Wednesday, February 15, 2006
The Smoking Wars
Unless you live under a rock, you will know about the introduction of an anti-smoking law in Spain in January of this year.
Personally, I think the issue has turned into something akin to a drawing room farce. Like actors exiting stage right, it is all a case of coming in one door and (mostly) going out the other ...
The Spanish Cockpit say that, "the law is simply shuffling the geography of where smoking takes place."
Leslie at Scribbles from Tenerife says "... going ‘out’ for a drink must now be much more literally interpreted. It mainly involves standing outside bars and sitting outside restaurants."
And now that the UK has voted for a ban on smoking in all pubs, clubs and restaurants in England from the summer of 2007, one critic hits the nail on the head:
"One of the problems with the ban when it comes in, will be that people will move into the street, they'll smoke more at home, and it could end up being counter-productive."
Which could all be excellent news for Tenerife tourism.
If you can't smoke in your country, come here.
Up here in the north, the weather is nothing like that in the south. It's nothing like as bad as the UK either, but we do have less bars with outside patios, especially in non-tourist areas, so there seem to be more of them who allow smoking inside.
In most places, whilst, at least both smokers and non-smokers alike now have the "equal opportunity" of dying from the effects of inhaling exhaust fumes, factory emissions and a whole lot of other pollutants out on the street - all far more toxic than can be generated by a whole bar full of chain-smokers - in many countries, they can opt for pneumonia instead.
No matter how "bloody chilly" Leslie thinks it is, what we have now is perfectly normal weather for Birmingham. In June.
It may not be what we'd call hot, but standing outside, unless wet from the Atlantic, is unlikely to cause hypothermia.
PS: Leslie has also started a series of regular posts with honest (he's daring) helpful information for tourists to Tenerife. He's definitely right about packing umbrellas and buckets. If it rains any more up here, we'll all be growing rice in paddy fields!
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2 Comments:
Pamela wrote (on
February 16, 2006)
LOL!
Please note that Secret Tenerife provides no warranties, implied or otherwise, regarding the services offered by sites we link to.
Even if we do think "truthful to the point of sidesplittingly funny" is actually a helpful service.
I consider slanderous any suggestion that a post on my blog could be even remotely helpful!
:o)