I read about this office sign a few weeks back - okay, it's American, but it just about sums up my attitude to the whole thing...
"My pleasure is beer, and this creates urine. Your pleasure is smoking, and this creates poisonous fumes. Don't pollute my air space, and I promise not to piss on your desk."
Okay, I give in. The pubs will be packed to the rafters with non-smokers. The licensing trade will see a surge in profits the like of which you have never seen before. All the stuff about pubs closing and bar-staff losing their jobs is made up, whereas the statistics about smoking and how many people are killed by it are painfully accurate and I believe every word the government tells me now.
I now realise that a sniff of a cigar will kill me, whereas the fumes from millions of cars does me no harm at all.
I am born again, thank you fellow Addicks fans for showing me the light
[cite]Posted By: Algarveaddick[/cite]Okay, I give in. The pubs will be packed to the rafters with non-smokers. The licensing trade will see a surge in profits the like of which you have never seen before. All the stuff about pubs closing and bar-staff losing their jobs is made up, whereas the statistics about smoking and how many people are killed by it are painfully accurate and I believe every word the government tells me now.
I now realise that a sniff of a cigar will kill me, whereas the fumes from millions of cars does me no harm at all.
I am born again, thank you fellow Addicks fans for showing me the light
LOL
That's how I feel sometimes mate, couldn't have put it much better myself
Its the great unknown for a lot of us, some pubs will flourish, some will flounder. As with everything, if you adopt change and look at it positively you will do well, if you don't accept the opportunity you will probably go to the wall.
The introduction of well lit, comfy sofa modern pubs with decent grub has snowballed in the past ten years, the grotty workers pub suffered. The former will continue to grow and we'll see less and less of your typical old man boozers.
This is all about how much government should intrude into our lives.
Traditionally as individuals we ceded certain powers and freedoms to democratically elected governments because it was easier and better to deal with them on a macro rather than micro basis. The underlying principle though was that governments were our servants and acted for us. They were not supposed to interfere in our lives otherwise.
For a number of reasons though ( The Napoleonic European attitudes being a major one in my view) governments are interfering more and more in every aspect of individuals' lives. Bin fascism, parking fascism, smoking fascism etc, etc.
I don't smoke and hate the smell of it. It is part of British culture though so do I have the right to ban others from doing it? I don't think I do. As a non smoker I think I have the right to provision in public places to avoid smoke and there maybe valid safety reasons on planes, tubes, trains etc to have no smoking but otherwise no.
Government interferes too much in our lives but as I said above we get what we deserve because only 50-60% of us bother to vote at General Elections and considerably less than that at every other type of election.
That's a bad thing if you ask me AFKA, the types of pub/bar 'gastropub' whatever they are called are bad. They are expensive, serve absolute shit beer 9 times out of ten, the food is expensive too and also over-rated crap straight out of a microwave. They may be nice for office workers with lots of money to chuck away in their lunchtimes or after work but they have no soul.
I appreciate some places are classier than others but you need a balance. Make all the high street ponce pubs non-smoking for the pretentious twats that frequent them and give the back street boozer the choice to allow smoking or not.
[cite]Posted By: LenGlover[/cite]This is all about how much government should intrude into our lives.
Traditionally as individuals we ceded certain powers and freedoms to democratically elected governments because it was easier and better to deal with them on a macro rather than micro basis. The underlying principle though was that governments were our servants and acted for us. They were not supposed to interfere in our lives otherwise.
For a number of reasons though ( The Napoleonic European attitudes being a major one in my view) governments are interfering more and more in every aspect of individuals' lives. Bin fascism, parking fascism, smoking fascism etc, etc.
I don't smoke and hate the smell of it. It is part of British culture though so do I have the right to ban others from doing it? I don't think I do. As a non smoker I think I have the right to provision in public places to avoid smoke and there maybe valid safety reasons on planes, tubes, trains etc to have no smoking but otherwise no.
Government interferes too much in our lives but as I said above we get what we deserve because only 50-60% of us bother to vote at General Elections and considerably less than that at every other type of election.
I have to disagree. We have far more and more substantial freedoms in 2007 to replace the "freedom" to park or smoke that we haven't in fact lost but have just been curtailed.
In our life times Len we have been given the freedom to vote at 18, to divorce straight forwardly, to indulge in homosexual practices in private (should we so wish), to have a legal abortion, to read just about any book and watch any play without censorship from the Lord Chancellor, freedom from compulsory service in the armed forces and from discrimination on the basis of sex or race. We are also entitled to work place ballots before strike action and can not be forced to join a trade union.
We can drink in pubs at nearly anytime, shop on a Sunday and take as much currency overseas as we like.
