"The smoking ban. It is terrible, I have no longer got any social life. They make me - a disabled man - stand outside in the pissing rain where there's nowhere to sit. So I don't go out to pubs and restaurants any more."
So we destroyed this man's pleasure for what? For not one single life saved and on the basis of a misleading campaign against "passive smoking" - just because some folk, most of whom never went anywhere near a pub, didn't like the smell.
I appreciate this man's anger. Do you?
Update: Dick Puddlecote asks in the comments what my response was - to be honest I can't recal precisely. I agreed with him and sympathised - but as a Councillor I cannot change the situation merely express the anger shared with people like this. By way of making the point, we passed the Fleece in Cullingworth this afternoon - good crowd enjoying the sushine outside - almost all of them smoking.
....
