Pub Watch

[Mikimoto]

18 hours ago, The Voice of Reason said:

Well it’s the smoking ban that has done for a lot of pub closures and subsequent damage to the economy.

No dialogue about how maybe certain rooms in pubs with appropriate air conditioning could be provided for smokers. Or smoking/ non smoking pubs established ( more problematic I know)

I used to love going to the pub for a pint and a cigarette after work. But now that pleasure was denied me I can’t do it. I’m not going to stand in some doorway in the pissing rain surreptitiously smoking a cigarette which costs me now, what  50p or 60 p a time ? That’s not enjoyable. And I don’t buy the accompanying pint or two lost revenue for the pub/ brewery/ Government 

The smoking ban making it all but impossible to enjoy a smoke other than in your own house or its environs which made me give up smoking ten or more years ago which I imagine is what the Government wanted.

Do I feel grateful for that? Absolutely not.

I have been forced into giving up something I enjoyed , contributing tax which depending on which statistic you believe more than paid for any burden from smoking on the NHS giving them a windfall.

But unlike Remainers in the Brexit discussion I know that the argument / war is lost. And this is the way the things are. It’s a sad indictment.

Well, it's great to know it worked, extending your life by years and protecting those around you. Plus, I'm guessing you don't permanently stink of shit any more.

Of course, you could have continued to just stink your own house out, but it seems you didn't want to.

[The Voice of Reason]

5 hours ago, Mikimoto said:

Well, it's great to know it worked, extending your life by years and protecting those around you. Plus, I'm guessing you don't permanently stink of shit any more.

Of course, you could have continued to just stink your own house out, but it seems you didn't want to.

Well who knows how my life expectancy would pan out had I not given up smoking.?

It may have reduced it or it may have made no difference. Similarly I enjoy a glass of wine and sometimes a bag of chips. 
 
By the way tobacco smoke doesn’t smell of shit. It has its own smell. As a youngster I went into my own house and that of relatives who smoked. The smell wasn’t obnoxious it was just part of life. Watch re reruns of Coronation Street and people in the Rovers Return, most smoked in there. There were no people exaggerating coughing motions, it was part of life.

Yes it’s probably a good thing not to smoke as it is not to eat fatty foods but why deny people the choice?

As regards smoking in my own house well yes I could, but as I referenced as a social norm you and your ilk have demonised it to the extent that I would now feel uncomfortable in doing so.

Given that visitors to the house would take it as normal given that not so long ago it would be quite acceptable. Ashtrays would be placed in every room that your family and friends had access to.

Oh and if any guest of mine now asked if  they could smoke in my lounge I would be the perfect host  and say “of course “ and provide them with an ashtray.

Not that they would . They would ask, embarrassed, if they could go outside to smoke their cigarette.
This is what we have come to 

 

Edited January 8 by The Voice of Reason

[Non-Believer]

9 hours ago, The Voice of Reason said:

Yes it’s probably a good thing not to smoke as it is not to eat fatty foods but why deny people the choice?

You haven't been denied the choice.

You are still free to do it, only now not inflicting the residue of your pleasure (smoke and smell) on the lungs and clothing of non-smokers who previously didn't have the choice in the environs of a public area.

To suggest that everybody enjoys or shouldn't find the smell of cigarette smoke obnoxious just because it is part of your pleasure is incredibly ignorant and arrogant. Open sewers and defecating in the street used to be a normal part of life, do you think that we should return to that too?

Air is "naturally clean", if you wish to further pollute it then do it away from people who wish to enjoy it in that state. This is all that the law now requires.

Edited January 9 by Non-Believer
Typo

[The Voice of Reason]

55 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

You haven't been denied the choice.

You are still free to do it, only now not inflicting the residue of your pleasure (smoke and smell) on the lungs and clothing of non-smokers who previously didn't have the choice in the environs of a public area.

 

And pre smoking ban you did have the choice to go into the pub or not. Pub watch being the topic of this thread.  
(You still have that choice)

You’re a bit sanctimonious if you don’t mind me saying. 

Edited January 9 by The Voice of Reason

[reptar]

42 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

And pre smoking ban you did have the choice to go into the pub or not. Pub watch being the topic of this thread.  
(You still have that choice)

You’re a bit sanctimonious if you don’t mind me saying. 

Fucking Hell, I shouldn't be surprised coming from you but I'm sure you must have some sort of brain injury to be taking this position on smoking in pubs all these years later. As an ex smoker myself surely you realise that it's completely unreasonable to inflict your stinking, life shortening, hobby on other innocent people just because they wanted to visit the pub.

11 hours ago, The Voice of Reason said:

Yes it’s probably a good thing not to smoke as it is not to eat fatty foods but why deny people the choice

Because when an individual eats, for example, a sausage and bacon bap, some of it isn't forcefully shoved down the throats of everyone else who happens to be in the vicinity.

11 hours ago, The Voice of Reason said:

As regards smoking in my own house well yes I could, but as I referenced as a social norm you and your ilk have demonised it to the extent that I would now feel uncomfortable in doing so.

Uncomfortable smoking in your own house? And you'd prefer to be able to go to the pub like you could in the 'good old days' and inflict it on everyone else instead. FFS I swear there is something wrong with your head.

