Herefordshire licensee to defy ban

Oh, how I love reading all the sob stories from society's lonely outcasts. For years, smokers have made an utter nuisance of themselves. I don't feel sorry for them and I certainly won't miss them. Why do smokers all think they have the God given right to poison others with their noxious toxins? I enjoyed a few beers yesterday, celebrating the start of the ban. One or two 'faces' were missing but there were many more new faces. It was really nice to see families out with the children, enjoying a drink or two in the much improved atmosphere of the 'Local'. Smokers suck.

Tony,when the non smoking law was introduced here in 2003,we had a pub do the same thing as yourself but 2yrs down the track he was prosecuted,cost him $40,000 and now selling up with bugger all. We own a pub in Timaru NZ, food is big now if u have the opportunity,good luck from NZ.

i have read all the comments and must say a big thank you for all your support, for those who do not agree with me and think i am banging my head against a brick wall, here is the state of play Friday 29th June papers were served on the government in the high court in London and a full Judicial Review WILL be taking place. we have the evidence to prove that second hand smoke has never killed anyone, with this and Artical 1 & 8 of the human rights act we are told we cannot lose. we still need your support though, log on to www.freedom2choose.co.uk and send some money, every pound will make a difference. together we can win. thank you everyone. Tony Blows The Dog Inn

Good luck mate in your fight against the ban . I have massive respect for you. I work in my parents pub which they have run for the last 9 years. Because of the ban they have now given up their tenancy and will be leaving at the end of july. This is because of the smoking ban. The pub is a traditional boozers pub, we don't do food because we can't. The pub is not viable for a re-vamp as we have looked into refurbing as the kitchen we have so tiny. But we can't because of supporting walls. 98% of our customers are smokers. To add insult to injury we have no garden as we are on the street, slightly out of town and it is council ground right outside the pub door so we can't even provide a designated smoking area. With a pub that does not have food or smoking areas to fall back on , the pub is f****d. Therefore , my parents have worked their a**e off for nothing and will now be leaving with no job and a mortgage to pay. Its small pubs like these that will close because of the ban as people will go elsewhere with atleast a smoking area to go. The government should of given the rights to a smoking or non smoking pub to the owner/landlord. That way if people are aware that it is a smoking pub then the non smokers have the choice to go elsewhere if they so wish. It's an infringment on our rights. I thought we fought to be a free country and free citizens. They'll be banning cars next as fumes are far worse for us than cigarette smoke. I bet all these non smokers would laugh the other side of their face if they knew there car was to be taken away because it is causing all of us health problems. At then end of the day, isn't this what pubs are all about so the smoker can have somewhere to go to smoke?. Now people will be smoking at home around their kids a thousand times worse than now. They won't think its so good when the government taxes them more to cover losses!!! If the government is so worried abpout the effects of smoking why don't they just ban cigarettes altogether?? Surely, that would solve the problem? If they weren't provided in the first place we wouldn't be addicted!. But, they won't. WHY? Because they make too much money out of us smokers. The non smokers are all 'im so concerned for my health' blah blah blah but they are quite happy to sit their necking alcohol like there's no tomorrow. So, they are quite happy to damage their one liver but moan about smoke. HA what a laugh. Maybe the government should start banning indian and chinese takeaways too cos it adds to the problem of obesity and that costs the NHS alot more . For some people smoking is not a choice ;like everyone seems to think. It's an ADDICTION. And what help do we get? OH yeah thats it. NONE. Pay £20 for a box of patches (that don't work) or £10 for nicotine gum. If they made such items more affordable the country would have alot more non smokers anyway. They help drug addicts, they help obese people. ALL free on NHS. What more can I say? Oh hold on , yeah one more point. As we are enforced with this new law. the retailers even have to pay out their pocket for all the necessary signs to be put up in the pubs/restaurants etc.... provide the smoking areas etc..... where was the help from the government with these extra costs???? NOWHERE.

Brave but foolhardy. As a Publican in Ireland I witnessed a fellow Publican in Galway, in the west of Ireland, make a similar stand against the smoking-ban. He was crucified. Not only was he fined, he had the police on his premises night after night, regular visits from the Environmental Health Officer, and a visit from the Inland Revenue. My advice to Mr.Blows would be: GET PREPARED. Make arrangements for your smokers. You cannot win this battle on your own no matter how much you disagree with the ban. I know, I was that soldier. I, like Mr. Blows, had put everything into my pub, I was not going to stand by and let them take it away from me. I had just rebuilt my premises and installed $130,000 worth of ventilation equipment when they announced their intention to introduce the ban. I, along with a group of Publicans, spent the next year trying to fight against the ban. We lost. You have a business now Mr. Blows, if you try to fight this ban on your own you will be lucky to have a business in a years time. I wish you all the best of luck from tomorrow on. Get prepared and adapt. It's not easy, but it's the only way you will survive.

