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Originally Posted by Graham
How many people are actually smoking in a pub at any one time? Maybe 20%? So why should a minority get a majority or even an equal share?
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There may only be 20% smoking at any one time but the chances are that the ones that are smoking are in the company of others who are not and that the total number of customers who are in groups which include a smoker is a majority of the customers present. Would you expect a group of half a dozen customers to all nip outside if one of them wanted a fag?
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Originally Posted by Graham
From a purely economic point of view, if *only* you ban it from your establishment, you will probably lose custom to the place that doesn't, so you're less likely to ban it because of that, Catch 22.
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I would imagine that pub landlords, being businessmen trying to maximise their profits, have weighed up the consequences of being a non-smoking pub, a zoned smoking pub or a fully smoking pub. The answer being that the pub becomes what its customers want it to be. If the majority of people prefer a non smoking pub and only frequent such pubs then you would find that most pubs will become non smoking. The fact that they don't must tell you something.
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Originally Posted by Graham
You know damn well that I do believe in freedom of choice. But I am *NOT* free to enjoy a pub where some people are smoking and I am not protected from their smoke.
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But you are free to enjoy pubs that do not allow smoking whereas smokers are not free to enjoy them. Smokers can use these non smoking pubs but may not enjoy the experience as much as they would in a smoking pub.
Be honest, how much of your life is spent in pubs and how much of that time is spoiled by smokers being present. Many non smokers complain about smoking when they see a cigarette even though they cannot smell it or there is none of the smoke entering their lungs. I have had people ask me to refrain from smoking because the smoke is affecting them when all I have had is an unlit cigarette in my hand with no intention of lighting it.