As Pete Robinson points out, their complete misreading of the likely impact of the smoking ban must be one of the key reasons for the current financial plight of the pub companies. And there was no shortage of people who could have told them that at the time.
There is also a perceptive point made in the comments that the smoking ban must be one of the main factors behind the swing from Labour to BNP at the recent elections. Now, I hold no brief for the BNP, but the ban made it crystal clear that Labour no longer stood up for or even understood the traditional working classes, and indeed has a deeply patronising attitude towards them.