So Wetherspoons is going non-smoking. An excellent idea, owners of private property deciding who may do what on such property. Two rather odd responses:
Deborah Arnott, the director of ASH, said the pub was
responding to customer demand. She said: "This is very encouraging news
and we’re sure that now Wetherspoon has set the trend, other pub chains
will soon follow suit. It shows that the Government has nothing to fear
from introducing legislation to make all pubs smoke-free.
"The
Government should respond to this development and revise its plans so
that all pubs become smoke-free along with all other workplaces."
Run that one by me again? Voluntary action in response to (assumed) customer demand shows that legislative enforcement is necessary? Have you been exposed to the pure air of logic recently dearie?
And the boss of the pub company:
Tim Martin, the company’s chairman, yesterday
criticised the Government’s proposals to restrict public smoking as not
going far enough.
He said: "The Government’s
approach to the issue of a smoking ban does not make sense since pubs
can get around it by giving up food sales. We believe the Wetherspoon
approach of a complete ban after a period of notice is the right one."
That’s the voice of a man who isn’t quite sure he has made the right decision. We’ve done it voluntarily so now the Govt must force everyone else to do the same. Wouldn’t want people competing with us now, would we?
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