The smoking ban is so right on many levels but for people like this to lose their livelihood is so wrong.

I wish someone could find a workable compromise.

Well all i can say is if the business relied on people smoking it couldnt have been a good business? maybe if the landlord had put food on and other alternatives to "smoking" he would still be in business ,other pubs are all ok,in fact a lot of pubs have said they have got more customers.

Yes people need a place to meet and socialise, especially familys with children and going to smoke filled pubs isnt a good place to meet for children, I think the smoking ban is an exellent idea and pubs should provide options to eat food, other social enterprises could stem from pubs and time and energy should be put into these places.

Whats wrong with letting people smoke if people know its a smoking pub then I don't see the problem because it comes down to choice but alas the no smokers tend to be very arrogant

So this Landlord would have us believe that people have stopped drinking because they can't smoke in his pub. Sorry, I dont buy that excuse.

John, Salford

What about any bar staff's right to work in a smoke free atmosphere or are you saying it would be alright to discriminate against a non-smoker who applied for a bar job at a smoking pub? You see where all this goes? So don't call non-smokers arrogant. After all, no-one is born with a fag between their lips.

Governments already have immense power over the way we live.

If we give them 'carte blanche' to decide what is good or not good for us, think of the unbearable consequences.

We already have 'politically correct' nutcases telling us
how we should express ourselves in our native tongue. What next? Thought police?

I am a non smoker but if someone wants a 'fag' then places ahould be provided for them to have one.
Just like the the ones that are provided for us to ruin our health with 'booze'.

The arrogance of some of the ban supporters is staggering, particularly when they say things like “Sorry, I dont buy that excuse”, “I think the smoking ban is an exellent idea and pubs should provide options to eat food” or “if the business relied on people smoking it couldnt have been a good business”. Nobody ever insisted that all pubs had to allow smoking (anymore than we insist non-smokers learn spelling and grammar). There have, for a long time, been family friendly non-smoking eating establishments. Alongside these have been, until now, traditional pubs offering drinking, smoking and a convivial atmosphere for adults to socialise in. The latter are being destroyed by this ban, which is proving divisive as smokers are forced outside. Of course many people will stop going to a pub or at best cut down if you make it uncomfortable for them. The inevitable result is that businesses catering for such a market will struggle and some will fold. It is unrealistic to expect all pubs to transform into Happy Harvesters and intolerant to presume that is what the smoking public as well as many tolerant non-smokers want. The smoking ban is destructive of businesses, jobs, the traditional pub and ultimately of social cohesion. To cap it all it is based on a serious misrepresentation of a risk from passive smoking that is scientifically insignificant. The truth is that some people reasonably dislike smoky environments but to impose that on all is puritanical nonsense.

well thats a shame...the world changes, people must adapt, and if they can't they fail..the smoking ban is far more important than the woes of a few working class smoker-dominated pubs.

Finally evidence that the PC Lunatic Nazi's are really running the asylum! This I'm afraid is just the tip of the iceberg ... But it won't stop here, the net will be widened Alcohol (already due for Red, Amber and Green warnings) will be followed by Dairy ... This madness will know no end.

Non smokers - I'm guessing that you Drive, are proud and take pleasure in your cubes of death? Have you given a thought for the toxins that you spew with every mile travelled? I bet you haven't, yet you vomit forth the anti smoking / passive smoking propaganda as though it were the new testament ... Get real folks, our leadership, voted in by morons, are hell bent on control ... By the time our world is made totally "safe" and wrapped in cotton wool, it will be too late, maybe then you'll realise the freedom and toleration that once existed!

So banning smoking in all pubs is more important than a pub owner trying to make a living by owning a pub where the majority of the customers are smokers? The more customers, the more money the pub owner makes. I wonder how come people in the UK never opened up smoke-free pubs before the smoking ban ever started over there. The way I see it, if a smokey pub is so much of a big issue, then someone should've opened up a smoke-free pub. Instead of forcing all pubs to become smoke-free with a smoking ban.

and no doubt many more will follow. Thank you health fascists.

I cannot for the life of me, understand why some non-smokers are so vehemently against people having a smoke in their own environment. I go as far as not wanting to breathe in other peoples' smoke, as I am a non-smoker myself. But I do not agree with a total ban, nor the arrogance of wanting to dictate to others. Mind you, we certainly have the Government that is becoming more and more dictatorial, so it's easy to see who's voting for them.

Unfortunately our Isles of Britain are no longer ruled by the 'natives'. The no smoking directive has been forced upon us by the EU, even Southern Ireland has been no smoking for a couple of years. WAKE UP Britain, we are no longer a Sovereign Nation, open your eyes and ears and mouths.

Did you not realise that political correctness was the first step in silencing a nation before the communist ideals could take root, leaving us steaming with rage on the inside and holding our tongues.

PW, it's because they are fascists. The next move (already being muted) will be telling you how many drinks you can have, then you will have calories tokens to tell you how much food you can have.

We are a nation on the verge of subjugation by a group of people who think they know better than you what is good for you. Once they have stopped you smoking, drinking and eating the 'wrong' thing, you will find yourselves being given drugs to keep you happy, asleep, awake etc etc to suit the totalitarian regime that will eventually take over.

Think I'm joking?

going out has become a nightmare as a non smoker Im the one that now gets lumbered with Cath and Charleys clobber every 10 minutes

Mat Wright, perhaps you should have campaigned harder against the smoking ban.

VIVE LA FRANCE. The french have totally ignored the smoking ban, so should we!
I know of a couple of enterprising publicans that roll out the ashtrays after last orders.

Let all the pubs and clubs close as soon as possible..It wont worry me..ill still smoke at home..and with a pint too..its you antismoker lot that are losing your Leisure facilities..you wanted hatred and spite in society..well now youve got it.i hope youre happy.