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Tax ruling will save UK drinkers billions

British shoppers will soon be able to buy cut-price alcohol and cigarettes from the Continent without leaving home, as a result of an extraordinary legal test case that threatens to blow a multi-billion pound hole in the Treasury's coffers.

The European Court of Justice is expected to rule next week that goods can be bought in other EU states and delivered to the door while only the duty levied in the country of origin is paid. This is often a fraction of that charged in Britain.

If, as appears likely, the court rubber-stamps a previous adjudication by its advocate general, shoppers will be free to use the internet or mail order companies to find the best bargains around Europe and have them shipped home for their own consumption.

The potential savings are huge: 200 cigarettes purchased in Latvia cost only £7.20, a saving of about £43, while several European countries charge no duty on wine.

Businesses across Europe are gearing up for the changes, but the British Retail Confederation warns that UK businesses will lose unless action is taken to harmonise duty rates across the Continent.

The Treasury earns £15 billion a year from excise duty on alcohol and cigarettes - enough to pay the running costs of the Home Office, the Foreign Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Tax experts believe the ruling, due on November 23, will hasten moves towards single rates of tax across the EU and hit ferry companies, which rely heavily on "booze cruises".

Legal advice drawn up by the accountants Ernst & Young says: "The judgment is likely to allow individuals to purchase alcohol over the internet or by telephone from other EU member states and to have their purchases delivered to them at home, while still paying low duty rates in the country of purchase.

"Retailers and distributors in EU member states with low alcohol duty rates are likely to be able to increase direct sales of alcohol to customers."

The dramatic change in British tax policy hinges on an attempt by a Dutch group to have wine they had bought in France shipped home, without physically accompanying their purchases. The Dutch government levied alcohol duty on the wine, but after a legal challenge the European court's advocate-general, Francis Jacob, found it had been wrong to do so.

A number of European governments, including Britain, have urged the court to reject the adjudication. But in 80 per cent of cases the court upholds the advocate-general's decision, and Charles Meechan, an Ernst & Young director, said: "All the evidence is that the ruling will not go the UK's way."

Britain has one of the highest excise rates in Europe and shoppers are expected to rush to take advantage of the ruling, which cannot be appealed against and would take immediate effect. At present, Britons can bring alcohol and tobacco with them into the country if they can show it is for personal consumption.

Jeremy Beadle, the chief executive of the Wine and Spirits Trade Association, said the case could have a serious impact. "The key disincentive until now has been that you have to travel with the goods."

HM Revenue and Customs refused to comment on the case but the Euro-MP Charles Tannock, the Tory spokesman on the duty-free trade, said: "This is going to be a huge embarrassment to Gordon Brown and his tax-raising attempts. It will also increase pressure on member states to harmonise excise duty. If we are going to have a single market this must be permitted."

from The Daily telegraph

Hospital introduces smoking rule

Smokers are to be banned from lighting up within five metres of Swindon's Great Western Hospital.

Source: BBC Online, 2004-12-06

From 5 January 2005, anyone spotted smoking in the exclusion zone will be asked to move further away.

Hospital spokesman Chris Birdsall said the aim was to encourage smokers to give up and to safeguard non-smokers.

"People will walk straight out of the door and light up. Smoke is blowing back into the building and through the windows," he said.

Leaflets will be handed out to visitors and patients and extra security staff will be brought in during the early stages to help enforce the new rule.

Smoking test may halt ops

Source: Birmingham Post (uk), 2004-12-05

Smokers who lie about their addiction before surgery could face a simple test to weed out the truth - and decide if they can have the operation they want or not.

Boffins at Birmingham University have developed a urine test for prospective patients because research has proved that smoking can harm the chances of a speedy recovery.

Scientists devised the test after discovering that many plastic surgery patients are lying when they tell doctors that they have quit, or do not smoke as much as they do.

Now the test could be used to stop smokers from undergoing cosmetic surgery.

Smoking ban could be death of country pubs

Source: This is Gloucestershire, 2004-12-06

New anti-smoking laws will have devastating effects on rural pubs and could force them out of business, according to an angry Forest landlord.

Richard Warford who runs the White Horse Inn, Soudley, is concerned the proposed ban on smoking in public places will mean the end of his livelihood. The White Horse is the only pub in Soudley and serves meals as well as being a regular watering hole for locals.

A non-smoker himself, Mr Warford says his business would not be able to survive if he had to choose between becoming a restaurant or a pub-only establishment, which is the choice he would have to make if the laws came into force. . . .

He said: "The 'choice' offered under this new scheme is entirely appropriate for town and city pubs where the locals can choose where they want to go.

"But in Soudley we can become a restaurant and abandon the local community, including the crib teams, Soudley football club, skittle teams and numerous events which are well supported and greatly enjoyed or we can stop serving Sunday lunches and occasional evening meals. . . .

"I am a non-smoker myself and I am not against anti-smoking laws.

"I just feel that the law needs to consider the effects this will have on rural pubs not just in the Forest of Dean but across the country.

Nothing to fear when smoking ban arrives here

Source: icLanarkshire (uk), 2004-12-06

PUB and restaurant owners have nothing to fear from the proposed ban on smoking in enclosed public areas.

That's the message from former St Leonards man Paul Trainer - and he should know.

Paul, 24, now lives in Dublin city centre and works for The Dubliner Magazine.

The former News columnist has been keeping up to date with stories of publicans' fears that a smoking ban will hurt business. . . .

He said: "Smoke-free bars and restaurants are just another part of life now in Dublin. The protests and objections from the bar trade disappeared as soon as the ban came into effect.

