Rumour and reality
Friday, July 13, 2007 
Don't know how true this is (I am sceptical, to be honest), but we have received the following email:
"I spoke today with a lorry driver from Sheffield. He told me that most of the pubs in Sheffield have formed a pact to defy the ban and are so far getting away with it. This, if true, is the sort of lead that the rest of us need to follow. The trouble is, such defiance isn't being advertised. Publicans throughout the country feel alone and unprepared to stand up against a lost cause. If the level of defiance in Sheffield is as high as I've heard then the word must spread. If only every pub in Britain could band together, then the government would have to listen."
What we have to understand is that most publicans are neither for nor against smoking on their premises. They are businessmen who want to manage their businesses in the best way they can. What the majority want is a level playing field.
That's why the pub trade, when it was suggested that government might give local authorities the power to ban smoking on a borough by borough basis, lobbied for a national policy. Then, when it became clear that smoking was to be banned in every pub, they lobbied government to ban smoking in private members' clubs as well. (Choice? Don't make me laugh! They didn't want what they saw as unfair competition.)
Yes, there are individual publicans who are sympathetic to the plight of smokers and want to choose their own policy on smoking. But the only way that publicans will revolt - en masse - is if there is a dramatic, across-the-board slump in business as a direct result of the ban. And that will only happen if smokers desert pubs and bars in their droves. Some of you may be prepared to do that - but are hundreds of thousands of other people?
Many pubs will suffer from the ban and some will close, but others will see that as a business opportunity (a chance to pick up new customers). It's a cut-throat world and most of us are mere pawns in the game.
Reader Comments (51)
Yes Simon please answer those questions! A revolt in style? AKA ripping off smokers and tolerant nonsmokers? You make me want to puke!