http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Sun, 15 Apr 2007 11:41:55 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/10/26/121110.php#comment-576604 sorry for double posting. Dodgy key! 576604@blogcritics.org Sun, 15 Apr 2007 11:41:55 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/10/26/121110.php#comment-576603 I come from Scotland, where a total ban on smoking in ALL public and work places has been in effect for about a year now. Please remember that Britain is not as egalitarian as the US and while the ban was welcomed by the health-conscious middle class - in Scotland most smokers are working class and the pubs they go to are not and never have been frequented by the middle classes.So their right to clean air was not infringed. Trendy, up-market places like wine bars have been mostly smoke free for years as have concert halls, cinemas and restaurants. Plenty of choice for the non-smoker. As one of the more thoughtful anti-smokers said - "I suppose we should really start going to pubs now that we've had them made the way we want them." And there lies the rub. They won't. They won't rush from their offices to the working men's pubs after close of business. So all that's happened is that one group in society has succeeded in banning smoking in places that they don't go to anyway. I've no doubt that they would argue that it's for the greater good of the country but at the least it seems patronising (and typically class-ridden British) that the working class have now been told that they can't have a beer and a cigarette 'for their own good'. 576603@blogcritics.org Sun, 15 Apr 2007 11:39:40 EDT