Now some of you may not think all these freedoms are such good ideas but I think the country is better for pretty much all of them.
[cite]Posted By: Carter[/cite]That's a bad thing if you ask me AFKA, the types of pub/bar 'gastropub' whatever they are called are bad. They are expensive, serve absolute shit beer 9 times out of ten, the food is expensive too and also over-rated crap straight out of a microwave. They may be nice for office workers with lots of money to chuck away in their lunchtimes or after work but they have no soul.
Certainly the Ember Inn chains are not like that. Well presented, cheap food and decent well priced beer. Couple of local ones i know of are the Earl Haig in Bexleyheath and the Queens Head in Chistlehurst. Regularly go out drinking with my mum and dad, and how hard is it to think of pubs that both you and your parents will feel comfortable in ?
When I go out for a drink with my dad we head to a country pub a short drive from the pair of us and take turns to drive. There are a few country pubs that I'll go with either of my parents I'll go for a drink in my local with them but that is only because I know the group in there who if I didn't could come across as pretty intimidating.
I wouldn't even entertain the idea of meeting them for a drink in any of the town centres near me. Maidstone, Rochester and Chatham I include in that.
If it was a case of going somewhere within walking distance of me or them I wouldn't go out!!
Comments
Once they control most consumer products, they'll arrange a cartel between themselves......and royally stitch up the customer.
We'll be too busy saving 5p off a tin of baked beans to even notice.....until baked beans suddenly soar in price, like everything else.
Brave New World, Badger. ;o)
"My pleasure is beer, and this creates urine. Your pleasure is smoking, and this creates poisonous fumes. Don't pollute my air space, and I promise not to piss on your desk."
I now realise that a sniff of a cigar will kill me, whereas the fumes from millions of cars does me no harm at all.
I am born again, thank you fellow Addicks fans for showing me the light
LOL
That's how I feel sometimes mate, couldn't have put it much better myself
Nice one Henry - the Pistols had it sussed
Its the great unknown for a lot of us, some pubs will flourish, some will flounder. As with everything, if you adopt change and look at it positively you will do well, if you don't accept the opportunity you will probably go to the wall.
The introduction of well lit, comfy sofa modern pubs with decent grub has snowballed in the past ten years, the grotty workers pub suffered. The former will continue to grow and we'll see less and less of your typical old man boozers.
Traditionally as individuals we ceded certain powers and freedoms to democratically elected governments because it was easier and better to deal with them on a macro rather than micro basis. The underlying principle though was that governments were our servants and acted for us. They were not supposed to interfere in our lives otherwise.
For a number of reasons though ( The Napoleonic European attitudes being a major one in my view) governments are interfering more and more in every aspect of individuals' lives. Bin fascism, parking fascism, smoking fascism etc, etc.
I don't smoke and hate the smell of it. It is part of British culture though so do I have the right to ban others from doing it? I don't think I do. As a non smoker I think I have the right to provision in public places to avoid smoke and there maybe valid safety reasons on planes, tubes, trains etc to have no smoking but otherwise no.
Government interferes too much in our lives but as I said above we get what we deserve because only 50-60% of us bother to vote at General Elections and considerably less than that at every other type of election.
I appreciate some places are classier than others but you need a balance. Make all the high street ponce pubs non-smoking for the pretentious twats that frequent them and give the back street boozer the choice to allow smoking or not.
I have to disagree. We have far more and more substantial freedoms in 2007 to replace the "freedom" to park or smoke that we haven't in fact lost but have just been curtailed.
In our life times Len we have been given the freedom to vote at 18, to divorce straight forwardly, to indulge in homosexual practices in private (should we so wish), to have a legal abortion, to read just about any book and watch any play without censorship from the Lord Chancellor, freedom from compulsory service in the armed forces and from discrimination on the basis of sex or race. We are also entitled to work place ballots before strike action and can not be forced to join a trade union.
We can drink in pubs at nearly anytime, shop on a Sunday and take as much currency overseas as we like.
Now some of you may not think all these freedoms are such good ideas but I think the country is better for pretty much all of them.
Certainly the Ember Inn chains are not like that. Well presented, cheap food and decent well priced beer. Couple of local ones i know of are the Earl Haig in Bexleyheath and the Queens Head in Chistlehurst. Regularly go out drinking with my mum and dad, and how hard is it to think of pubs that both you and your parents will feel comfortable in ?
I wouldn't even entertain the idea of meeting them for a drink in any of the town centres near me. Maidstone, Rochester and Chatham I include in that.
If it was a case of going somewhere within walking distance of me or them I wouldn't go out!!