This ban on smoking in public places, in what is left of the UK, is yet another piece of social engineering by a contemptuous, mainly suburban, bunch of left-wing lower middle-class do-gooders.

The devastating effects of social exclusion will not be reported.

Nor will the fact that the peaceful actions of a quarter of the population have now been declared criminal and the people stigmatised.

The media will not report it.. Why? Because they are always in cahoots with the Guardianista idealists. They also believe naively in State Control. Why do you you think there is so little comedy under socialist governments?

Step by litle step my once great country is being ground into little pieces of dogshit.

Excuse my esperanto..

Will, London, West London, England.

as a smoker i would never smoke in a restaurant or eating place and when we had no smoking and smoking sections they were not really fair to non smokers , but now the government has gone too far, the local pub will close, after the law of drink driving which is a good thing pubs had to get with good food to compensate, now the government will kill local pubs as it has local villlage shops, Our rural villages will be lost and community spirit lost too. I have smoked for years and for years have smoked outside in consideration and thought for others, I do think now that most smokers will say stuff it lets have a party at home, as we did when drink driving laws were inforced smokers will do the same now they will not venture to a pub

ruth vickerman, louth, england

This insane smoking ban in pubs and clubs will be the end of the British pub, the idiots who passed this law obviously either dont smoke or don't go to pubs, a night out in the pub is the only pleasure some people have after working all week, the old man sat in the corner having his lunchtime pint and a pipe of tobacco has just had his pipe ripped from his mouth by a bunch of hand wringing do gooders who do not live in the real world, this also effects none smokers when their smoking friends and relatives don't go to the pub to meet them any more.
on top of that jobs will be lost as pubs close all over the country, i was a labour voter all my life but never again.

ken roughsedge, Morecambe, England

Bars are not health clubs. As a smoker it is intensely annoying to
be dictated to by a bunch of interfering busybodies who probably
never go to the pub anyway. It's difficult to imagine non-smokers
spending more time in the pub and enabling publicans to make
up the inevitable shortfall caused by smokers spending far less
time in bars and clubs. As any smoker will tell you, the first thing you
do upon ordering a drink is reach for your cigarrettes. Don't smokers
have any rights? At the very least, providing an area for smokers in
every establishment, is surely infinitely fairer. Scotland and Ireland
have seen huge revenue losses, for the simple reason that these
draconian new "PC" laws are so annoying that smokers are happier
to stay at home - and who can blame them?

Nicholas Hume, Amersham, England

Here in Scotland the ban has angered many smokers who have tolerated it insofar as to stay within the law. To many people however the ban was seen as a breach of their civil rights and as the Scottish parliamentary elections are only a few weeks away I believe that this is an issue that will come home to roost when the electorate cast their votes.

Robert, Glasgow, Scotland

if every pub and every club in the whole of country refused to accept the smoking ban how would the govement enforce it.it wouldnt happen in france if the french didnt want the ban then it woudnt happen.in england we are far to soft and take everthing that the govement throw at us.i am sick to death of been told what i can and cant do. so come on england refuse to do what this govement keep telling us

anne halls, northallerton, england

ive just seen that custody cells in exeter are the latest to ban smoking,isnt this against our human rights to be confined,without any trial.and stopped from using a legal product [tobacco ],especially if no charges were brought,and as the time in custody would be a place of residence,and wont it be against the human rights of the mentally ill in 2008 to be confined to hospitals where they cannot smoke?We are losing all our rights and freedom under the not so New Labour.Time to join freedom2choose.co.uk and lets try and get these bans declared illegal in the courts.

zanuzi, walsall,

I'm in Ireland. Deep South. Its devastation.

I challenge mainstream media hacks everywhere to stop sucking on your well-fed PC comfort thing, regain your teeth, our trust and your integrity. Shove the editorial embargo, find what's real and report it.

You think this doesn't affect you ? Democracy dies in England on July 1st, when the very first fascist law comes into force and fifteen milliion people, ordinary decent taxpayers, stand to be criminalised. Too strong? How obliterated would you like your freedom to be?

Here in Ireland we are three years into social oblivion. It grows worse by the week as one pub after another [read meeting place] closes down permanently; accurately, but not nearly strikingly enough, reported in this article.

Will you listen to the speak-up? Will you act on it?? Or will you go deaf, blind & dumb, as is the fashion, lets face it, among hacks, concerning ordinary-but-real human rights and the removal of them.

Donal McCarthy, Ireland, Ireland

Having just read about the cost of dementia (10 times the cost of smoking!) and learning that nicotine actually works against this illness I can only think that smoking legislation comes from an extremely blinkered smoke-hating group. It's a shame science is adjusted to serve extremists rather than seeking truth.

Chris, Cornwall,

The pub is a meeting place for the community .
A lot of people who smoke go to the pub, In my area various pubs tried non- smoking rooms this section of the pub would then be empty and the smoking section be total
packed, Landlords had to revert to smoking throughout for economic reasons.
Non-smokers always seem to follow smokers. They must be more interesting or the haze around them gives them a mysterious quality.
Looks like we will be all staying at home getting drunk and depressed not very good for society, never mind the publicans who will have lost there means of making a living.

