h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That's what I thought but in the last month I've organised a p*ss up and a vegetarian meal (I'm not a vegetarian) followed by a p*ss up (in a non smoking pub).

All it takes is two phone calls between a couple of emails.

guess my colleagues are an insensitive bunch... but they are mostly kids so i don't bother too much about it.... other work dos are organised by the employer [tescos] and they are always smoking venues.. although our new store manager is a non smoker and has installed a smoking room to keep the canteen a non smoking environment.. not before time..

although i kind of feel almost sorry fro the smokers because the smoking room is extremely small and stuffy... wouldn't be surprised if it was very hazardous to their health.

under this ban, they now lose that smoking room. Still feel almost sorry for them?

Smoking rooms always are, but I'm amazed there was smoking in the canteen. The smoking room will be shut soon - it's a workplace. Soon Tesco will be putting people on report for sick leave after they've got colds from having to go outside to smoke.

Simuldoobrie.

Simuldoobrie

I need a fag now.

Good to see this being debated in an orderly rational matter.

As an ex-smoker, I see both sides of the story...and I come down firmly on the side of liberty: that nebulous concept that people (Bliar) keep trying to take away from us in one shape or another all the f**king time.

Hell, I hang out with Roymondo and 2legs, who both smoke like chimneys, I don't mind the smoke.

On the science thing, the 20% statistic is a valid statistic, as in an increase from 10 in 100,000 to 12 in 100,000 is a 20% increase. Incredible things, statistics...literally! . Any *serious* would not draw any conclusion from these findings because of normal statistical variation and error rate.

On the pub front, I'm saddened. Once again, people use spurious statistics to try to justify their position. 75% don't smoke? Amongst the population as a whole, this is true. It's less true of the pub-going population, though. It may be argued that this is self-selecting as those who don't like smoke don't go to pubs, but I don't believe that this is a 100% effect. Not sure that any studies have been done to measure this. But (before this ban comes into effect) take a look in a pub, and see how many people are smoking - I'm willing to bet that it's greater than 25%.

RF

yep we had a smoking canteen until only a few months ago.... so they will lose the smoking room??? they'll be uproar....

RF - . I think this was being discussed in an even more orderly fashion in the Forum, but they got bored.

fl - I don't feel that work canteens should ever be smoking environments: there's too much of a captive audience to inflict smoke on people. And I dread to think what my *office* was like before they banned smoking.

reddy freddy i see it from a different perspective.. that i can now go and socialise with the work kiddies if i choose to and not have to inhale passive smoke.. friend know that my house is a no smoking zone.. people smoke out in the garden... if i visit a friend who smokes i know that is their right in their own home, and i have to cope with that..

one or two smokers i can deal with but a big crowd will choke me so i would avoid that situation....but now this new law will free me form that worry so this law is a positive for me.. i am happy about it..

and it will be hard for you smokers but you will adjust.. thats if it goes all the way.. there could be a revolt yet...

as someone else said earlier the gov couldn't stop the racial hatred spouted by a parasite in our country and yet seek to control our drink and smoking habits.....

RF, it's an orderly discussion because we smokers know ourselves what we do is wrong. Doesn't mean we shouldn't be allowed to do it though! There's more carcinogens and pathogens in perfume, not to mention cinamyl alcohol which causes a severe reaction. Lung Cancer sufferers are split evenly between smokers and non-smokers.

Is there no way that we could have smoking pubs, non-smoking pubs, and "mixed" pubs? Then landlords could adjust their stance according to their demographic? A free-market solution instead of a government-imposed one?

Flakey-lady, at the moment you are an oppressed minority, and you know how that feels. And yet, you seem perfectly willing to oppress another minority to have your own freedom. How do you reconcile the two?

RF

anyway on a final note cos i have to go to bed... a lot of mention of blair and our disillusionment with him [and his government] but what i want to know is who voted him back in??? i certainly didn't i might have voted him in to power initially but labour have lost my vote for some years now....

making us pay for higher education was my turning point....

He never had mine. It's all everyone else's fault. I'm an

RF

Making those that benefit from it pay for it was a turning point for me too...

(retreats from can of worms)

and TB/Labour was the lesser vote of the two evils (of those likely to reach power) in the last election.

I'm beginning to think Lib Dem might be the least destructive/obstructive option in future.

Ah, vote for freedoom! You know it makes sense.

I just love the way all the people who voted in this government, having seen the effects of 8 years of it already, are complaining about it!

RF

reddy freddy.. i don't see how i oppress another minority.. i am all for peoples rights thats why i am a union rep... but i also have a right to breath clean smoke free air as much as is possible in our polluted atmosphere.. and yes perfumes also pollute, decaying fruit and veg gives off fumes etc....

basically its everywhere.. but have you seen how much smoke a person puffs out? i have and it always moves directly at me no matter where i sit...

i'm not in any way opressing anyone.. i am however quite happy about the law, and thats my right.. if i had had a democratic chance to vote for a smoking in public ban i certainly would have... same i wanted fox hunting banned.. its my right for express my desire for this.. this is not the same as oppressing smokers..

you have me mixed up with someone else.. i support this new law.. [i'll believe it when it happens] but i don't campaign against smokers or try thuggish behaviour towards them...

They're all sh*t, but some are less sh*t than others. People got hung up on Iraq and forgot about domestic issues (even in local elections: 'The PM took us to Iraq, so I'm going to vote against Labour, even though the competition are all illiterate dimwits'). Labour still won. Doesn't say much for the others does it?

Flakey, I'm an ex-smoker myself, I see both sides of the argument. You don't see a ban as any kind of oppression of smokers?

RF