Let's face facts. Tony cannot defy the ban indefinitely. If the licenced trade had united in making a stand from the outset who knows? But it's too late now. Tony will survive the first year after the ban thanks to his customers' goodwill. In the second year he will struggle to pay his bills. Therafter his premises will become financially unviable. His customers will be drinking in each others' homes at supermarket prices. Tobacco sales, as in Ireland, will increase to accommodate this new trend. All in all a pointless exercise healthwise but it's the final nail in the coffin of the traditional British pub. Those of you who believe this is "a new opportunity" are fooling yourselves. The only winners will be the property developers who will soon be converting your pubs into flats.

All any building needs is a good fan extractor. You never see or smell smoke is a large bingo hall. I smoke but would not dream of smoking where people were eating, in a hospital etc If the goverment don't want us to smoke, close the factory's that make them, ban the shops from selling them, or will that lose them money to pay their wages. Cigarettes never caused a fight that I know of in a pub, they would be better if they stopped supermarkets from selling drink, then we wouldn't see so many drunken brawls on our streets. Keep the drink in the pubs.

Will join you on your fight to the most draconian law, when the law infringes the human rights of each individual to Smoke or Not 2smoke? It's my customers'choice, my choice if I want to allow smokers in or not? Should Gov want stop smoking, they should stop cigarettes'sales! I have enough of being an unpaid tax collector to implement such shameful law. Thay want the fags'profit, but now sold fags are to be smoked where the hell they tell us to do? Will fight in my human rights, as I have not entered in contract with gov by any means of signature or personal agreement. Let the lawyers deal with it... Adrian

We sympathise with him, but don't you think it is too little too late? The industry should have stood out long before now and lobbied against the ban. Most of our regulars are smokers. On average they spend far more per head than a non smoking family who are eating! The ban has put us in a situation where backing from our brewery meant we could have a shelter but the rent increase on the property made this unviable and we can not afford money up front to buy one! With the goverment spending millions of tax payers money to promote the ban and to give up smoking how would the NHS servive if all smokers give up? Why are the house of commons allowed to smoke? I wish him all the luck with his protest but I think he needs much more wide spread backing.

Will Mr Blowes will be quite so beligerent and obstinate when he gets a criminal conviction for allowing smoking in his bar. Following this he may well get a premises licence and personal licence review, If he is trying to maintain his livelyhood I can think of far better ways of doing so, making a smoking area or providing food, I wonder if he has thought of the alternatives or does he enjoy being a martyr to a lost cause?

I agree that it would have been a fairer deal to ask the public whether they wanted a smoking ban or not. It's a really good idea, but what if the majority was agianst smoking, then we would still be at a similar place now and people would still moan. At the end of it all, this ban is for the better in my opinion. I, myself smoked for 8 years and when I quit i never felt better, you will not see me picking up another fag again. For non-smokers it is not nice having to sit somewhere, where people are blowing fumes all around you, most parents do not like their children inhaling other peoples smoke either. I work in a very busy pub and we have a majority of smokers but even they are happy to go outside, seeing as though we have prepared and given them somewhere to go with a shelter and heat. So stop whining and if you want to damage your body with posionous fumes then do so, but you won't be damaging the rest of us anymore!

I agree that it would have been a fairer deal to ask the public whether they wanted a smoking ban or not. It's a really good idea, but what if the majority was agianst smoking, then we would still be at a similar place now and people would still moan. At the end of it all, this ban is for the better in my opinion. I, myself smoked for 8 years and when I quit i never felt better, you will not see me picking up another fag again. For non-smokers it is not nice having to sit somewhere, where people are blowing fumes all around you, most parents do not like their children inhaling other peoples smoke either. I work in a very busy pub and we have a majority of smokers but even they are happy to go outside, seeing as though we have prepared and given them somewhere to go with a shelter and heat. So stop whining and if you want to damage your body with posionous fumes then do so, but you won't be damaging the rest of us anymore!

I took over a pub in Reading last February and immediately made it no smoking. In five months we have had no complaints about the ban. We have, however, had plenty of complements about the quality of the air, (even from smokers).

As a licensee for the last 15 years I see your point but we have to move with the times and our customers may last longer.......! if they didn't smoke passively or otherwise.

I am generally in favour of the smoking ban but I do believe that people have a right to test laws such as this. This is how case law comes into being and sets legal precedents. I would therefore defend the actions of Mr Blows and would add that he desrves our respect for taking such great risks in pursuit of a judicial review of this law, which after all amounts to a major shift in the British cultural landscape.