Greg Burrows, Dewsbury, England

This was an unwanted ban by the majority, Cars and homes will be affected. Where we will be allowed outside. It has gone beyond any health advice, it is social engineering. How will they know if someone has suffered from asbestos or other chemicals, if you arrive at the hospital and they know you smoke, given that many mistakes are made, will you get treated or not. It is an absolute disgrace what is going on in this Country, intolerance leads to hatred. This is all for a smell, a choice of non-smoking and smoking venues areas ect should have been the way forward, ventilation.
Given the amount of Usa citizens on anti- depressants, the drug companies are on to a nice little earner, I think.
I will not even think of giving up something I enjoy, with such flimsy evidence or being forced into a corner.
I hate this Labour government.
My vote will go to UkIP.
freedom2choose.co.uk for tolerant smokers and smokers alike

mandy, Cambs, UK

It is terribly sad. People smoked for years, and few complained. I think this whole health scare about tobacco smoke is fostered by the automobile and petroleum industries. It has been since the proliferation of the automobile that people's breathing problems surfaced. Fewer people are smoking, and yet the problems are multiplying. Perhaps all the PC scientists should look at the REAL culprit.

John McIlray, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA

Is anyone really surprised?

It is just another casualty of the PC brigade.

If the government wasintent on banning smoking for health reasons, why were they initially poroposing to allow it in pubs that did not serve food? Are we to assume that passive smoking does not harm one's health if you are not eating? Is it safe to consume secondhand smoke whilst eating a bag of crisps and yet lethal when eating a full cooked dinner?

Somehow I think the whole thing reeks (more than secondhand smoke) of pandering to the PC pressure groups. Another nail in the coffin of Britons' freedoms.

Edwin Thornber, Bucharest, Romania

i'm 18 and have smoked on and off for a year and regularly now for about 8 months. As a fairly young smoker, with many friends who do it i go out with them and enjoy a fag and a pint or two. I recently wen to edinburgh with a friend of mine, and we found it extremely quiet in the pubs and bars we visited, but also how we might as well have stayed in the flat with some beers and fags before going out to the gig we were going to. But the ban also stopped us from smoking in the venue (but in england we smoke all the time when at gigs and inside); i think that from the aspect of living in a village i can say that i do actually think the ban will have an affect on punbs selling alcohol as certainly a lot of people i know will now find other places to smoke and enjoy drinks with their friends so we can do as we please while drinking.

J Nattrass, York,

Separate smoking areas or smoking or non smoking pubs or the latest ventilation would keep everyone happy !.
The cost allegidly to treat smoking related illnesses by the NHS is approx., 1.7 billion, the income tax from cigarettes in england is 10billion, that is more than enough to cover the costs!

chris, Blackpool, Lancashire

Sir, Once again we witness the lack of a joined-up policy from the government:
* Pubs can open until all hours, frequenly until 04:00
* Smokers, including staff, must go outside to smoke - and talk
* Bans on late admissions are made a nonsense of
* Nearby residents must be disturbed by talking under their bedroom windows

Ken, Oxford, England

At last a journalist with common sense and not hysteria! There are many other ways of dealing with tobacco smoke without an outright ban!

Charles, Reading,

Isn't it interesting how this topic is at last being aired seriously. Perhaps the parallel closures of Post offices and other rural facilities will combine to raise the profile still further in the Westminster Village - who ironically will not be (legally) subject to the smoking ban. What is equally worrying is the level of investment (taxes) being devoted to the enforcement which in the next 12 months will exceed £100 million as a total package. What other legal pursuit (ie smoking) is about to be subjected to such zeal by this Government? How can this "zeal" be considered proportionate as compared against the Health & Safety Executive's guidance to their (enforcement) operations officers (OC 255/15, page 3 article 9) where the risk from smoking, let alone secondary hardly features on their radar.

Peter Eveleigh, Bradford on Avon,

Country pubs are closing down all over Europe. I suspect this is due to the effects of the anti-drink driving campaigns and the social stigma that now goes with drink driving, rather than the non-smoking laws, which is why city bars are noticing no difference in sales or indeed in many cases an increase in food sales.
How can anyone say that a ban on smoking in an enclosed space is not an improvement to the people in that enclosed space?

Eddie, Glasgow,

What about my rights then, as a smoker do i have no rights at all, i dont force you into my pub you have a choice either to use it or not. 95% of my customers smoke, why should i be forced to bring in a law for 5% of them. if you dont like it stay away.! smokers keep the pubs open, you dont.!

Tony, Hereford, Herefordshire

As I understand it there are well over 100 pub closures in Scotland and around a dozen Bingo halls have closed.
What is often forgotten is the effect of the bans on community and its smoking and non-smoking people.
I feel sure that, despite the anti-smoker's cries, there must be an acceptable air quality that includes some tobacco smoke after all we are expected to breath the air in town centres with high concentrations of exhaust pollutants and are told that there are acceptable levels of these toxic substances.
The insistance that all ETS risk should be removed creates other risk and damage that was not considered when MPs were so heavily lobbied by anti-smoking groups.
Did they explain that smoking rates tend to increase with total bans, that many people isolated by the ban will suffer depression, that large numbers of employees will lose their jobs or that the increased use of patio heaters will create huge amounts of greenhouse gasses.
Balance was missing from the debate.

Chris, Cornwall,

Tough.

I don't doubt some places will fare better, customer-wise, than others.

But overall, this long overdue legislation will protect the rights of non smokers not to suffer this foul smelling, hazardous toxic muck. And the NHS will probably benefit, with less people being treated for what it does to people.

Joe, Manchester,