"It's unfortunate that certain groups are manipulating the situation here to worry businesses in East Kilbride.

"The city centre is still bustling with visitors and locals every week.

"The hospitality industry has simply adapted by offering heaters, canopies, patio furniture and elaborately designed outside smoking areas.

"In my work I meet most of the leading restaurant owners in the city and, despite the usual grumbles, they too have accepted and adapted. . . .

"The real message that East Kilbride businesses should be getting is that you should start preparing for this ban now as it is almost inevitable that it will come into effect now that it has been proven to work here in Ireland.

SMOKING BAN WILL HIT 999 STAFF STRESS LEVELS

Source: This Is Staffordshire (uk), 2004-11-03

The head of Staffordshire Ambulance Service today admitted he had sympathy with his paramedics after they were caught up in one of Britain's first blanket smoking bans at a hospital. Roger Thayne warned the restrictions at Bradwell Hospital would add to the stress levels of 999 crews.

But Mr Thayne admitted there was nothing he could do to overturn the ban which covers the grounds and car park of the A34 complex as well as the buildings.

The response post system - where ambulances are strategically placed nearest the areas where most road accidents or medical emergencies happen based on historical data - has been a key to the spectacular success of the county's ambulance trust in the past five years with the service being the fastest in Britain at getting to the scene of emergency calls.

Morpeth views mixed on smoking ban

SMOKING in Castle Morpeth's pubs and restaurants could be snuffed out if Government plans come into force.

Source: Morpeth Herald (uk), 2004-12-02

The proposals call for a smoking ban in all pubs, cafes and restaurants where food is served. If approved, the White Paper issued by the Department of Health is time-tabled to come into force in 2008.

The idea received a mixed reaction from Morpeth's landlords. George Hall, landlord at the Joiner's Arms for more than 17 years said that a blanket ban would harm his trade. "90 percent of my customers are smokers," said Mr Hall. "I would lose all that if it came to a ban. . . .

Mr Hall, a non-smoker, opposes the ban even though he has experienced health problems after years spent working behind smoky bars. He said: "I had to have an operation to clear my nose out because of passive smoking. But that's part of the trade, you have to accept that." . . .

The landlord at the Old Red Bull Inn, Dean Henderson, had a different view. He said: "It would be financial suicide, no doubt about that, but if it forced the next generation to stop smoking it gets my support. . . .

"But I'm severely worried about health issues, it's not a bad idea. "It's terrible when you see so many young people smoking. It seems like all young people do it, and that's got to stop. . . .

Hexham MP, Peter Atkinson, whose constituency includes part of the Borough of Castle Morpeth, has voiced concern about the proposals in Parliament. He said a ban would be 'impossible' for landlords to manage. "I understand the dangers of smoking but in the end it is up to the individual to decide," said Mr Atkinson. "If pubs want to go smoke free that is fine, and they may attract new customers, but if they want to continue to allow it they should be able to do that.

JACKSON: Smoking rules brew up a storm

Source: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2004-12-05

The battle between fags and food in English pubs is shaping up nicely. The Government, you may recall, proposes that smoking should be banned in pubs serving food. Last week the head of the giant pub chain Mitchells & Butlers, which serves about £500m-worth of food a year, warned that quite a lot of pubs might drop food as a result. . . .

One more piece of perversity to finish with. For the purposes of the proposed legislation, only "prepared" food will count, as opposed to snacks.

So smokers' pubs will bid farewell to slimming salads and healthy fish or chicken; and the poor devils who both drink and smoke will have to get by on dry-roasted peanuts and pork scratchings. So much for the national health.

Inhale or stub it out: pubs have to decide

Source: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2004-12-04

Smoking is an example of how sustained government propaganda can change the habits of the population. Thirty years ago, 46pc of people smoked, today it is 26pc. Health scares have helped the change, and as Ted Tuppen, chief executive of Enterprise Inns, the UK's biggest pub group, says: "A large number of consumers are already seeking a smoke-free environment, the debate really is about how we get there."

There are still more than 10m smokers in Britain, a quarter of the adult population, and the percentage of pub-goers who smoke is thought to be much higher. . . .

The Government says that it will "consult widely" over the next four years and the pub companies will be at the forefront of the lobbyists. They will argue that pubs will simply decide to stop serving food to get around the smoking ban.

The White Paper admits this is a risk, but estimates that only 10pc-30pc of pubs will not serve food, making the remainder non-smoking. But Tim Clarke, chief executive of Mitchells & Butlers, one of the country's biggest pub companies, predicts that "many more pubs than the White Paper anticipates will be taking out food."

Johnny Depp is passionate about his smoking !

Source: New Kerala.com (in), 2004-11-30

Johnny Depp is so very addicted to smoking thathe reportedly ignored a woman who asked him to quit smoking during dinner at a posh London restaurant.

According to New York Post, he was chain-smoking at the Scalini restaurant when an American woman at the next table leaned over and complained to him. At this Depp, smiled and politely replied, "I'm sorry, but we're not in LA anymore."

City men arrested for £8m tobacco smuggling

Source: The Scotsman, 2004-12-04

TWO men from Edinburgh have been arrested in connection with a multi-million-pound cigarette smuggling operation from China.

The men were arrested as part of an ongoing Customs and Excise investigation into illegal tobacco trafficking.

The pair were part of the probe by Customs investigators into the illegal importation of counterfeit tobacco products worth around £8 million.

