"Smoking research centres" stubbed out
Monday, May 18, 2009 As you probably know, landlady Kerry Fenton has been forced to close the smoking room in the Cutting Edge pub in Barnsley. Time has also been called on The Sheaf in Sheffield. It was fun while it lasted but the outcome was inevitable, I'm afraid.
I don't mind admitting that after visiting the Cutting Edge last Wednesday I felt a bit uneasy. I was particularly concerned about the advice that Kerry was getting from outsiders with no legal expertise and no financial stake in her business. It's easy to egg people on or jump on the bandwagon when there's no risk to you personally.
The story certainly got people talking (and cheering), but campaigners have a duty of care to the likes of Kerry Fenton. I got the impression that she was dancing to someone else's tune and events were spiralling out of her control.
Had she continued with her protest I imagine that Kerry would have been in breach of contract and the pubco could have stepped in and forced her out. Some of you may be disappointed that she has backed down, but having made a well-publicised point at least she survives to fight another day.
PS. Kerry has agreed to support our campaign to amend the smoking ban. We'll be announcing details of the campaign launch very soon.
Reader Comments (9)
As I said in an earlier post, it is shameful that Punch Inns, or whatever they are called, were not prepared to back Kerry on this, the same as it is totally shameful that no pubcos have supported their pub trade, tenants or employees.
One can only assume that for the pubcos, somehow the pub trade is a legitimate loss leader and they are making their money elsewhere!
Talk about rats and sinking ships!
I agree with you Simon, regarding other people egging the likes of Kerry on. I spoke , only yesterday, to a couple of people I know who are in extreme debt, and gave them the same advice. It seems that they had been getting advice from all these armchair generals as to what they should and should not do. I told them to go to the CAB for free legal advice before contemplating anything drastic. Hopefully they will do this instead of following half the rubbish which people tell them.
Getting back to Kerry and the predicament she and thousands of other publicans are now finding themselves in, don't you think it is time that Forest carried out a nation-wide poll of all the pubs in Britain, and asked them how the ban is effecting them?
Surely this would be marvellous ammunition to not only bombard the government with, but to also publicise our cause, and justify the action of individual publicans like Kerry?
I cheered her on. I believe it was right to do so. I also tempered my praise for her actions with a warning that the Righteous would be along quick smart to end the fun. And so it came to pass.
The one proviso is that the licensee is acting in the full knowledge of what they are attempting and coercion has no part to play when challenging the statute. I heard the lady speak. From where I was sat it didn't look like anyone was pulling her strings. She comes across as intelligent and determined. I would not have said someone was yanking her chain.
As campaigners we are also obliged to challenge this statute at every turn. Whether you agree or disagree, this nonsensical ban will only ever be killed in a court of law. Most MPs are are spineless, greedy, amoral creatures, as evidenced by the latest furore over their troughing. There is no help to be had there.
In the right circumstances, with the right case, in front of a judge with a brain, this madness can and will end.
Glad to here that the amend the ban campaign is up and coming!!
I don't agree with the majority. The law will only be changed by a large number of actions similar to the one Mrs Kerry took. Reason has achieved nothing and is unlikely to in the future. Don't you think we would have had a different hunting ban were it not for the marches and the invasion of Parliament?
http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=77313436234&h=txQe1&u=hnM3p
This is a link to a UKIP petition to save UK pubs by taking such measures as amending the ban. It might just be another drop in the water thing that'll go un-noticed and ineffectual, but if you want to cause waves you've got to work at it!!!!!
Kerry Fenton has shown the way, what we need is research centres in every pub and club in the uk (where building structure and layout permit).
It seems that Big Brother isn't too keen on research centres based in pubs, or so they say. I wonder if they would have objected so strongly, if the research being carried out, was based upon something other than smoking? How much can a person drink before they fall flat on their face, or maybe working out if the average customer prefers fatty foods or organic foods?
But, I have another idea, which any pub in the country could do, and I am 99% sure that it is legal.
I have been reading about a spate of low budget movies which are being taken up by distributors, and some are even getting a screening at the forthcoming Cannes Festival. And when I say low budget I mean it, the one that is attracting a great deal of attention, cost just £40 and that is true.
So now imagine Kerry Fenton decides to make her own low budget movie, right there in her pub. All she needs is a cheap video camera. She then sticks a blackboard outside the pub, appealing for extras in her new movie, which is about how life to be in an ordinary pub before the smoking ban.
Filming will take place 2 or 3 days a week, or whatever she decides, during normal pub hours, and the extras will not get paid and will have to pay for their own food and drink.
A little bit of filming every now and then, and the project is under way. It's realism dahling!
Don't forget that they did try to ban smoking on film sets, but it never got passed, so Kerry's pub-set is a perfectly legal place to do this.
OK - Lights - Camera - Action......
No amend the ban thank-you...a complete reversal is called for......There is no conceivable reason why smoking should be proscribed anywhere (except petro-chemical works)