Ban not solely behind pubs’ woes
Friday 27th February 2009, 9:30AM GMT.
LETTER: In response to W F Kerswell’s letter re: Vanishing pubs (Shropshire Star, Feb 19). You fail to mention the current economic climate and the effect of supermarkets selling cheap alcohol.
Do these issues not factor heavily in the closure of some pubs too?
It seems all to easy for some people to place the blame squarely on the smoking ban. You quote figures highlighting the fact that tobacco sales have not reduced significantly since the ban came into force and state that little difference has been made by the ban.
Well I beg to differ. The health benefits of the smoking ban are phenomenal, and life saving in many circumstances.
These benefits may not be fully realised for many years to come, but if the smoking ban has encouraged people to give up smoking then this can only be a positive thing.
Think of how many lives will be saved by the reduction in smoking-related diseases. As to parents staying home and smoking in front of their children, this is not the fault of the ban.
The ban does not remove the person’s right to smoke, what it does do is try to protect the health of non-smokers. Those parents who smoke in front of their children choose to do so, and must take full responsibility for their actions.
They cannot claim ignorance. They know full well that smoking is harmful to health. The government is spot on with the smoking ban. We have to protect the right of the non-smoker.
I am a non-smoker and I don’t care if people smoke as long as they don’t do it around me or my child.
Julie Phillips
Horsehay
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The smoking ban has helped friends of mine give up, but hasn’t reduced the amount of time we spend in the pub. It’s also made us non smokers much more likely to go for a pint down our local. Smoking isn’t completely banned anyway, you can still go outside and most pubs have heaters and somewhere to sit.
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The smoking ban is an issue but what hasnt been mentioned is the legislation bought in during the 90′s which forced the breweries to sell many of their pubs.
This legislation resulted in the major breweries offloading all their pubs onto chains like Punch (whose own motives for buying the pubs were a little dubious IMO). The result is that no major brewer owns pubs within the uk.
The problem for the pub landlords was that the breweries then started heavily discounting their product through the supermarkets and as they weren’t buying their product at source any more they simply couldn’t compete on price.
So I suppose that my point is that the smoking ban has had a significant effect on trade, but rather than being the sole cause it is the final nail in the coffin for many pubs.
Even more worrying are the social problems caused by selling alcohol through supermarkets and increased drinking in the home. Pubs and the whole licensing system were created to restrict the use of alcohol to certain premises and only to people above a certain age. Alcohol sold through supermarkets is often stored uncontrolled in peoples homes resulting in underage drinking that has become such a significant problem.
This is an issue that should have been addressed by successive governments long ago but hasnt been, not helped by the fact that all the major political parties are in the pockets of the supermarkets and breweries!
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After over a year of experience here in Chicago, now that the fanfare has worn off and the lobbyists have moved on to other states, it’s clearly obvious that trying to ban smoking in small neighborhood “shot and beer” bars is pretty useless. Many small bars in my area ignore the ban to keep their customers, neighbors, and local police (many are patrons when off duty) satisfied. In areas where real crime is an issue, the problem of undesirables being attracted by groups of people outside the bars and causing disturbances on the PUBLIC street, property that the owner has no control over, far outweighs the issue of people peacefully smoking inside a bar, bothering absolutly no one, Bars ignoring the ban also result in fewer kids being exposed to more smoke than ever before at home when adults gather at their homes, instead of at a local bar. Having kids exposed to smoke at home just gives the ban fanatics a reason to want to ban smoking in private homes, which is already happening in California. Once started, these bans never stop.
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