I hated the smoking ban and to an extent believe there's still room for moderation as far as pubs etc are concerned but have to admit I've come around to it, anyone who smokes knows the risks involved and only a fool would think that smoking less is anything but better. I still miss a smoke after a meal but don't miss making non smokers uncomfortable and to be honest I gave up pubs before the smoking ban so no dif to me there.
Our flat's a smoke free zone for obvious reasons but I've got to admit I like it, first time in my life there's no ashtrays, fag ash everywhere and no stale odour. Can be a pain in the backside at work but same again, makes for a cleaner/healthier environment.
With regards to taxes yep they're too high but not just on booze, fags and petrol, we're a nation of whingers and moaners but when it comes down to it we do sod all about it and we've allowed a succession of governments to get away with it for too long to be able to realistically be able to do anything about it now. Only time we did anything was on the poll tax and that soon went away, then we just sat back and let them tax us in other ways. There are too many drains on our nations purse and not enough ways to pay for them, we moan because we can't have a smoke in a pub but are quite happy to have two or three generations of a family on benefits, we whinge when 10p goes on a pint and then sit back and watch news footage of our nation firing missiles at a £1,000,000 a pop. Personally I think the problem goes a lot deeper than most people think.
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