Take a deep breath of fresh air - England has gone smoke free! It's great. No more throwing clothes in the laundry basket in disgust after an hour in the Darwin Bar because they stink. No more avoiding The Eagle for dinner because the air in the RAF bar is so thick you could stick a fork in it.
I'm very glad this has finally happened. It's been a long time coming! And pubs genuinely seem to be taking their new responsibilities seriously - I haven't seen someone smoking inside yet. Of course, the same can't be said for outside. If you walk down the pub-filled streets in Cambridge in the evening you'll be lucky not to get a cigarette burn, there are so many people huddled in doorways, cantankerously sucking on their ciggies. Okay - perhaps burns are an exaggeration - but it is hard to avoid the fumes around doorways. Even at Addenbrookes Hospital it's hard to dodge the trails of smoke at the entrance, despite the whole site supposedly being smoke free.
Still, it's a great start. I think England handled it well. Apparently it was planned for July 1st to coincide with summer, so people won't get so grumpy about getting turfed outside to indulge in their dirty habit. Of course, the rain rendered that plan a bit futile, but the ban's working nonetheless.
They've done a much better job of it than the poxy 'no smoking a metre from the bar' law in South Australia. Really... why bother? It's crap. You see people stretching their ciggie arm out (right into other people's faces) to get closer to the bar for a drink. Plus if the bar is in a skinny room the law doesn't even apply! How lame is that? It's pathetic.
I can't wait to see how the French go at banning smoking next February. The continental addiction is much more severe.
But stranger things have happened yet.
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