Smoking ban backed in Croydon

Source: Trinity Mirror Southern - icCroydon (uk), 2004-12-03

CROYDON smokers will find themselves having to stub out their cigarettes if the Government's new ban on lighting up in public places kicks in next year.

Croydon Council, which will have to implement the ban if it becomes law, agreed it would support the proposal at a meeting on Monday night.

The edict on smoking in bars and restaurants, which would also extend to the workplace, is outlined in the latest Government White Paper on health.

The Government's timetable would see the prohibition introduced in all Government workplaces and NHS buildings next year and extended to all workplaces and enclosed public spaces a year later.

M&B warns smoking ban is a threat to health

Source: The Publican, 2004-12-02

Mitchells & Butlers has warned that the Government's proposed smoking ban could lead to unhealthy consequences for the nation.

The Birmingham-based pubco, which owns the All-Bar-One, Harvester and O'Neill's chains, spoke out after announcing annual pre-tax profits of £184m, with like-for-like sales up 5.6 per cent. The company has also completed a £100m share buy-back as the result of strong trading and ongoing pub disposals.

M&B cautioned that the proposed smoking ban in food-led establishments could reverse the Government's intended effect of creating a healthier, smoking-reduced nation.

Chief executive Tim Clarke said: "At M&B we have strong growth from our food sales at about three times the profit of the industry average and fully intend to continue growing this element of our estate. "Equally, around 25 per cent of our estate has less than 10 per cent of its sales through food and in these pubs, if faced with a choice in four years time, we would consider taking out the food and focussing on drink."

DNA TEST THAT COULD HELP YOU QUIT SMOKING

Source: The Mirror (uk), 2004-12-02

SMOKERS who want to kick the habit could be helped by a new DNA test that detects the addiction gene, it was claimed yesterday.

NicoTest analyses a DNA sample to see how a person responds to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and other treatments.

It also provides a metabolic profile which shows how quickly a smoker clears nicotine from their system, helping to determine the right dose of NRT.

Researchers at Oxford University found a gene in about 35 per cent of babies which predisposes them to tobacco addiction - but it could also help them give up.

HJUL: Comfort and joy in the fug of the snug

Source: The Scotsman, 2004-11-27

For a start, there is much nostalgia to be had in an environment like that. Even before a smoking in public places ban is made law - here or in England - lighting up has become a black art and there are few establishments that reek quite so pungently and unashamedly as this one. It took me back a few years.

These days you really have to smoke out air that thick. Off the top of my head I can't think of another joint like it, unless I'm allowed to include theatres.

I found myself at a play last week, a revival of Journey's End, and although smoking was verboten, naturally, in any of the audience's bits of the theatre, it was quite permissible on stage, this being a play set in a First World War dug-out where, life being cheap, everybody smoked all the time.

For reasons of artistic integrity and authenticity all the actors had to smoke all the time. We, the audience, were enveloped in a lovely fug of Player's Navy Cut and Clan pipe tobacco for two and a half hours and no one coughed or complained.

I wonder if actors will still be allowed to smoke on stage during the smoking prohibition when it comes.

CEO Of Largest British Pub Chain Seeks "Resolution" Over Proposed Smoking Ban

Source: BeverageWorld, 2004-12-01

Ted Tuppen, chief executive of Britain's biggest pub chain Enterprise Inns, reckons he has just four years to convince the Government to relax its planned draconian measures on smoking in pubs.

He said: "When I go into my village local in Devon, which isn't even one of our pubs, it has fantastic food, serves good beer and a great atmosphere -- and loads of its regulars smoke.

"It is the centre of a vast part of that community's life. It would be a tragedy if that pub was forced to disenfranchise half the population of the village."

But Tuppen is an optimist. He claimed: "There are some real positives in what the Government has proposed. The industry put forward some sensible initiatives and the Government clearly listened.

"We do have to seek to protect our employees so the ban on smoking at or near the bar will come in much more quickly than the legislation planned. . . .

But Tuppen also expects smokers will adapt over time: "They won't mind going outside for their drag and 78 percent of our pubs have outside drinking areas."

Imperial Tobacco, Punch Decline on U.K. Smoking Ban (Update1)

Source: Bloomberg News, 2004-11-16

Shares of cigarette makers including Imperial Tobacco Group Plc and pub operators such as Punch Taverns Plc dropped on investor concern that U.K. government plans to prohibit smoking in public places will hurt profits.

The government's proposed ban will include all enclosed public places, work places and pubs that prepare food, former health secretary Frank Dobson said in a British Broadcasting Corp. interview. Current Health Secretary John Reid will today publish the plan as part of a government "white paper."

"This is not good news," said David Phillips . . .

"Public opinion doesn't support an out-and-out ban, but we understand more people favor smoking bans where food is served,' said Teresa La Thangue, a BAT spokeswoman. ``A lot of countries look to the U.K. to see how legislation like this is implemented, so we hope this will be a model."

JOHNSON:With all these laws, our precious liberty is going up in smoke

Source: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2004-11-17

The announcement yesterday that smoking in most public places is to be made an offence, presumably punishable by a fine, is the latest addition to a lengthening list of things that were once allowed but are now to be criminalised. . . .

When the current parliamentary session ends tomorrow, there will be several new offences. . . .

The Housing Bill will make it an offence to place your own home on the market without first spending £600 or more on a home information pack. . . .

Since June, it has been illegal to own a horse, donkey or a Shetland pony without obtaining an ID card for the animal to ensure it does not poison anyone who eats it. . . .

