Vox Political called it on the pub garden smoking ban
Vox Political called it on the pub garden smoking ban – the Labour government has dropped the idea.
Back in August, I wrote: “Is Keir Starmer trying to kill our pubs with his plan to ban smoking in beer gardens?
“If it happens, then people who enjoy (or, indeed, are addicted to) tobacco products may abandon pubs altogether, pushing incomes lower, and a centuries- (if not millennia-) old way of life may be extinguished. To be replaced by what?
“If the government is going to impose a restriction that could cause serious harm to UK businesses, then it will be deliberately harming the economy and therefore the prosperity of UK citizens. That runs contrary to all governments’ reasons for existence.”
And now the BBC is reporting that the government is indeed ditching plans to ban smoking in the gardens of pubs and restaurants in England.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he didn’t want to cause further harm to the hospitality industry, adding that “people don’t want to see their high streets going down the pan”.
That’s pretty much what I said.
“There are lots of things that we can and will do on public health that don’t impact on people’s liberties or people’s livelihoods,” he told the Today programme on Radio 4.
He means the government realised it would be harming prosperity, contrary to its raison d’etre – and scrapped the idea.
The British Beer and Pub Association, which represents 20,000 pubs in the UK, said it welcomed the change of heart, adding that the ban “would have led to many pubs shutting their doors and jobs being lost”.
There’s also the fact that, as a licensee friend of mine pointed out, a ban would be unenforceable as it discriminates between pubs that have their own gardens and forecourts and those that open directly onto the street, which is public land; smoking on the street would not have been prohibited so those pubs would not suffer because of a ban.
So another Vox Political prediction comes true. I knew the government would be told it was doing harm and would act accordingly.
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before I start I’m not a smoker so
but banning it allowed those who don’t go to these establishments to hurt their trade .has when in pub you on table with your mates putting the world right but the smokers get up to go outside the none smokers follow to carry the talk hmm isn’t they wanted to keep out of smoke but these ain’t the ones who voted for this but those who only use the pub sometimes now they don’t put monies into pubs but the smokers and their mates some none smokers properly up these establishments now we seeing the end of them
right another one whose going to pay for those taxes the smokers pay ten or so years ago 14billion the NHS 9.6 billion to run now they pay that extra tax so In one way they are paying before telling those smokers ask yourself who’s going to pay that billions it be you and me
ps when they knocked down the smoke room the snug and the lounge into one big bar so now there wasn’t anyplace to hide from the smoke