We're in the middle of the nine day Monmouth Music Festival here and my brother has come down from Aberdeen to catch it all, so we've spent a good bit of time over the last few days and nights in Monmouth pubs and it's just GREAT for them to be smoke free for the first time ever! To come home and not have yer hair and clothes stinking of smoke is sooo good.
While I realise this is not only about the non smoker, how anybody can take anything other that positiveness from this move is beyond me! It's simply better for everyone, not only the non smoker, but particularly the pub staff, the landlord, the actual pub itself - and even the smokers. Some pubs smelled fecking horrible, now with routine cleaning this will naturally reverse over a short period of time.
If this act was about stopping people smoking then I would be the first to agree that it is wrong, nobody has the right to tell people what to do or not to do, but with all the will and understanding in the world I can't see how this call can be described as a human rights violation.... surely it is exactly the opposite, a victory for human rights AND common sense. Everybody benefits - there are no losers!
And I think the majority of smokers see it for what it is too as the predicted howls of protest and threats to boycott pubs has just not happened here in Monmouth, or in my brothers town in Scotland. I know people here in my town who smoke and they just nip out to have a fag, it doesn't seem to be a problem to them.