Yet, at the same time, the Government has introduced a new regulation whereby a thief who steals goods worth £200 or less from a shop will not automatically be arrested and taken to the police station but handed an £80 fixed penalty notice, without any criminal record provided it is paid on time.

Nurses can turn down home visits to smokers

Source: The Guardian (uk), 2004-11-19

Nurses can refuse to make home visits to patients who smoke, according to new guidelines to be issued by the Royal College of Nursing.

The move follows the government's public health white paper which promised to create a smoke-free NHS work environment by 2006.

It also follows news of Pennine NHS acute hospitals trust's announcement that it wants to ban patients from smoking in their own home when they are visited by its health professionals - including midwives - as part of its commitment to create a smoke-free environment for staff. . . .

The guidelines will recommend that nurses ask patients whether it is possible to see them in a smoke-free room or space when they arrange a home visit.

If this proves to be impossible, the nurse could decide to refuse a home visit or refer the patient to a colleague.

CARROLL: BIN THE BANS, TONY OR BE HOUNDED OUT

Source: The Mirror (uk), 2004-11-24

WELCOME to Britain, it's a lot of fun if you do what you're told.

After the recent outpouring of bans, guidelines and instructions on how we should conduct our lives don't be surprised to find a state-approved uniform shoved through your letterbox any day soon.

Have no doubt, some people would be daft enough to wear it. What on earth has happened to our sense of outrage? You have to wonder, judging by the way we've let Tony Blair's government steamroller us into submission, if they've put sedative in the water.

Okay, obviously I'm not exactly thrilled to to see my liberty go up in smoke thanks to Health Secretary John Reid's ban on lighting up in public places.

If the fresh-air police are thinking about hanging out the bunting don't bother. Wake up and smell the diesel. Take a look at the 4x4s pumping out more fumes than a pubful of smokers puffing Marlboros.

And think about the bigger picture.

It ill behoves anyone, and anti-smokers take note, to celebrate the intervention of the state in other people's lives. It's not just an unpleasant precedent but a dangerous one.

Members-only restaurants may side-step smoking ban

Source: The Publican, 2004-11-23

Sir Terence Conran, John Burton-Race, and Richard Corrigan are among several high-profile restaurateurs and chefs who are seeking to beat the proposed smoking ban.

All have gone on record saying they are considering turning their restaurants into private members clubs to side-step the smoking regulations when they come into effect in 2009.

By charging nominal entrance fees and signing 'guests' up as members, it is widely believed that food-serving venues would be exempt from the ban when it comes into effect at the end of 2008.

THOUSANDS GET SMOKING RULES

Source: This is South Wales (uk) (Evening Post), 2004-11-18

Staff at Carmarthenshire Council have been presented with a draft smoking policy. It involves restrictions on fag breaks and detail on where smoking is allowed. It aims to reduce the risk of passive smoking.

Staff who want to quit smoking will be offered help through courses.

Council staff work flexi-time and those who choose to take the 10-minute smoking breaks will have to work the time back.

A great deal of huffing and puffing

Alexander Waugh reviews Smoke: A Global History of Smoking ed by Sander L. Gilman and Zhou Xun

Source: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2004-11-23

Smoking is a wonderful thing; even quite unattractive people look sexy doing it - and they don't just look good, they actually feel good too. . . .

Sander L. Gilman, for instance, who is director of Jewish studies at the University of Illinois and author of many books about Jewish identity problems, contributes an essay called Jews and Smoking in which he blames cigarettes on the rise of Western anti-Semitism in the first half of the 20th century. Dawn Marlon, another Illinois academic, blames the cigarette culture in France on the nation's s'en foutisme, or inability to give a damn. Robyn Schiffman, an expert on psychoanalysis and German literature, points out in her essay on homosexuality and smoking that "fag" and "drag" are words used in both arenas, that smoking "recalls the orality of fellatio" and that we should all consider "the ways in which cigarettes, cigars and the act of smoking emerge as crucial intertexts in the construction of a queer history of smoking." . . .

OK, so much of the text is pure tosh revealing little more than the current parlous state of North American academia, but the book itself is not without value. As a coffee-table browser it has many splendid and absorbing illustrations - pictures on nearly every page that range from smoking film stars, early advertising posters and ornate carved pipes, to beautiful full-colour reproductions of Western and Oriental art.

For the illustrations alone the book is worth having.

LETTER: The option for smokers

Source: Times Of London (uk), 2004-11-26

In a land which we are encouraged to believe is a bastion of free choice, why cannot the proprietors of establishments decide for themselves whether or not to allow smoking, in accordance with the wishes of their clientele?

Pubs consider dropping food because of smoking ban

Source: The Publican, 2004-11-25

Six out of 10 food pubs are considering dropping their food offer following last week's announcement of a smoking ban.

Shock figures, revealed in a poll of more than 300 licensees on thePublican.com, suggest the government's attempt to restrict smoking to the estimated 20 per cent of pubs which don't currently serve food could be undermined.

Under plans revealed by the Department of Health last week, all pubs "preparing and serving food" will be forced to ban smoking from the end of 2008. But faced with the prospect of a ban, the majority of readers of The Publican are saying they would rather drop food than fags.

Marjorie Suggett, licensee of Annie's Bar in Middlesbrough, said there was little doubt over what action she would be taking.

Dropping cigarette end costs biker £50

Source: Kent Online (uk), 2004-11-24

A 39-year-old biker is angry after being fined £50 for dropping a cigarette end in the road.