 

[reptar]

52 minutes ago, The Voice of Reason said:

And pre smoking ban you did have the choice to go into the pub or not. Pub watch being the topic of this thread.  
(You still have that choice)

You’re a bit sanctimonious if you don’t mind me saying. 

'a bit sanctimonious'? Really? You have absolutely no self awareness if you think that your wish to smoke in pubs, stinking the place out and poisoning everyone else should come above the rights of everyone else not to be subjected to it.

[The Voice of Reason]

13 minutes ago, reptar said:

Fucking Hell, I shouldn't be surprised coming from you but I'm sure you must have some sort of brain injury to be taking this position on smoking in pubs all these years later. As an ex smoker myself surely you realise that it's completely unreasonable to inflict your stinking, life shortening, hobby on other innocent people just because they wanted to visit the pub.

 

 

I’m not sure I would describe smoking as a “hobby”.

Thing is that the smoking ban was promoted, in part  as a way getting more people to frequent pubs.

Statistics show that the exact opposite has occurred. Less and less people are frequenting pubs and on fewer occasions ( myself included). Pubs have closed, jobs have been lost and communities have lost their souls. Those people earnestly declaring they would go to the pub when smoking was banned, never materialized.

Surely in this day and age with available technologies, it should be possible to come to an accommodation whereby a pub can provide both smoking and non smoking areas. 
 

Anyway it is what it is. I’m not going to spend my time arguing for the return of smoking in pubs, like some Brexit remoaner going on about how the UK shouldn’t have left the EU and wanting it reversed. The smoking ban won’t be reversed ( but at least there was a democratic vote on EU membership)

[Non-Believer]

1 hour ago, The Voice of Reason said:

And pre smoking ban you did have the choice to go into the pub or not. Pub watch being the topic of this thread.  
(You still have that choice)

You’re a bit sanctimonious if you don’t mind me saying. 

Please don't call me sanctimonious after some of the drivel that you post on these boards.

I go to the pub to purchase and drink alcohol and on occasions, eat food. That is why the pub exists. Smoking is not part of its retail business. I and others should be able to go there for those purposes without having my lungs, hair and clothes contaminated with the byproducts of your pleasure, not to mention burns to clothing by smokers waving their hands around whilst holding cigarettes whilst talking. Science and democracy (democracy that you are always so quick to quote in your Brexit dribblings) has decreed that this should be the case.

The default position is now clean air and environment. Should you wish to pollute it then you now pay heavily via taxes on your "pleasure products" and are obliged to do it out of the way of those who wish to enjoy the default position. This was democratically imposed. However, if you need an analogy to your argument, the byproduct of my drinking pleasure is urine so presumably you will be happy if I stand on a chair and piss all over you?

Pub trade has diminished through pricing and the economic situation, smokers are a relatively small percentage of the population therefore a relatively small percentage of pub goers too, by extension. Any loss of revenue from you is miniscule compared to the savings from having to treat cancers and lung diseases inherited from passive smoking that people previously had no choice in.

[The Voice of Reason]

19 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

Please don't call me sanctimonious after some of the drivel that you post on these boards.

I go to the pub to purchase and drink alcohol and on occasions, eat food. That is why the pub exists. Smoking is not part of its retail business. I and others should be able to go there for those purposes without having my lungs, hair and clothes contaminated with the byproducts of your pleasure, not to mention burns to clothing by smokers waving their hands around whilst holding cigarettes whilst talking. Science and democracy (democracy that you are always so quick to quote in your Brexit dribblings) has decreed that this should be the case.

The default position is now clean air and environment. Should you wish to pollute it then you now pay heavily via taxes on your "pleasure products" and are obliged to do it out of the way of those who wish to enjoy the default position. This was democratically imposed. However, if you need an analogy to your argument, the byproduct of my drinking pleasure is urine so presumably you will be happy if I stand on a chair and piss all over you?

Pub trade has diminished through pricing and the economic situation, smokers are a relatively small percentage of the population therefore a relatively small percentage of pub goers too, by extension. Any loss of revenue from you is miniscule compared to the savings from having to treat cancers and lung diseases inherited from passive smoking that people previously had no choice in.

Yes if I still smoked I would pay heavily on taxes such payments, taxes according to much research far outweighing the cost of any hospital treatment for  active smoking ( “ the dangers of “ passive” smoking are a long way from being proven let alone being quantified ). You can’t have it both ways.

Maybe you are to young to remember  but when smoking was allowed it was part of the pub’s retail business be that from selling cigarettes from behind the bar or by way of a vending machine on the premises So as well as a fall in custom another income stream has been lost to the pub trade.Selling newspapers is not part of the pub’s retail business but people still read them there.

And your presumption that I would be happy if you were to stand on a chair and urinate over me is both wrong and silly.

Edited January 9 by The Voice of Reason
Last sentence penultimate paragraph added

[Shake me up Judy]

There's a 'club' in Tokyo where you can pay for that sort of thing. You can probably smoke at the same time too if you can keep your fags dry.

[La Colombe]

58 minutes ago, Shake me up Judy said:

 You can probably smoke at the same time too if you can keep your fags dry.

You almost certainly can't actually. 

[The Voice of Reason]