Last-ditch push for smoke ban exemptions

Whilst I agree with non smoking in some areas i.e restaurants, cinemas, cafes, hospitals, schools, etc etc.. I do not agree with banning smoking in entertainment venues.... ie pubs and clubs. In Brighton where I live some pubs have the money and the area to accomadate a smoking area outside but thats only some pubs...what about the small family run pubs in the back streets that have no beer gardens... surely they will lose customers and probably go out of business eventually. England is supposed to a free country where we have freedom of speech and can make choices about how we live. Why couldn't we just ban smoking in certain areas and allow smoking in some areas with ventilation. I wonder if this will be the Labour's downfall like the Poll Tax was with Conservatives. If a large majoirty of people gave up smoking where would the government get that tax loss from... they make fortunes with tax on tobacco so the money they lose has to be made up elsewhere... also the local councils have employed people to check buisness's to see if they are abiding with the no smoking ban... they can fine the person if they break the ban... and guess what they earn commission if they fine someone. So the only people to benefit from the non smoking ban are the local councils.

I have not heard or seen any comments regarding the extention to drinking hours or to the amount that bing drinking is costing the tax payer why not leave the decission to have smoking at various locations to the landlord and his public When I worked before retiring we agreed that we would not smoke in the office so the company gave us a smoking room which was well ventilated why change something that works well and all the staff agerrd to i have always respected non smokers so why dont non smokers respect us drinkers are causing more problems than smokers

Clearly you have never sat next to a smoker as their smoke is dragged across you by ventilation. And your clothes smell when you get home. But as a smoker yours stink anyway. . But at the risk of being boring let me repeat - all these options - smoke -free rooms, extra ventilation have been available and few landlords did it. They didn't much seem to care then. As for it having something to do with "Labour" you have asked if the Tories or Liberal Democrats will be repealing it have you? And the answer was.....?

This was afree country. Not now . we are told what to do with our lives, Dont drink dont smoke what next .smokers have the same right as none smokers. i would like to know the tax that the goverment get of cigarettes what will get tax off now food,non smokers dont have to go in same room as smokers.drink is more violent than smokers

Please will everyone stop with this 'dilution' rubbish! The vast majority of smoke components you cannot see, so how could you possibly feel confident working/drinking in a pub that claims its ventilation is working? You'd never know! Smoke kills, second-hand smoke kills. It's about time that something was done about it!

The dinner was a fantastic night out. It is only a shame that such an event like this happens out of ridiculous legislation. Yet again another bending over and biting the pillow by our government from American pressure. Look at the opinion polls. Even most of the non-smokers in the country didn't care. The tiny minority who actually do care are still driving around in their Chelsea tractors complaining about second hand smoke. Ridiculous.

Why not just dilute the smoke? Ventilation is a sensible and mature compromise that no-one but the most zealous anti could object to. Unfortunately, maturity, democracy and the long-held, hard-won, tolerant and liberal society that many of us love is being trashed by and idiotic, knee-jerk, unquestioning, childish bunch of MPs. I rue the day I ticked 'Labour' on the ballot sheet. Never again.

"Germany has got it right by going down the compromise path, better ventilation, defined smoking and non-smoking areas, but hey, that's democracy, not available in England" Well of course that has been available for years in England - just that landlords - except for a few enlightened ones - never did it.

I notice that all the negative result's of the smoking ban in Scotland recieved little or no coverage from the national press and television, it seem's to be totaly biased in favour of the ban,no mention of the thousand or more pub's that have shut down,and the twenty or so bingo hall,s that suffered a similar fate, and the thousands of job's lost. Then we have the human impact, hundreds of mostly pensioners losing their social life, now leading a lonely life indoors, but of course they don't matter, as long as it's politically correct. The issue of passive smoking was never debated by ASH, because they knew the scientific evidence was against them.They must be pleased with making criminal,s of thirteen million people on July 1st. Germany has got it right by going down the compromise path, better ventilation, defined smoking and non-smoking areas, but hey, that's democracy, not available in England, as we will find out when twenty thousand pub's close down and over a hundred bingo hall's, and hundreds of social club's, are forced to close. The goverment and the other parties to these draconian measures should hang their heads in shame. Harry Bradbury,St.Helens.

Why try to dilute the best and most popular legislation to be passed by Parliament in recent years. Smokers can't give a single valid reason as to why they should be allowed to poison all around then each time they satisfy their drug addiction. There appear to be only two diferenced between tobacco and cocaine adiction. One is legal and the other is not. Secondly one kills the user quicker than the other. Keep up the good work and ban smoking everywhere except private houses.