If you like a fag with your pint, go and have one quick while you still can. In the first of a series of backdowns to backbench pressure, ministers have given in to demands for a free vote. I am assured that this will be a genuinely free vote so - bizarrely - health ministers will vote for a ban and therefore against government policy!
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Comments
About time!
Here in Ireland, we had a protracted debate over our implementation of a Smoking Ban, with many opposing a full ban. How wrong they where! The ban has been a huge success. Businesses haven't suffered (there has been a downturn in the pubs, but very few people connect that with the smoking ban) and the benefits have been huge.
The Labour Government put forward a complete ban for Northern Ireland, on the grounds that every worker's health was equally importan, then reversed this policy for the rest of the UK. I would hope common sense will prevail and MPs will back the full ban. It makes sense.
I've written about this before on my own website. The Smoking Ban is one of the best pieces of legislation we've seen in Ireland.
Is a free vote likely to go the way of a total ban, then? I am really unclear about the general will of the house on this one. And will it be a catastrophe if Labour backbenchers don't go with Blair's bizarre 'smoking pod / food model' fudge flavoured compromise?
Is this a biggie? Or not such a biggie.
Personally I want a total ban and can't see any of these fudges working for many reasons that have been well rehearsed and stated by business people for the last two months.
Total ban = equal playing field. It has to be the fairest and best way forward for health and business alike.