Kenneth Williams has become the first man in the borough of Ashford to be fined under new anti-social behaviour litterbug rules and council chiefs are warning others to clean up their act or face the penalty.

Ironically, Mr Williams says he was on his way to get patches to help him quit the smoking habit when he took "a last drag" while he waited for the level-crossing gates in the village of Wye to open.

The quit coke, smoke jab

Source: Sydney Morning Herald (au), 2004-11-24

Jabs to help addicts give up cocaine and cigarettes could be available in just four years, it was predicted today.

Trials on vaccines to combat the addictive effects of cocaine and nicotine on the brain have so far yielded positive results, a seminar in London was told.

Dr Campbell Bunce, of Xenova Group, was among those speaking at the meeting organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Delegates, who included MPs, academics and members of the media, looked at the scientific basis of drug addiction and heard about possible new treatments for the nation's problem.

Accountant adds up cost of smoking ban

Source: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2004-11-23

A ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants could lose the Treasury an estimated £1.8 billion a year in tax.

Mike Warburton, senior tax partner at accountant Grant Thornton, has calculated the cost to the Treasury based on a predicted 15pc decline in the number of smokers.

The Government has proposed to ban smoking in restaurants and any pubs or bars which serve food, partly in an effort to save money for the NHS.

But Mr Warburton said the money saved on healthcare to smokers would be tiny in comparison to the amount the Treasury will lose each year. . . .

Mr Warburton said: "The British Medical Association says that smoking-related illnesses cost the NHS £1.7 billion a year, so a 15pc reduction in smoking could save £250m, although this would take several years to feed through."

He added: "This does explain why we've not had a ban before."

He said that the net cost to the Treasury is more than 0.5p in the pound on the basic rate of income tax. Mr Warburton, a non-smoker, added: "In hard economic terms, the Government benefits from smokers. As an accountant I can look at this in hard terms but my son is a doctor and looks at things differently."

Tobacco firm 'backed' smuggling

Source: Times Of London (uk), 2004-11-24

ONE of the world's largest tobacco producers deliberately encouraged cigarette smuggling in developing countries to offset its dwindling profits in Europe, according to research.

Studies by experts from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine claim that British American Tobacco used smuggling as part of its corporate strategy to expand into lucrative markets in Asia.

Confidential documents from BAT's depository in Guildford, suggest that the company used the illicit trade in cigarettes to lure new smokers, undermine health initiatives and help it to capture key markets.

The studies, published today in the journal Tobacco Control, come in the wake of a four-year confidential inquiry by the Government that cleared BAT of allegations that it colluded in cigarette smuggling.

Landlord fuming over smoking ban

Source: Staffordshire Newsletter, 2004-11-18

A Stafford pub landlord is fuming at the planned introduction of a smoking ban in public places after spending £2,500 on smoke extractors.

Derek Holt, owner of The Grapes, says the move is also an erosion of choice.

Another landlord said he would consider taking food off his menu to enable drinkers to smoke in his pub.

The ban, which the government could implement as early as 2006, will affect all pubs which prepare food - 90 per cent of the nation's hostelries. . . .

The ban has provoked a mixed reaction from pub managers.

Amanda Hook, manager of the Vine, in Salter Street, Stafford, said: "We knew it was coming. Personally, I don't think it's a bad idea but a lot of customers are not going to be happy especially the older element who are used to standing at the bar smoking. The younger ones will probably appreciate the cleaner air.

"The ideal situation would be a smoking room which is ventilated and has a closed door. I will just have to buy a patio heater for my smoking customers."

Job axe brewing with smoke

Source: Birmingham Post (uk), 2004-11-18

Thousands of licensed trade jobs in the Midlands could go down the drain because of the proposed UK smoking ban.

The sector could see 32,000 jobs lost nationally, customers fall by 7.6 per cent and profits drop by over £230 million as a result of proposed legislation bringing in a smoking ban in England and Wales.

And the Midlands will be hardest hit, according to new research by business advisers BDO Stoy Hayward.

The research, which looks at the behaviour of pub-goers in relation to smoking and alcohol consumption patterns across the UK, shows that the loss of business will far outweigh any new trade. . . .

Kim Rayment, business recovery partner at BDO Stoy Hayward's Birmingham business centre, said: "Dublin alone lost 2,000 jobs in a population of over one million.

JENKINS: Join the beer and fags club

You are free under law to risk your own health, unless you want to take drugs or hunt foxes

Source: Times Of London (uk), 2004-11-19

Mark with care this week's statement from John Reid, the Health Secretary, on smoking. With the excitement of Archimedes in his bath, Mr Reid claimed to have discovered the golden mean, "the balance between protection for the majority and personal freedom for the minority". His new theorem holds that "you are free under the law to do things that risk your own health. What you are not allowed to do in a civilised society is things that damage the health of others and do things that cause discomfort to others."

This is an almost exact plagiarism of John Stuart Mill. He wrote that "the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community against his will is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." A person's freedom to do what he wants, said Mill, should be limited only insofar as "he must not make himself a nuisance to other people". Mr Reid professes to agree.

Hence smoking may be a nasty, smelly, NHS-crippling habit. It may cause 50,000, or any number of, deaths a year. But provided that it does no harm to others, it is not to be illegal. Accordingly Mr Reid will license "smoking pubs" and clubs for consenting adults, in isolated premises where no food is served. Why no food is beyond me. It is as if nanny were saying, "You will go to bed without your supper!" I suspect the intervention of the Union of Government Inspectors, Regulators and Meddlers, the Arthur Scargills of our age, always on the lookout for work.

