Little Britain (5)
Monday, November 24, 2008 A reader writes:
"Where I live most people my age (between 15 and 25) are not going to pubs for a relaxing drink and a fag whilst chilling out, talking, having a laugh, meeting new folk. What these people are now doing (every night) is buying a crate of cheap booze from Asda and going to a mate's [where] they can drink and smoke lots of weed. It does not matter that they are underage as they are in a government free zone.
"Because of the smoking ban and the cost of beer in pubs, partying at home is a lot more attractive and fun. Very often drugs are in their plenty. What will these people turn into in the future? Hard addicts/ All this anti-smoking stuff is doing is encouraging young people to smoke weed at private parties where there are no rules or boundaries."
Comments welcome.
Reader Comments (11)
Absolutely, but our government don't see that do thay? So long as they are not on the streets making a nuisance of themselves and adding to the count of drunk and disorderly, they (the government) believe they are winning!
Would we really want to disillusion them?
I am sure that if the Govt was to find out about the partying habits of young people, they would ban it.
Smoking hash in a house, which is supplemented by cheap booze, gives the control freak policitians an excuse to send police into our homes to check up on us .... all in the name of good health obviously ...
I think the damage to society and culture has already been done. You cannot turn the tide back now. New habits, thanks to the smoking ban, are here to stay.
God help Britain and save us from the sanctimonious puritans.
You are wrong Pat, you should remember Winston Churchill's words:
"This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never in nothing, great or small, large or petty never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."
Harrow School, 29 October 1941
Sorry Peter but I have to agree with Pat.Even if the ban was amended or overturned the damage to the culture is irreparable. Smokers will not return to pubs in their droves, same as all the ashmatic anti smokers didn't fill our seats when we left.
Only last weekend my wife and I hosted a small party. It cost us in the region of £100 and we could smoke all we liked, didn't need to worry about a taxi queue, could talk to each other and hear what the other said etc.All concerned had a really good time and we have decided to make it a once a month event at someone's house. Had we gone out, we would have easily spent that and found ourselves with nowhere to sit, drinking overpriced beer, unable to hear yourself think, using toilets that a football stadium would be embarrassed about and then probably got mugged in the taxi queue after closing.
The publicans thought us smokers would take it lying down and either stop or stand outside freezing like a hillside lamb. They didn't care about us as they had been promised pubs full of families eating overpriced pies washed down with expensive wines and highly profitable soft drinks. It hasn't happened and the hens have come home to roost.
The ban should still go but if it does it is probably too late to change people's habits and the publicans will continue to go down the tube. With few exceptions, I have no sympathy.
As someone who is ambivalent about self control, I am the publicans dream customer. Drinking is a switch for me, on or off. Hence not too much self control. However because I could spend my time over drinking, my personal rule at home is that, unless I have company, I don't drink. I only break my rule 2-3 times a year. For example if I had a glass left over from the night before or someone is rash enough to give me a bottle of port for Christmas.
Recently on breast cancer awareness day I agreed to forfeit £50 if I smoked between 9 and 5. So if I put my mind to it I do have self control and this was hard.
Also my job in recruitment means I spend a lot of time entertaining and I spend a lot of time in licensed premises. Basically I only drink down the pub/wine bar. Working in the city of London I either grin and bear it or use my photographic memory to go to smoker friendly bars.
If they changed the smoking ban they would see an immediate increase in my custom along with many millions of other smokers in my opinion.
It all fits with my belief that if you take away responsibility from people, those people will inevitably become irresponsible. They will simply cease to be responsible members of society. They will leave the responsibility to those people - usually in government - who have arrogated it to themselves, and who spend their time telling other people not only how they should behave, but how they should also be 'more responsible'. For example:
Parents who allow their children to get drunk in the family home are "beyond irresponsible" and "failing in their duty of care", says one of Scotland's most senior police officers.
So the parents can no longer go down to their local pub for a pint and a cigarette, and must stay at home if they wish to do so. But they are now expected to tell their sons and daughters (who can't go to the pub either) that they mustn't touch alcohol or smoke cigarettes. This policeman is demanding that parents become policemen like him. An unpaid policemen to boot.
The nerve of it! The barefaced arrogance of these people!!
The publicans thought us smokers would take it lying down and either stop or stand outside freezing like a hillside lamb. - Michael Peoples
It is surprising how studiously indifferent most publicans have been to their smoking clientele. They were, after all, the ones who were most likely to suffer as these customers vanished. But most of them never lifted a finger to help their erstwhile customers. Nor have they offered any sympathy to them since the ban came into force.
I (used to) know the landlord of my local pub quite well. He was one of those people who announced he was going to stop smoking when the ban came into force. I think he must have succeeded in giving up, given that he's now put on quite a lot of weight. He put up a sort of pokey little tent outside as a sop to his smoking customers, in which about four people could sit rather uncomfortably. I never saw anyone sitting in it. It got taken down after a few months. I used to go to the pub every day, but since the ban I've only gone on warm sunny days. I've hardly seen him since the ban, and we speak even less. Yet he must know that he's losing customers like me. Perhaps he doesn't know what to say to me?
The last time I saw him was outside (as ever). He was staring at me a bit peculiarly. I wondered why. Then I realised that he'd been staring at the F2C "What Next?" badge I sported on my lapel. I can't think what else it could have been.
When the ban gets lifted, I'll be back. But it won't ever be quite the same, because I'll know that this pub landlord really doesn't give damn about me, or about any of his other customers, smoking or nonsmoking.
Amen, idlex. Here in the US, most bar owners didn't do half of what they could have to fight for their customers. I used to go to places that were filled with smokers (and be quite chummy with staff and owners ) and as the ban approached--nothing. Not a petition, not a notice with names and numbers of representatives, nada. One place even had a party the last night you could smoke. So it's a matter of complete indifference to me whether these establishments survive or not.
I fully agree with Michael, let the publicans rot. They have brought this on themselves and cpuld have formed a co-ordinated force to fight back. But No! My local ex-smokers pub is not prepared to put up a fight nor are the customers. So why do we bother with such apathy ?
The power is with the people and they are too thick to realise it.
Last year the EC allowed us to keep pounds and ounces 'to protect the nation’s “traditions, culture and lifestyle”. What about the pint with a fag?
Now that we are back in these "regretable recessionery times" as Mr Lansley puts it, I wonder will there be a shift back to reality and us smokers will be allowed back in out of the cold to drown our sorrows and shoot the breeze with the rest of our fellow human beings in the pub again. Just think of the impact it would save on the hospital services.