An alternative to smoking bans If the public was honestly and truthfully informed about the effects of second-hand smoke, there would be fewer no-smoking laws in this country. There has never been a single study showing that exposure to the low levels of smoke found in bars and restaurants with decent modern ventilation and filtration systems kills or harms anyone. As to the annoyance of smoking, a compromise between smokers and non-smokers can be reached, through setting a quality standard and the use of modern ventilation technology. Air ventilation can easily create a comfortable environment that removes not just passive smoke, but also and especially the potentially serious contaminants that are independent from smoking. Thomas Laprade Thunder Bay, Ont.

Tony Blows could be one of the few English Patriots left. When the police come to get him his pub should be surrounded by thousands of Englishmen who cherish their personal freedoms. Smoking bans are a symptom of the problem.

I support Tony's campaign in principle in the sense that a public house is in essence not a public place but a private residence. However the law is the law even if we do not agree with it. I think the solution is to work within the law and work out a solution that suits everyone. Sometimes being a martyr is just not worth it. Think about it Tony, you can't continue to run your pub behind bars!

good on you mate its about time somebody had the bottle to stand up to the government.the eu countries have ignored this,there should have been some choice whether you were a smoking pub or non smoking pub then everybody had the choice

Good on you. I certainly hope more will do so as well. This is just yet another money making scam of the governement, who are targeting normal law abiding citizens rather than dealing with real crime. Russia took its iron curtain down while britain is putting one up, all be it an invisible and were being treated like prisoners and criminals. It is time we fought back and took our rights back, this definately breaches our human rights and ill support any campaign and demonstartion that will put an end to this.

Good for Tony! Anyone who thinks a law like this will be changed or amanded by the ploiticians needs to grow up big time. Tony has the courage of his convictions and the will to stand firm.

I totaly agree with Ewyas Harold's statement. I just wish I was as strong as him and could stand up for myself to the goverment. 5 Stars to Ewyas , I and all my staff wish you well. If you get a fine, register your email with pay pal and I and maybe others will send you something. Good Luck--Ewyas, I wish I had the GUTS.

Does Mr Blows also disagree with the drink driving limits law and feel they have contributed to the demise of out of town pubs? Would he campaign agaist those. If he encourages the breaking of the law his licence should be in jeopardy, along with an automatic fine for each law breaking occasion AS WELL AS the fine that each lawbreaking customer will face. After a few fines it will become an expensive outing to the pub and certainly drive the offenders away

Does Mr Blows also disagree with the drink driving limits law and feel they have contributed to the demise of out of town pubs? Would he campaign agaist those. If he encourages the breaking of the law his licence should be in jeopardy, along with an automatic fine for each law breaking occasion AS WELL AS the fine that each lawbreaking customer will face. After a few fines it will become an expensive outing to the pub and certainly drive the offenders away

100,000 dead people a year cannot be wrong (or ignored) and the 80% of people who don't smoke represent a MUCH bigger opportunity. Work on that new audience and thrive, ignore it and go bust (or in your case to Jail) There's not much I like about this Government but a smoking ban is right.

I am not a smoker but do have 3 licenced premises which do have 50% smoking custom. I feel that we should be as fair to the smoker as we are to be to the non smoker and should have had the chance to seperate areas inside the pub if the premises were suited and resort to out side if they are not. No one should be able to tell people what they can or cant do in this respect.

The spanish uptake what laws suit them if we accept the dragonian methods of this government who probably wont be there next election, i hope!!!!! we might as well commit hari kari and do their job for them. Disgusted of spain

This is all we need a few rebels who think they can flout the law. Sorry, but you must remember that the MAJORITY of people in this country do not smoke and they wanted the right to sit in a decent atmosphere to have meals and have convivial conversation with friends. this is a rather late amd quite frankly, rediculous kick against democracy, and illustrates the problems with the trade in certain areas. You have to change and that is all there is to it, sorry, the law is the law now.

He does right, why should smokers be punnished,a public house has always had a smoke room, and just imagine if all smokers stopped smoking look at the tax the government would loose,we all know what that meanshigher income tax,. GOOD LUCK TO HIM,

I completely agree and admire your attempt to fight the ban. I am originally from scotland wherethe ban has already been enforced and i must admit the trade has suffered particularly in towns where there are other places to drink that cater for smokers. I have worked in pubs in worcester for the last couple of years and am pleased i am no longer running the pub i was at as we would surely have closed within the year. Unfortunately i cannot see any way through the ban and traders will suffer. It's discrimination to the freeholders and tradition.

