Britain Gives Pubs and Smokers One Choice: "No"

The British parliament has passed a smoking ban that will take hold by next summer. Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, who the Telegraph says came to support the measure only after making a "bizarre U-turn," says the bill will "ban smoking in 'virtually every enclosed public place and workplace' and would 'save thousands of lives every year.'" (No doubt?)

Scathing and spot-on criticism has appeared today in papers of all sizes -- from broadsheet to tabloid to, perhaps, Berliner -- including The Times of London and the Telegraph.

Notably, many pubs in Britain had already chosen to ban smoking on their own premises and of their own accords. These bars will be harmed by the law, which robs them of a defining characteristic of their identity. (If you're a punter who prefers a smokefree bar then what's the difference between getting a pint at a bar which chose to go smokefree five years ago rather than at one which was forced to go smokefree just yesterday?)

Furthermore, when coupled with Britain's new 24-hour pub culture, the smoking ban will push drunk smokers onto the streets, lead to more confrontations -- which was used as a reason to permit pubs to stay open later in the first place -- and, I predict, reverse the decrease in crime seen as a result of the extension of pub hours. (But this is a sort of "public health" with which so-called "public-health advocates" don't concern themselves.) In less-safe areas, instead of smoking outside a bar punters may simply choose to leave the pub and hail a cab home (which will further depress pub revenue).

This dramatically sucks, and I could go on and on, but alas there's a sheep-sex post that requires writing.