UK Vote on smoking ban passes!
Technically, I'm bias'd on this as I dont smoke, although I have alot of friends who do, but I'm glad it's happened [smile]
This is a blanket ban, not the half hearted 'only in places which serve food' ban which was on the table.
BBC linkage.
Views on this?
Why can't they just let the owners of those clubs impose their own policies regarding smoking?
What if you have a tobacco club, don't you think it would be utterly idiotic to go there and not be allowed to smoke?
Why not just make smoking/non smoking sections?
What if you have a tobacco club, don't you think it would be utterly idiotic to go there and not be allowed to smoke?
Why not just make smoking/non smoking sections?
The Irish laws which were stricter than this came into force a while back. Bit of a hubub at the time but everybody got used to it fairly quickly and its generally less offensive when you go out now. All in all its a good policy in my opinion.
Quote:Original post by Raduprv
Why can't they just let the owners of those clubs impose their own policies regarding smoking?
What if you have a tobacco club, don't you think it would be utterly idiotic to go there and not be allowed to smoke?
Why not just make smoking/non smoking sections?
Because then consumers that smoke could pressure establishments to have to have a smoking section*; any establishment that didn't could lose a lot of business. So the government is taking it upon itself to say to people that smoke: "We don't want you to smoke, and we want to make sure that you don't hurt the business of any establishment that wants to prevent you from smoking there." A form of political paternalism that is in my opinion quite reasonable. I'd love to see the day when the US did something similar.
[edit]* I'm assuming that maintaining smoking/non-smoking sections are annoying for businesses, and that they don't fully keep the smoke away from the non-smokers. Besides, what if you wanna go hang out with a group of people, and some of them smoke, so you all end up getting stuck in the smoking section? Yeah, it's a little less within the realm of law perhaps and more in the realm of you simply deciding not to tag along, but then again maybe it's not outside of the realm of the law. It's always iffy to know where the dividing line is anyway.[/edit]
Quote:Original post by Raduprv
Why can't they just let the owners of those clubs impose their own policies regarding smoking?
What if you have a tobacco club, don't you think it would be utterly idiotic to go there and not be allowed to smoke?
Why not just make smoking/non smoking sections?
A lot of people are concerned with the health of the staff, not so much really thinking about the customer.
Also, smoking / non smoking sections (ignoring the staff, which doesn't work), doesn't work in many places as the area's are still joined. Smoke doesn't just go upwords.
Quote:Liberal Democrat Steve Webb said: "This legislation is good news for tens of thousands of bar staff up and down the country.
"The key issue has always been the health and safety of people who work in public places."
I don't care too much personally, I don't see any positive element to cigarettes and am asthmatic.
[Edited by - necreia on February 14, 2006 4:45:16 PM]
Very good decision ! I applaud your politicians for voting such a law. That's the way to go for the future.
I wish we had something similar here in France, our politicians could learn a lot from other countries when it comes to no-smoking laws. But since it is still considered "cool" to smoke over here, I'm afraid it won't happen anytime soon. Unless the EU pushes for a global European smoking ban, that would be the best way.
I wish we had something similar here in France, our politicians could learn a lot from other countries when it comes to no-smoking laws. But since it is still considered "cool" to smoke over here, I'm afraid it won't happen anytime soon. Unless the EU pushes for a global European smoking ban, that would be the best way.
Having interned for a while at the American Heart Association, I say "YAY!" and applaud loudly. Smoking just plain sucks.
Quote:Original post by Agony
but then again maybe it's not outside of the realm of the law. It's always iffy to know where the dividing line is anyway.
Yeah, that's the problem. When you don't know whether or not a particular restriction is within the realm of the law, it is preferable to refrain from drafting a law to govern it. What happens when, years form now, some legal expert or constitutional analyst presents an unbeatable argument stating that yes, it was in fact outside the government's authority to impose that restriction on the citizenry? The law's been passed, the right's been trampled and the boundary has been crossed. A dangerous precedent.
And people do nothing. Look at the wiretap thing with George W. Bush. He came right out and said that he was behind a secret, illegal and unconstitutional practise, and stated in no uncertain terms that it would continue to happen. This is being tolerated by the population of the United States, a country that was formed in a series of violent reactions to unjust, yet relatively minor, legislations like the Stamp Act. The Boston Tea Party was brought on by far less than the intrusive data-gathering we put up with today.
I'm not surprised to see that Europeans, with their history of powerful governments and tendency to consider themselves "subjects" rather than "citizens", are embracing their governments' decision to take control of one more element of their daily lives. I'm disappointed that the population of the US is getting closer to that standard of passivity, though. The Tree of Liberty withers a little more each day.
/Libertarian rant
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