Howard attacks 'ban it' mentality

Conservative Party leader Michael Howard attacked the Labour Government's "ban it" mentality in a speech on Sunday night.

Source: Politics.co.uk (uk), 2004-11-22

He told the World's Association of Newspapers conference that neither the ban on hunting nor the decision to effectively ban smoking in public places had clear justification.

"Only where there is the clearest possible justification should Government interfere with our freedoms. That is certainly not the case with last week's bans," he said.

The Conservatives have pledged to overturn the ban on hunting with dogs if they win the next General Election. They also favour a self-regulatory approach to banning smoking - an approach that has already seen it banned on aeroplanes, trains, buses and many football grounds.

Mr Howard continued: "We need to resist the urge to ban things just because we personally don't agree with them. The 'ban it' mentality strikes at the very heart of the principles underlying liberal democracies - that people should have the freedom to make their own choices."

Letter: Supporters put case for smoking

Source: Times Of London (uk), 2004-09-25

Sir, We would like to raise our voices against calls to ban smoking in pubs, clubs and restaurants (report, September 24). Claims that the US hospitality industry is doing better since the New York ban was introduced are based on the recovery of the whole city economy since 9/11, and by including everything from McDonald's to liquor stores. But in bars and clubs the ban is widely hated.

According to a new independent survey of its first year, it has also cost 2,650 jobs, $50 million in earnings and $71.5 million to related businesses. Claims that the Irish ban is a success after six months are equally dubious, considering that anyone defying it faces fines of �3,000 or three months in prison.

Many people believe that the dangers of smoking and passive smoking are currently being exaggerated to the point of hysteria. The risks of passive smoke have never been proven beyond meaningless levels in a small minority of studies . . . .

We call on both government and the media to de-escalate the tension on this issue and let common sense and the free market decide the future of British social life.

Yours faithfully, JOE JACKSON, TREVOR BAYLIS, SIMON COWELL, FELIX DENNIS, STEPHEN FRY, BOB GELDOF, SIMON GRAY, MAGGI HAMBLING, RONALD HARWOOD, DAVID HOCKNEY, BORIS JOHNSON, LISA STANSFIELD, CHRIS TARRANT, ANTONY WORRALL THOMPSON, c/o 15 Eccleston Street, London SW1W 9LX.

AHMED: Blair's nanny govt leaves little choice

Source: The Times of India, 2004-11-20

To paraphrase Isaac Bashevis Singer, modern Britain has to believe in free will. It has no choice. The options are pretty much like the Model-T Ford car cheerily advertised thus by its maker -- any colour, so long as it's black. So, the average adult in Tony Blair's Britain now has the choice to have a fag, fatty food or fornicate, just as long as he doesn't actually do it. . . .

And now the famously eccentric English and fabulously drunken, fried-food-bingeing Scots have been offered this remarkable lifestyle choice too: smoke if you want to, just don't do it this side of the Suez unless you're prepared to break the law and get spat upon by passive smokers angry they're being denied the right to clean air.

So where are we at? Labour, the most nannying government in British history, has begun a campaign to re-brand the very word choice. Like 'Animal Farm', choice now means ban. Or a command issued by the 'servants of the people' for the greater common good. When Blair's government recently issued a White Paper on public health, 'choice' was mentioned twice in the title and 35 times within the document. . . .

Where and when have we heard that before? Alarmingly enough, in Hitler's Germany, back in the 1940s. The Third Reich depended on wholesomeness. Every individual had to do his "duty" by being healthy. To this end, the government insisted on "the primacy of the public good over individual liberties".

LETTER: BAN IS WRONG WAY TO STAMP OUT SMOKING

Source: This is Somerset (uk), 2004-11-18

I am not a smoker myself, but the government are going the wrong way if they hope to stamp the habit out.

Indeed smoking is unhealthy, but the habit relieves stress and the daily anxiety of living for many people. . . .

It is unlikely the law will stop this disgusting tradition.

Youngsters smoke in their natural revolt against their elders. I have been a smoker myself, and know what it is all about.

After living for many years in Canada I gave up smoking for no accountable reason the day I landed in Britain. . . .

I am concerned in what will take its place if banned, probably some potent drug.

The exhaust fumes from automobiles are far more dangerous and the toxic waste from power stations, the experiments from scientific laboratories, increase in aircraft traffic and war games are the scourge of humanity.

There are lessons to be learned from smoking bans

Source: icNewcastle (uk), 2004-11-22

The question investors must ask themselves is how this White Paper, which is likely to become law within four years, will affect connected firms?

The easiest method of weighing up the possible impact on the firms is to look at places where the ban has already been implemented.

Since the smoking ban took effect in New York for example, there has been a trend towards holding dinner parties because smokers are choosing to entertain at home rather than going out to a restaurant. In Ireland, publicans and restaurateurs have felt the main effect of the ban. For example, keg beer sales, which account for about 65pc to 70pc of sales in a pub, have fallen on average 6pc since January. Given that costs are largely fixed, the impact on profitability will be magnified. Anecdotal evidence suggests pub profits have slipped between 15pc and 25pc. The impact on the UK's pub businesses, such as Mitchells and Butlers, Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns, could therefore be quite serious. . . . Following strong rises in the shares prices of tobacco companies over recent years, investors may well consider taking some profits.

MP'S PARLY HUFF AND PUFF

Source: Daily Record and Sunday Mail (uk), 2004-11-20

An English Labour MP has launched an astonishing attack on the Scottish parliament over the smoking ban.

