Smokey And The Banned-It: Part Two

Following up on yesterday’s piece about the smoking ban, the local health minister has dismissed – as you might expect – the idea that this will lead to “total ruination” of the bar and restaurant sector. She has also sought to remind everyone that the ban is part of a wider European Union-inspired drive to enforce total prohibition in public places in all countries by 2012. When all else fails in the winning of hearts and minds, blame it all on Brussels. She has also been at pains to point out that more stringent enforcement has been applied elsewhere, such as in the UK, so that’s alright then; it’s all a question of degree. Where she has more justification is in pointing out that a ban has not proved to be particularly harmful in Italy, another grand smoking country, and though the measure has proved to have popular support in Italy, she might have added that Italian bar owners have been adept at finding the odd loophole. Without naming them, she says that bans have resulted in increased numbers of customers in some countries. It might be interesting to know which ones.

As always, it comes down to how politicians want to spin the issue. Sra. Buades (the health minister) has not seemingly referred to the Croatian backtracking or to the lack of enforcement in Greece, but despite all this, one can pretty much safely assume that the ban in Spain, and therefore Mallorca, will go ahead, albeit that no date has been set.

On this topic, my thanks to Dave for drawing attention to the harmful impact of the smoking bans on country pubs in Scotland. He calls for “more freedom to choose, less proscription”. Amen to that, whatever the cause, only problem being, Dave, that Europe ain’t going to let there be a choice.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.