It's all been quiet on the blog front for a couple of weeks as I have been away on a train holiday around Poland - much more enjoyable than it initially sounds, especially given some fantastic weather, neatly dodging the floods there.
One of the things that our trip helpfully brought into focus was the massive leap forwards that the UK took in 2005 when it banned smoking in public places. Despite being a lifelong non-smoker, I was initially slightly sceptical about what it would do to the pubs and clubs that I still occasionally (!) frequent. Now, in retrospect, I can't imagine ever going back to where we were.
My girlfriend and I actively avoided going out in the evenings while we were away as everywhere was just so horribly smoky and smelly, aside from the health implications of being in that sort of poisonous atmosphere. When we occasionally did find a restaurant which was non-smoking (including the chain of good veggie places!), we breathed a huge sigh of relief. I'm off out to the pub in a minute and I just love the fact that I can do so without compromising my health or personal hygiene!
My colleague in parliament, Stephen Williams, is now the chair of the all-party group on Smoking and Health and he is currently pressing for progress on the next stage of legislation to remove tobacco from public life which the last government was stalling on - namely, stopping the public display of tobacco products in shops and bars. This will help to cut exposure to smoking even further, cutting addiction rates and improving health.
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