When I was 20 or so, anti smoking laws came in;
one of the specifics was that smoking wouldn't be alllowed in banks.
My God! The anger in the pub that night.
Fast forward to last year's ban, I'd like to see what our 20 year ago selves would have made out of the not smoking, well, anywhere, legislation, bar the street and our private houses.
Oh prisons and royal palaces are exempt, but I'd rather not visit either.
Fucking nanny state.
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Thu 20 Mar 2008, 12:15, 5 replies)

Hmmm...
Having spent 13 years working on a bar, I'm all for the smoking ban. I have no objection to punters smoking; I do have an objection to being required to join in with them.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 20 Mar 2008, 12:22, closed)

You're probably right,
really, although the argument, "We're protecting the health of staff", doesn't really cut it.
If you don't want to work in a bar, noone is forcing you. I worked as a scaffolder for years, and can't remember any legislation coming in that forbade me going above 6" in case I fell.
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Thu 20 Mar 2008, 12:36, closed)

@bearpookie
I play in a band. It's not my main job, but it accounts for a significant proportion of my income. Up until 2 years ago, almost every venue I played was filled with smoke. No-one is forcing me to do this as you say, but surely I shouldn't have to inhale other folk's smoke if I don't want to?

Since the smoking ban (and I'm in Scotland so it came in earlier) I no longer have to suffer the stinking clothes and sore throats I used to after a night at a gig.

I've no objection to people enjoying a smoke, so long as they don't do it in my presence.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Thu 20 Mar 2008, 12:46, closed)

^This^
Of course, noone made me work in a bar, but there are plenty of people who have no option but to do so. There is no conceivable right to smoke - and, even if there were, it'd surely be rebuttable, and rebutted by the right of others not to be smoked at.

The scaffolding analogy is bogus, too. That's a potentially dangerous job. Plenty of other jobs are unpleasant by their nature. Fine. You can't remove the danger or the unpleasantness therefrom. But you can remove them from barwork, being in a band, and a whole host of other things.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 20 Mar 2008, 12:51, closed)

There is plenty of legislation for workign at height,
safe codes of conducts, regulations to be adhered to, site safety, no working on sites without hardhats, licence to work on sites etc. All in place to make abuilding site, or scaffolding construction safer.

If you don't want to work at height, scaffolding is probably the wrong industry to be in. Height is an intrinsic part of the work. Working in a pub doesn'r have to involves breathing in second hand smoke. And now I'm glad it doesn't.
( Moonraker isn't the droid you were looking for, Thu 20 Mar 2008, 14:04, closed)