own brand of black humour and had a coffin made for regulars to dump their fag ends and ashtrays into at closing time.

 

"It is going to be missed, but people are going to have to get used to it because it's going to stay," Robertson said. "There will be no resurrection this time."

[Jusoda Kid 1]

Packed in myself a couple of weeks ago but i can't see how their going to police it.

 

Funny thing is it seems a lot of none smokers also agree that it's ridiclous and people should have the choice whether or not they want to smoke.

 

All these non-smokers that have petitioned for it will be sick when they start getting hammered with tax on their wages to make up for the short fall on people not smoking as much, the new 4 x 4 tax is just the start of the Government clawing the money back in any way they can.

 

Pants down, spread them - the Governments new slogan

[Happy Face 29]

Packed in myself a couple of weeks ago but i can't see how their going to police it.

 

Funny thing is it seems a lot of none smokers also agree that it's ridiclous and people should have the choice whether or not they want to smoke.

 

All these non-smokers that have petitioned for it will be sick when they start getting hammered with tax on their wages to make up for the short fall on people not smoking as much, the new 4 x 4 tax is just the start of the Government clawing the money back in any way they can.

 

Pants down, spread them - the Governments new slogan

110630[/snapback]

 

I don't know the figures, but would a healthier nation not also save money that gets spent on the NHS?

[Mad Jock 0]

Even if the Government are saving money on the NHS they'll still hammer us in anyway they can.

[Happy Face 29]

Even if the Government are saving money on the NHS they'll still hammer us in anyway they can.

110701[/snapback]

 

Very true, I found a couple of things here interesting...

 

What Brown said - and what he meant

 

By ALICE MILES

 

# What Brown said: 'A two child family on medium earnings would be better off'

# What Brown meant: 'A very small number of poor families will benefit'

 

 

MY EARS pricked up during the Budget speech when the Chancellor claimed to be doing his best to help average earners. At least, that’s what it sounded like. And yet it seemed unlikely: Mr Brown is not known for his concern for the middle classes, at least not outside election time.

 

What the Chancellor said was that raising the child tax credit by 14 per cent over three years, instead of increasing personal allowances, is “the best way to do most to help low and middle-income families”. Could that, to borrow a phrase from the Lotto, be you?

 

I set out to discover exactly what, and who, Mr Brown meant. Look at the example he gave to illustrate his largesse: “A two-child family on medium earnings of £24,000 a year” would be £140 per annum better off. Medium earnings can mean average earnings, or median earnings, and there is a significant difference.

 

What Mr Brown was supposed to say, as printed in the text of his speech (and later corrected in Hansard), was “a two-child family on median earnings”. Median earnings are far lower than average earnings: £22,400 this year (Mr Brown’s £24,000 was a projected figure for next year) compared with average earnings of just under £27,000 (according to the Office for National Statistics) or £29,600 (according to the Treasury — nobody said this was going to be easy).

 

Why the difference? Medium, or average, earnings are the sum of all incomes divided by the number of people earning them. Median earnings are the level at which half of earners are above and half are below. Because there are many more low earners than high earners, the median is much lower than the medium.

 

But there was a much cleverer trick going on than the confusion over medium. Look closer at the example the Chancellor gave: “a two-child family on median earnings of £24,000 a year” would be £140 better off under his proposals. It sounds as though he is talking about an averagely well-off family until you consider that £24,000 is the projected median not for couples but for individuals.

 

The median earnings of a two-adult, two-child household are £38,500 a year. So the Chancellor’s two-child household earning the “median” £24,000 a year is not, as it sounds, a middle-income family, but a low income family. Neat trick, huh?

 

When you consider as well that only 11 per cent of British households even have two children in them, you begin to see just how rarefied is the example cited by Mr Brown.

 

The Chancellor’s beneficence (“the best way to do most to help low and middle-income families”, remember) is actually aimed at a very small proportion of households on well below average income. Confused? You were meant to be.

 

# Incidentally, while I was researching this I came across this fact: that the median level of full-time earnings in the public sector (£476 a week in April 2005) is £64 higher than in the private sector (£412 a week), and the gap is widening. That is an extra £3,328 a year, along with generous pensions. I didn’t know that. Bear it in mind when you hear the moans of public-sector workers next week over their pay rises.

 

# In case you missed it, the Chancellor doled out another £200 million to the Olympics, this time for training potential medal-winners. That is on top of the £3.4 billion already pledged for the Games to be paid by London and national taxpayers, and lottery players.

 

With £300 million from the Lotto, the new £200 million will mean £½ billion of public money to train top athletes to win prizes in the Games.

 

I recognise that I have singularly failed to get the spirit of the Games, considering them an outrageous waste of taxpayers’ money in pursuit of pointless muscular vainglory. But in a week when there were 3,000 job cuts in the NHS and more cancelled operations as the health service struggles to cut a debt predicted to end up at about £500 million, I couldn’t help but notice.

 

Is the Chancellor so thick that he sees "median" and reads "medium"? Course not. Lying scum.

[Bombadil 0]

I don't think the ban is ridiculous at all and I wish Switzerland wasn't as backward. I absolutely hate going out for a few pints and coming back stinking like a fireplace.

[Rob W 0]

" landlord of the Grampian Bar in the Torry area of Aberdeen, George Robertson, was holding a wake."

 

now that's a class spot...............................

[Holden McGroin 5067]

" landlord of the Grampian Bar in the Torry area of Aberdeen, George Robertson, was holding a wake."

 

now that's a class spot...............................

110834[/snapback]

 

Did Google tell you that?

[Gemmill 35527]

Can't wait for this to kick in in England.

[Guest alex]

Think bars should have done something about it years ago. They should provided punters with a choice but they didn't and in the end they forced the politicians' hands. Probably for the best but I reckon it's just a popularist decision that will actually do very little, if anything, to improve the nation's health.

[Optimistic Nut 9]

It's been in force in Ireland for a while and they seem to be okay with it.

[Happy Face 29]

"Last week, drinks company Diageo said the Irish smoking ban could be to blame for a fall in the sales of Guinness. "

 

Smoking Guiness drinkers get their taste buds back and realise they've been drinking tepid arse piss all this time?

[Rob W 0]

" landlord of the Grampian Bar in the Torry area of Aberdeen, George Robertson, was holding a wake."

 

now that's a class spot...............................

110834[/snapback]

 

Did Google tell you that?

110919[/snapback]

 

 

oh nooooooooooo

 

I've passed it a few times and thought that my life insurance wasn't up to scratch

 

I go to the Breezeblock City quite often TBH - and ALWAYS regret it

[Shak 0]

We've had it in Ireland for a while, it's actually pretty good IMO, everyone seems happy with it.

 

Pubs and clubs are less murky, and as a smoker I find it to be nice to head outside for a cigarette. Pubs are also putting in smoking areas out back so you can still have your pint and a smoke if you want.