The (smoking) room upstairs

It is quite sickening to see such a blatant disregard of the rules or, worse still, a manipulation countering their effect, especially when matters of health are concerned. I am, of course, referring to the smoking ban.

Unfortunately, the regulations prohibiting smoking inside public places were not the breath of fresh air I had hoped for. And this is not so much to be blamed upon the smokers themselves, who do in fact have a right to smoke so long as this is not done to the detriment of non-smokers. Yet, there are numerous places in Paceville that have come up with ways of getting around the rules and the situation is no better than that which prevailed preceding the legislation.

I will not be mentioning any names, as I do not want to give would-be offenders any good or bad publicity. Some establishments are getting around the smoking ban by placing a few chairs on ground floor, glibly quoting the relevant legal notice, while retaining an upstairs area (of large proportions) as a designated smoking area. This is all due to the wording of the legal notice as there is no specification as to the size or to the percentage of the premises that must be non-smoking.

The advantage (and disadvantage) of a legal notice is that it can be amended unilaterally by the minister in question without any need for Parliament's intervention and lengthy process. Therefore it is imperative that such amendment occurs as the current wording allows for larger and/or more fortunate establishments to act solely in their own interests, verging on unfair competition.

Also, the whole scope of the smoking ban is being defeated and the very people who applauded the government's initiative may well retreat into glum submission. That is the current situation. Perhaps in 2005 we'll be talking about a revolution.