This pub landlord obviously needs smokers and he must think this sign will draw them in. It made me look twice.
I noticed it while walking about Skegness in my lunch half hour yesterday. I would have gone in if I'd had time. We smokers are definitely in the majority in the town and this landlord wants to offer us hospitality if only he could - especially today as it chucked it down.
There's no sight more miserable than a collection of all sorts of people on holiday in a grey, wet, and seaside town huddled in doorways and under canopies. Some had pushchairs and wheelchairs as they sheltered. Most people were smoking, some were not.
Outdoor restaurant, cafe, and pub tables, all with ashtrays filling rapidly with rain, were empty but are usually full on nice days. Non-smokers are now more exposed to smoke than ever before because of this ridiculous ill thought out law.
People who hate smoke have to walk through smokers to get to the door of these establishments, they walk among smokers on the street, smoke is everywhere. We cannot choose to be segregated from them nor they from us. We have to mix. We cannot choose to take up the hospitality that the landlord would like to offer us while they take up the hospitality of one who wouldn't.
I haven't met any anti-smokers during my short time in Skegness but judging from an early summer headline I've seen, the town has had problems with "filthy" litter from smokers and resolves to "get tough".
I mentioned to my newsdesk that it would be great to have a positive litter campaign of awareness and promotion of pocket ashtrays, rather than the heavy hammer of an official threat that starts from the "filthy smoker" stance.
The real culprit is not smokers but the smoking ban. If smokers could go inside and use the ashtrays provided for them by the business owners who want to provide them,then there would be no litter on the street. But when I looked in town today, I didn't see the problem.
Bins and street ashtrays are provided and they are used. Those fag ends that I did see in the street were starting to degrade they were so old. I also saw the odd plastic bottle, chip tray, and drink can here and there too. Litter is litter. Why should it have special significance because a smoker dropped it?
Incidentally, I don't go out for fag breaks while at work. I'm not a "pathetic addict" you see. I just simply don't have time and this week has been hell hence the lack of posts yesterday.