Train operators GNER are to withdraw smoking on their main east coast line because it is impratical to have a ban on half their service linking London to Edinburgh.

But the move infuriated Doncaster Labour MP and smoker Kevin Hughes. He said: 'There is no way we should allow a tin-pot parish council to decide what we should or shouldn't do in England.'

MATTHEWS: Passive smoking? It's all lies, damn lies and statistics

In the absence of proof, health campaigners use smoke and mirrors, writes Robert Matthews

Source: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2004-11-21

Then, in October 1997, the British Medical Journal published two studies by researchers from St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, which pulled all these inconclusive studies together and put them through the statistical mangle.

Out dripped the result that many just knew was in there: evidence that passive smoking leads to a 26 per cent increased risk of lung cancer, with a similar increase for heart disease.

This was the turning point in the long-running debate over smoking and health. . . .

Prof Enstrom was immediately attacked for failing to reach the right result. Critics seized on his acceptance of tobacco-industry funding, with even the American Cancer Society, which had set up the study, dismissing the study as nothing more than a propaganda exercise. . . .

Privately, some scientists and anti-smoking lobbyists concede that the evidence for the lethal effects of passive smoking is less than compelling.

Yet they insist that qualms over the scientific evidence should not get in the way of the ultimate goal: the elimination of an avoidable cause of more than 100,000 deaths in the UK each year.

It is a line of argument with potentially lethal consequences. For despite all the efforts of campaigners and governments, around one in five people on the planet are smokers. Passive smoking is thus ubiquitous, and its effects must be taken into account in any study into potential causes of cancer or heart disease. If the risks from passive smoking have been exaggerated, there is a real danger that the risks from other causes will be underestimated - with untold consequences for human health.

EDITORIAL: A BLACK WEEK

Source: Hexham Courant (uk), 2004-11-19

Smoking is a loathesome habit, which fouls the air, pollutes the lungs and costs the National Health Service millions of pounds each year.

On the other hand, smokers contribute many more millions to the National Exchequer in tax, and even ex-smokers will say there is nothing like a cigarette for calming the nerves and sharpening the senses. . . .

The dangers of smoking are well documented, and no-one enjoys eating a meal when some ignoramus on the next table is wreathed in foul-smelling smoke.

However, banning smoking in pubs is a different thing altogether; is the frustrated smoker not equally entitled to object to having beer fumes exhaled into his face by some ale-fuelled toper at the bar?

Matters such as these should be down to responsible personal choice, and not be enshrined in the statute books.

Smokers 'Will Entertain at Home after Ban'

Source: The Scotsman, 2004-11-17

Calling last orders on smoking in restaurants and some pubs and bars will see a massive change in the social habits of smokers, who will opt to stay in and entertain rather than go out, according to research published today.

A survey by Churchill Insurance found that around half of all smokers (44%) would shun pubs to entertain at home.

Churchill's home insurance spokesman, Greg Dawson said: "The ban could well encourage some very different social patterns.

"With over five million of the population pledging to stay home instead of heading out on the town, bars will be emptier and we will need to learn to be good hosts and hostesses again.

Smoking ban is scuppered

Ken Livingstone's hopes of a London-wide smoking ban have been dashed by the Government.

The Mayor had backed plans by the capital's councils to outlaw the habit in all public places.

But Health Secretary John Reid will announce tomorrow that smoking cannot be banned on a council by council or even city by city basis.

Dr Reid will instead announce plans for a scheme which will permit people to light up in bars, restaurants and pubs as long as the premises have a licence.

The compromise deal has been prompted by Labour's fears of being accused of running a "nanny state".

FITZPATRICK: We have ways of making you stop smoking

Source: spiked (uk), 2004-11-15

Tobacco is one of the most deadly poisons.

Adolf Hitler, 1941

There are striking parallels between the Nazi 'war on cancer' and the New Labour crusade against smoking (1). In Nazi Germany, every individual had 'a duty to be healthy'; furthermore, to ensure that individuals fulfilled this duty, the government insisted on 'the primacy of the public good over individual liberties' (2). Tony Blair acknowledges that smokers - and non-smokers - have rights. More importantly, however, 'both have responsibilities - to themselves, to each other, to their families, and to the wider community' (3).

To ensure that smokers meet these responsibilities, the government is planning further bans and proscriptions on their activities. In Germany in the 1930s, the medical profession played a leading role in the state campaign to restrict smoking. In Britain today, doctors again provide medical legitimacy and moral authority for state regulation of individual behaviour.

Interview: Gareth Davis, Imperial Tobacco chief executive

Source: The Guardian (uk), 2004-11-13

Gareth Davis, Britain's biggest tobacco baron, who makes and markets almost half of all cigarettes smoked in the UK, is fuming. "It's about smokers having the right to enjoy a simple pleasure - that's what it comes down to," he says. "Some 25% of the adult population smokes and that is a not insubstantial number. They have been vilified, victimised and pushed into corners for long enough. They pay their taxes - it is not asking a lot to sit down with a pint and a fag quietly in a pub." . . .

In the absence of tobacco, Mr Davis explains, 100 people in every 1m would still die of lung cancer each year. Passive smoking adds just 25 bodies to the annual lung cancer death toll for every 1m people who live with smokers. . . .

Set in context, Mr Davis argues, the link between passive smoking and lung cancer is comparable with the kind of weak statistical associations between, for example, electric power lines and childhood leukaemia, and between breast implants and connective tissue disorder. Diesel fumes, meanwhile, have been shown to have more of an association with lung cancer than has passive smoke, according to studies highlighted by Mr Davis. . . .

