Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Huge wrote:
Which suggests there was no real call for the smoking ban in pubs.
There were non smoking pubs before the ban - and if they'd been a
commercial success others would have followed suit.

What baffles me is that the non-smoking pubs I know of *were* a huge
commercial success.

It shouldn't be baffling anyone given it's said to be what the
majority wanted. But the truth of the matter is the trade has
suffered from the smoking ban.


I'm not sure that you are right about this. A close relative of mine has
approx. 10 pubs that are a complete mix between town centre, neighbourhood
and country pubs. There has been a fall off in trade at some of the "working
mens" town pubs whilst others in town centres have seen an increase in trade
through the ban - though a change in customers so that Barrelage has
declined though patrons use the pub throughout the day for feeding and
dropping in for a wine/ cup of coffee. Yes, the market has changed but not
sure yet whether there will be a longterm loss. I type as a smoker who
visits pubs far less frequently as a result of the ban.

If you do a search you will find that one of the locations worst hit have
been Bingo Halls and curiously cinemas that were just viable as a result of
the attached Bingo Halls, mostly in small towns, though not all. Did you see
the TV programme about "The Crinkles", not sure that was the right name but
the elderly folk who had a hit with the Who tune which showed how the loss
of a Bingo Hall was a sercious demise for folk who used as a social centre
somewhere in the middle of London? Though I do not go to the cinema or have
ever entered a Bingo Hall, I think that these are significant social losses.