Everyone is entitled to change their opinion but this is a particularly interesting volte-face.
In 2007 journalist Helen Mead wrote:
As a non-smoker [married to a smoker] smoke in pubs never bothered me. I'm all for a ban in the workplace, but it does seem a little harsh to outlaw special smoking rooms in offices.
Although she was clearly not a fan of smoky environments per se, she nevertheless added:
There are places and occasions, however, where smoke adds to the atmosphere. It would hang in the air above the pool tables of pubs I used to frequent, giving a slightly sleazy, yet oddly cosy, feel.
That suggested to me someone with a reasonable and normal level of tolerance for smoking and smokers.
Fast forward to 2020 however and you could be forgiven for thinking the columnist ‘Helen Mead’ was a completely different person.
Thirteen years after claiming that “smoke in pubs never bothered me” she spluttered:
Standing downwind of a smoker outside the railway station the other night, I caught a lung full of tobacco smoke. Disgusting.
I pointedly moved away from her. With smokers, I don’t care if I offend by making my thoughts clear. It is a detestable habit.
Goodness knows what happened to make her change her tune so dramatically but as an example of the slow erosion of tolerance in this country it’s hard to beat.
Or perhaps she just had a column to fill.
Either way she’s now added her voice to those supporting the extension of the ban in Wales, even suggesting that ‘We [England] should follow Wales in widening the smoking ban’.
She’s not alone, of course. Bizarre though it sounds, the indoor smoking ban actually increased some people’s intolerance of smoking.
Apart from legitimising a groundless fear of passive smoking, the ban meant that direct exposure to tobacco smoke is so rare for most people these days that even a whiff of smoke can trigger complaints.
The smoking ban and other anti-smoking measures also made it OK to refer to smoking as a “filthy habit” and no-one blinks an eye.
The problem is, when you attack smoking like this you are encouraging intolerance and even hatred of a section of society who even now represent a substantial minority (one in six) of the adult population.
Anyway, here’s Forest’s response to the new law in Wales: Welsh Government smoking ban 'wrong' says Forest (Western Telegraph)