"We say very clearly the public health community has concluded there is a link between cigarette smoking and certain disease. And we have never challenged that public health message. "But if I'm asked under oath: 'Does smoking cause lung cancer?' I have to answer truthfully ... The simple fact is - however inconvenient it might be for people to hear it - despite 50 years of research the biological mechanisms between smoking and the cause of diseases are still unknown." He is the last remaining multinational tobacco baron to hold out on this point, refusing to accept that smoking causes death. Despite government-imposed "smoking kills" warnings printed on packs of Imperial cigarettes, Mr Davis maintains a resolutely agnostic position.

Quotes from this article:

I said it was entirely up to her. It's her own life. It's her own decision. I can't recall having that direct a conversation with her, but really it was a matter of her free will. She's intelligent and capable of making up her own mind. There were cigarettes around and we said to her: 'Look, if you're going to smoke, tell us and smoke. Don't do it furtively.'

Gareth Davis, Imperial Tobacco chief executive, on whether -- or not -- he talked to his teenage daughter about smoking.

We say very clearly the public health community has concluded there is a link between cigarette smoking and certain disease. And we have never challenged that public health message. But if I'm asked under oath: 'Does smoking cause lung cancer?' I have to answer truthfully ... The simple fact is - however inconvenient it might be for people to hear it - despite 50 years of research the biological mechanisms between smoking and the cause of diseases are still unknown.

Gareth Davis, Imperial Tobacco chief executive, on whether -- or not -- smoking causes disease.

Restaurants chew over smoking ban

A ban on smoking in public places in England might be four years off but the hospitality industry has not lost any time in addressing its consequences since the publication of a government white paper on public health three weeks ago.

For a start, the industry has been trying to decipher exactly what John Reid, the health secretary, intended in his proposals. . . .

Christine Milburn, of the British Beer and Pub Association, said the organisation would meet the government to clarify the nature of measures that would outlaw smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces, including restaurants and public houses serving food but not private clubs. . . .

The BPPA still hopes to convince the government that voluntary measures adopted in September by members accounting for more than 40 per cent of the pub sector - such as banning smoking at the bar and in work areas and reducing smoking areas to 20 per cent of floor space by 2009 - render legislation unnecessary.

But while there will be no government action before a general election, many in the industry already view a ban of some description as inevitable and are attempting to find a compromise.

Smokers' mistletoe snub

A survey for the NHS Smoking Helpline found that two-thirds of young women and men thought seeing someone with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth reduced sexual attractiveness.

And a third of smokers, and four out of five non-smokers said they found smoking a big turn-off.

The poll, of more than 1,000 people aged 18 to 35, found that a fifth of non-smokers had turned down someone they otherwise found attractive because they smoked.

Smoking ban to become reality

Many employers, particularly those in Scotland, need to consider reviewing their smoking policies over the coming months in preparation for the introduction of a ban on smoking in public places, according to Jane Fraser, the partner who heads up the employment, pensions and benefits department at corporate lawyers, Maclay Murray & Spens.

The Executive has already taken the first steps towards introducing a comprehensive ban on smoking in public places in Scotland from spring 2006, with the necessary legislative proposals being set out in the Health Service (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, due to be presented to Parliament before Christmas.

Jane Fraser explains: "What many may not yet appreciate is that the proposals for England and Wales, which have been set out in the white paper on public health, do not go as far as the Scottish plans."

South of the border, the Government has proposed that all enclosed public places and workplaces will be smoke free and that all restaurants, pubs and bars preparing and serving food will also be smoke free, by the end of 2008.

Shakin' Stevens

POP star Shakin' Stevens had hospital tests yesterday after a heart scare.

The 56-year-old heavy smoker - real name Michael Barratt - saw a top heart specialist.

Doctors have not ruled out surgery on the 80s rocker, who is believed to have circulation problems and high cholesterol. . . .

And a friend said: "He has been concerned about his health for some time. He seems to smoke a lot and that could take its toll on his health."

Europe launches shock tobacco ads

The European Commission has launched a series of hard-hitting images to be used to show the damage smoking can do to people's health.

The graphic images are part of a 72m euro campaign against smoking.

The 42 images show pictures including rotten lungs and a man with a large tumour on his throat.

Individual countries can decide whether or not to include the images on cigarette packs. The UK Department of Health has said it will consult over introducing them.

The European Commission is also calling on member states to implement long-term measures, such as effective regulators, to tackle smoking levels.

Its experts estimate the annual cost of tobacco related disease in the EU at 100 billion euros a year.

The Commission says picture warnings are set to be introduced in a number of countries next year, including Ireland and Belgium.

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Opinions divided over proposed smoking ban

The Government's proposed ban on smoking in places where food is served will have thousands of owner-run pubs, cafe and restaurants worrying about the possible effects to their business -- but professional opinion is divided, with some saying it would increase custom and others believing it would reduce trade.

The proposed ban is flagged in the Government's white paper entitled Choosing health -- Making healthy choices easier. If it is carried out it will affect an estimated 58,000 pubs in the UK, of which 80 per cent are small businesses run by tenants, lessees and owners.

Around 70 per cent of businesses in the restaurant sector are also owner-operated.

While the ban is nothing if not contentious, opinions are divided as to whether it would have a positive or negative effect on small businesses trade.

Some research, such as that by professional services firm KPMG, has found that a ban on smoking in pubs would actually increase business. Other organisations, such as the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), remain convinced that the effects would be damaging.