The UK votes for civilisation.

[baratron]

Woo fucking hoo: MPs vote to legalise breathing in public spaces.

I can't wait until I can go to the pub again. No smoking areas don't cut it - there's still too much smoke for my poor lungs, and it's no fun sitting there desperately clockwatching, knowing that you have under an hour to enjoy your friends' company before your lungs are so full of snot that you'll be up the entire night coughing and wheezing.

What'll be really great is if this applies to nightclubs as well - my God, I would LOVE to be able to go clubbing again. I'm too young to have had to stop!

Comments

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

zotz asserts that it's "all places of work apart from ones which are where people are living".

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

I think that's Scotland and the English ban is phrased differently, but I haven't been able to find a detailed description of the laws (such as whether it will be legal to smoke legal non-tobacco products.)

[barakta]

As I understand it, it is a TOTAL ban in all workplaces which are not someone's home and possibly prisons and stuff...

It'll be nice to arrange to meet people for a drink without having to insist that it is in a non-smoking pub, which is inevitably inconvenient for some people to get to.

I am pleased that this was passed without too many half arsed opt-outs.

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

Finally.

I particularly love how some places have put the no-smoking section totally without consideration for things like, oh, say, AIRFLOW.

But now, it will be possible to go out and not get second hand smoked to death. Whoo! (Also, it gives me headaches. And makes my hair smell VILE.)

[softfruit.livejournal.com]

Cor, that even-a-stopped-clock rule kicks in just a day after the ID cards vote :D

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Wahey!

[lizw.livejournal.com]

I'm immensely pleased, too. The range of pubs I'm willing to visit is going to increase dramatically, and with any luck it will reduce the smoking rate and thus the number of people past whom it makes me nauseous to walk because of the smell.

[barakta]

My objection to smokers is that they aren't just polluting their own air, they are polluting that of those around them. I cannot be in a smoky environment, it makes me very ill. My partner is asthmatic and last time she was smoked at in a pub she was nearly hospitalised.

In the UK there are very few nonsmoking bars. Non-smoking sections are a joke because the pollution of cig smoke is too much for most people who object to it on health grounds. Most places have a small section where you can't smoke, which many smokers ignore and walk into with fag-in-hand burning away. Having to repeatedly ask them to 'go away with that' gets very tiring and makes the individual who had the guts to complain very unpopular.

I am sorry I can't believe not being allowed to smoke while drinking alcohol makes some people sick. Frustrating yes, sick no. Whereas if someone lights up a cigarette in the same room as me I WILL be ill for a number of days afterwards and wheeze for 24 hours. Is your girlfriend ill for a number of days after being allowed to drink alcohol but not have a cigarette?

I don't doubt that nicotine is addictive, as is the act of smoking a physical cigarette, but no one who is younger than 30 can say they didn't know this before they started. If they need the nicotine that much then they can chew gum or get patches. I believe the NHS pays for patches at a huge cost to the taxpayer, while the smoker also saves money they would otherwise spend on cigarettes.

The other reason the ban is total, is that somebody has to work in the bars and vlubs where smoking is still allowed. While many bar staff do themselves smoke, many don't and many are ill due to the effects of smoking but they need the job so they don't leave. The ban is to protect them as much as it is to protect the miserable anti-smoking people like me.

If smokers don't like it, they can do what I have done for the last 10 years - not go out to pubs/restaurants etc if they are that ill without their cigarettes. I for one welcome 2007 where I will be able to go somewhere and not have to worry/pester people/ to make it non smoking. I will be able to assume it is nonsmoking and therefore safe.

[rowan-leigh.livejournal.com]

You might enjoy this (http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/ffi/ffi2.htm). (Lots of swearing.)

[barakta]

I love it - tempted to link to it from my LJ flames or not. It'll be nice to go to events and not worry about the stench of cigs and the wheezing for days afterwards. The status quo will be smoking is unacceptable, rather than someone's right (to pollute my f-ing air!

[ceno.livejournal.com]

Absolutely brilliant :)

[ludy]

it's wonderful

[nitoda]

Yay! I was also very delighted to hear about this.
Now - what I want *next* is a ban on muzak ... ;-) Or at least control over volume levels. It used to be very nice to go out to a good restaurant or posh place where there was someone singing at you ... but these days you can't go to a cheap chain restaurant without hearing canned music - which doesn't stop, unlike a real singer, and it's an extra load of sound that I don't need or appreciate.