September 18, 2006

Smoking Ban...6 months on


These signs are up at the airport and railway station greeting visitors as they arrive in Scotland. The smoking ban has been in place now for 6 months and is working very well. Admittedly there have been winners and losers. Pubs serving food have seen takings increase substantially while some pubs whose customers are mainly old men have lost money or closed. Many however have been taken over and given a new lease of life. One spit and sawdust old man's pub near me, The Old Salt, closed in the summer. It re-opened three weeks ago as Destination, a drag-queen gay cabaret bar! Quite a transformation!

4 comments:

Sarah said...

Wow! That certainly makes me feel like I was there so long ago...with everyone smoking inside the Blue Blazer. Hope the ban isn't hurting too many businesses, and they learn to open beer gardens outside a la Ireland.

An Honest Man said...

Mind you, negotiating past the clouds of smoke outside the main doors of pubs is a new hazard.

Zannnie said...

in Singapore, we recently had banned smoking outdoors too. only designated smoking areas allowed smokers to smoke. :D wonder when we will be a smoke-free Singapore

http://singapourdailyphoto.blogspot.com/

G Fraser said...

banning smoking outdoors would be amazing, but can't see our government being quite that draconian! As Bill says, you have to walk through a fug of smoke to get into the pubs now, but what a difference it makes.