I AGREE THE SMOKING BAN IS DRACONIAN AND I SHALL ADVISE CUSTOMERS OF THE SO CALLED BAN HOWEVER I WILL NOT FORCE THEM OUT INTO THE RAIN AND EXHAUST FUMES ESPECIALY THE DISABLED ONES, I DONT LIKE CONFRONTATION AND I AM NOT A POLICE OFFICER ITS BAD ENOUGH BEING AN UNPAID TAX COLLECTOR!

There's comment about lobbying MP's to change the law. Dare I ask, has anyone tried? I emailed my MP and got a reply back that the law on smoking was now basically set in stone. It was not until the current week that I saw he voted for the ban! With respect MP's do NOT serve their community but themselves. Few have shown that comment of mine not to be valid. I would add that the smoking ban is a law no ordinary mortal had a say in. I was never asked by anyone what I thought and not a single person I've spoken to has either. However remember that the smoking ban is not applicable to the House of Commons bar where our respected MP's congregate! Michael

Good for Tony Blows,it's a shame we aren't all as brave as him.This government needs reminding this is suppose to be a free country not a nanny state.I am sick of this country and I blame it all on Blair and his cronies.

we all disagree with certain laws but we have to do what the law says, but hey enjoy the publicity you will get. good luck Lawrence Levenshulme Pub Co Ltd Manchester

The man is a hero! I am sick and tired of this government sitting on their backsides telling us what we can and can't do when they can't even manage to stop people coming out of hospitals with more diseases than they went in with. The market would in time naturally provide non smoking pubs where profitable. Enough of the nanny state!

Good luck on defying the ban. How about testing a technicality - if you don't employ any staff i.e. you are self employed and the ban is for smoking in the workplace - so if you don't employ anyone on a particular shift you shouldn't have to comply with the ban. It is workplace and public places - and a pub is NOT a public place. It is a private house Licensed for the sale of alcohol to the public - big difference! Good luck.

I thought this issue was dead and buried - if I was having a bad day I'd say stop wasting our time with publicity stunts like this. Evidence form Scotland says that 1000's of pubs don't close. I live in a village and people can't wait for the Crown to be smoke-free so they can start going in there during the winter months. Currently the faggers are putting them off. When the gentleman says 95% of his customers are smokers I believe him. He's clearly set out his stall for a niche market that's in decline. In fact, the other 5% must have a massive drink problem to still be going in there and feeling their way to the bar.

It's a brave stand to make and wish him luck with it. I do beleive however that it would have been more effective if the licensed trade had fought a bit harder last year before the Government finalised the ban.

Well done, it's nice to see that at least one licensee has the guts to stand up to this stupid law. If customers do not like the smoking in his outlet then let them move on to an outlet that does not allow smoking. It's that simple.

Brilliant, tell everyone you are going to flout a criminal law. This is just fuel for a licence review!!!

Many are against this law, however we have to obey. In future if the government wish to impliment laws which have a direct impact on the general public then why not let the general public vote. After all the government is supposed to be our servants so serve us well and listen to our opinions and let us decide what we want in our Pubs & Clubs

This landlord has my deepest sympathy and it just shows how stupid this law is. If 95% of his customers are smokers he should be able to ask the other 5% to either go outside or go to another pub . I,d like to see a lot of these lot in government try to earn a living running a business

Listen up Sir! You WILL abide by the law just like the rest of us. You surely cannot think you can win this one!

I've yet to meet a publican who is in favour of this scandalous legislation. It is right that non-smokers should have smoke free pubs - but all of them? It's his property, his business and his rights that have been taken away. I'm not surprised he's making a stand, good luck to him.

Fair play for standing up for what you believe in but its catch 22, if you allow people to smoke in your pub after the ban the council will only fine you and your customers, so you will lose what you have worked for and your customers will have no money to spend. If you go with the new laws you will lose custom and everything you worked for. I really feel for all involved. It's a no win situation, fingers crossed all the non-smokers are binge drinkers and they will keep the pubs going lol keep your chins up.

To keep within the legislation all Tony is required to do is to make customers aware of the law. When challenged by the EH Officers, he can clearly go to court and state that he did his duty within the law by advising the customer/s of its existance.

You can't pick and choose which laws you agree with and those that you don't. I don't agree with a 70mph limit on motorways, but if I got caught speeding I don't think the police or the courts would accept that as a defence. If you don't like any law, then contact your MP and campaign to get it changed. Until then, grow up and obey it.

A noble attempt at fighting a cause, but instead of concentrating on causing more problems, it would be far better to seek a solution by creating a facility for the smokers.