Your Lord has decided to stay at home this summer and not bother with the usual stay in our beloved Eastbourne. After our last stay at The Pink Pillars turned out so disastrously, my wife and I have come to the conclusion that you can have more fun at home.

When I visit a public house for a swift couple of brandies I like to accompany them with the odd cigar. Obviously, since the ban on smoking in pubs, this pleasure has now been denied me.

What on Earth has happened to our society where adult people are forced out of pubs and onto the pavement in order to get their dose of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide?

I remember a time when pubs had frosted glass windows, presumably to stop children’s and wives’ prying eyes from looking in on the drunken behaviour of the regulars.

Indeed, it seems that all the activities that are deemed antisocial were kept well and truly out of sight.

Why it is that today the situation has completely and utterly changed?

Walk down the average high street and you will see crowds of smokers standing outside pubs, shivering in the cold and blowing clouds of smoke over passers-by before flicking the fag butts onto the pavement or into the gutter.

Whereas children were saved the sight of adults committing slow suicide when smoking was all part of pub culture, now the filthy habit is there for all to see.
Granted, there have always been pub gardens and benches on forecourts that smokers used in the summer but the kind of people who stand outside a pub at 11.10am on a weekday are of a different breed from the fair-weather drinkers.

The majority of these characters are not pleasant to look at and would be hidden by the pub doors if smoking was still permitted inside. Before the smoking ban, the only time these characters would step outside the pub would be when they had spent their money and been sent on their way.

When people offer the argument that the ban came into being to protect the bar staff, I always point out that most of the bar staff I have met over the years can’t wait to collect some glasses so that they can have a crafty fag.

Of course the obvious solution for non-smokers is not to seek bar work.

So, if the weather is nice this year, I will spend it in the fresh air of the Piggott Estate. If not, I will settle myself into my favourite armchair with my brandy and cigar and reminisce about the days when this country was a free one.


Your Lord would like to hear your opinions on this controversial subject.

Would you object if I smoked a cigar in your vicinity down at the local?

Erastus