We should ban people from smoking in public

Back in 2007 it was made illegal to smoke in enclosed public spaces such as a restaurant...

But I still walk down the street and get met by a massive puff of smoke from someone in front of me.

Not "but“ but "because", the effect of the smoking ban was to push smokers out onto the streets that sensibly can be described as public spaces.

The markets might have been allowed to sort this one out. In any sizeable city I can find a pool bar, an Oirish bar, a titty bar. If there really had been demand for non-smoking pubs prior to the general ban, the market would have satisfied that want.

I'm at least as bothered by dog poo, cat pee, and exhaust fumes. But since that is "not very much" I don't piss and moan the while.

The market clearly wasn't. Most pubs were full of smoke. Not good for the staff working there. I would have still gone in the things due to peer pressure etc and second hand smoke on that scale on a regular basis is harmful. You can just go smoke outside.

I had meant ”the market would have met the demand for that", this in the same way that it met perceived demands for quiz nights and karaoke and pool tables and servers with big boobs. If there had been millions of people up and down the nation wanting smoke-free pubs there'd have been at least one on every high street just because there was a quid in it.

I still walk down the street and get met by a massive puff of smoke from someone in front of me. I don't think I should have to put up with that and just let these toxins enter my body unwillingly.

Do you think a complete no public smoking ban would be implemented? Would you agree with it?

Why is a pub goign to ban smoking inside it when it thinks that will drive away customers?

this rather misses the point. If there really are a lot of people who don't like smoking in any shared space, then why weren't there non-smoking pubs and clubs catering to them before the ban? It only looks as if landlords missed a massive opportunity to make their pubs unusually attractive to some large proportion of the population. "Oh, we were putting on ceilidhs and steampunk evenings and ghost walks and christ knows what else but it never occurred to us to do that".

I sensibly wonder about the extent to which the agenda is set by a smallish but noisy special interest group.

Oh, also something else to add I thought of.

If one pub bans smoking, smokers may leave to rivals who allow smoking. That wont happen if all pubs have smoking banned since the state has forced them too. The market may well make it harder for an ethical pup owner concerned about the effetc of second hand smoking in his pub on staff and customers alike to scared to actually implement a ban. But he can now do so sicne the state has regulated the market.

and if I don't like karaoke, and I don't, then I will eschew The Crown for The Mitre. But the landlord at The Crown doesn't have to worry about that, just as long as he's content that it'll bring in more custom than it costs him. All of these special interest groups got their needs catered to because landlords saw them as really existing and willing to vote with feet and pocketbooks. But the anti-smokers needed state intervention.

Sorry job center people and Iain Duncan Smith. I don;t want to work in that pub even though I really need the money since I am worrying about intense second hand smoke effecting my health. What? You are cutting my benefits for turning down a job offer? You are now mkaing me work for nothing in a smoke heavy environment. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

One of the flaws in "market god fixes all" is that it doesn't even apply to workers who for all intents and purposes may have very little choice in working in a smoke heavy environment. If you got a massive army of unemployed people all desperate for jobs no one has to change. Why is a pub goign to ban smoking inside it when it thinks that will drive away customers? Sod the bar staff, they can just get cancer and if they don;t like it I can just hire someone else. The blindly obvious solution is to just make it illegal for people to smoke inside offices or pubs. Don;t see how it is any different from all the laws that ensure people work in safe as possible and clean working environments. To hell with you "libertarians"

Another typical statist wanting the government to solve all their problems.

The smoking ban has crippled the pub industry and probably cost a lot of jobs too.

http://www.iea.org.uk/blog/is-the-smoking-ban-to-blame-for-the-high-rate-of-pub-closures

Also the risk of 2nd hand smoke is grossly overstated.

and there can never be any negative connotations to that mentality, ever. It also leaves no consideration for the workers and you dleibetly chose an issue that isn't not physically harmful like them breathing in carcinogenic substances. But it's fine, you libertarians are known for your sympathy to let people sit on benefits and refuse to work whilst looking for a better non carcinogenic job and totally wouldn't want to give people the chpioce between working in a carcinogenic environment or starving to death ¬¬

I give up, it's like talking to a brick wall.