Lack of public support for smokers may come back to haunt the pub industry
Thursday, September 24, 2020 at 14:45 I wish I could feel more strongly about the impact the government's ever-changing coronavirus policy may have on Britain's pubs.
Don't get me wrong. I feel very sorry for the many publicans who have done their best to accommodate smokers in relative comfort with outdoor seating areas, heaters and so on, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of staff who may lose their jobs.
Nevertheless I can't forgive or forget the way the pub industry abandoned smokers both before and after the smoking ban.
'Save Our Pubs & Clubs', Forest's two-year campaign to amend the smoking ban to allow designated smoking rooms, did attract support from individual publicans – some of who attended an event at the House of Commons in 2011 when we lobbied MPs – but the trade bodies kept well away.
Nor were the breweries any more helpful.
When we launched the campaign in a Westminster pub in 2009, the owners (a well-known brewery) were firm that neither the pub nor the brewery should be identified in any press photos.
At least they allowed us to use the pub for the launch. Another brewery-owned pub flatly refused.
Prior to the smoking ban it was estimated that up to 47 per cent of regular pub goers were smokers. Where are they now?
Some quit smoking, others were content to smoke outside. But many more stopped going to the pub which, combined with other factors, led to the closure of thousands of pubs and bars.
Yet when the impact of the ban (on urban inner city pubs in particular) was clear to see the pub industry did nothing.
Today most people in the hospitality industry still look the other way, even when outdoor smoking areas are under threat.
The Government may have been persuaded not to ban smoking in the new licensed pavement areas introduced as part of the Business and Planning Bill in July, but no thanks to the various trade bodies.
Were they lobbying the government behind the scenes? I'd like to think so but I've seen no evidence of it.
As for all those 'save the pub' type campaigns, don't get me started. We did cajole one group to give us a statement opposing a ban on smoking in the new pavement areas but it was like pulling teeth.
We had the same problem when we hosted a webinar to discuss Boris's claim that it was a "patriotic duty" to support the pub. We invited several people from the pub industry to speak but none was willing or available to take part.
Of course I don't really want thousands of pubs to close – pubs, after all, are one of the few places smokers can still light up (albeit outside) with relative impunity. I also think Britain's pubs are an institution worth saving even if, in reality, many are pretty grotty.
But how many of Britain's seven million smokers (six million if you believe ASH) are going to continue to support Britain's pubs in the current emergency when they are treated by many publicans (and the industry as a whole) as an inconvenience to be tolerated rather than actively welcomed?
Reader Comments (4)
Before the ban, I used to watch these types talk themselves out of a job.
Hamish Champ: Ironically, belligerent smokers are helping to close pubs
23-Mar-2009 By Hamish Champ
I read some of the comments appended to Pete Robinson's recent blog on minimum pricing and Chris Maclean's latest thoughts on the smoking ban with interest that bordered on incredulity."
https://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Article/2009/03/23/Hamish-Champ-Ironically-belligerent-smokers-are-helping-to-close-pubs
Well I’ve just come back from Spain after being stuck there for six month, all was fine down there until they brought in their no smoking rule for the outside terraces and tables with the pretence that it helped to stop the COVID. Now I am back in the U.K. I will revert to not using pubs because of their blind obedience of the smoking ban, which I have been doing since the start of the smoking ban. Especially when the weather is foul, which it can be in the U.K. for the whole year. It is a lot more pleasant to drink at home where I can smoke along with my pint without any sheepie telling me I cannot do this.
"Nevertheless I can't forgive or forget the way the pub industry abandoned smokers both before and after the smoking ban."
Don't forget that they had been previously threatened by ASH, Simon.
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ASH and Thompsons’ Tell Employers:
Don’t Say You Weren’t Warned Over Secondhand Smoke
12th January 2004
"The hospitality trade faces a rising threat of legal action from employees whose health is damaged by secondhand smoke, after a new tie-up between health campaigning charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and the UK’s largest personal injury and trade union law firm Thompsons was announced today.
ASH has sent a registered letter to all the UK’s leading hospitality trade employers, warning them that the “date of guilty knowledge” under the Health and Safety at Work Act is now past, and that employers should therefore know of the risks of exposing their staff to secondhand smoke. Employers who continue to permit smoking in the workplace are therefore likely to be held liable by the courts for any health damage caused. ASH and Thompsons intend to use the letters in any future court cases as evidence that employers have been fully informed of the issue."
https://ash.org.uk/media-and-news/press-releases-media-and-news/ash-and-thompsons-tell-employers-dont-say-you-werent-warned-over-secondhand-smoke/
They must have been scared stiff.
The hospitality industry has been intimidated by the tobacco control interests, such as ASH. It is imperative that the hospitality industry be given alternative information to help protect their interests and the interests of smokers. The tobacco control industry has a single goal—eradicating smoking. They have no interest in accommodating individual rights or personal choice. Amending the smoking ban needs to be placed back on the agenda.