Smoke gets in Jack's eyes

MARGARET Brogan, seated in the saloon of Doolan’s Bar in Cobh, Co Cork, which she runs along with her husband, Danny, has little to do.

"This place was a real tourist attraction," says Margaret, gazing at the view of the harbour outside. "Normally during the summer we are packed out. But this year we’d have evenings when only three customers would be in all night. We had people booked in to come from England and Spain who pulled out at the last minute. Pubs are closing and it’s the same right down the west coast. It’s all because of the ban."

Seven months after the Irish government imposed its workplace smoking ban, the desperate couple decided recently they would defy the authorities, and declared that they would allow smokers to light up. Their rebellion lasted precisely an hour - the time it took for environmental health officers to arrive on their doorstep. An hour later, the local Garda turned up. Threatened with the loss of their licence, they caved in.

Now, like many other pubs in the Irish countryside, they have erected a small gazebo in their backyard, open to the elements on one side, where smokers are sent to puff. "It’s okay now, but we’ve had to buy heating for the winter, which is expensive," adds Brogan. Other pubs, it is believed, have taken more drastic measures, opening clandestine smoking dens within their premises, in a throwback to the days of Prohibition in America.

In main street Cobh, however, such measures are impossible. What about the claims that the ban has actually boosted business - that it has brought out non-smokers to the pubs for the first time? "Crap," says Brogan, candidly.

A familiar story from post-ban Ireland, such tales of woe from within the saloon bar are now set to become an all too familiar refrain on this side of the Irish Sea as well. As was revealed in Scotland on Sunday in July, last week First Minister Jack McConnell finally confirmed that there would be a comprehensive Irish-style ban on smoking in all public places in Scotland - pubs included - from March 2006.

It was a radical move from a First Minister derided by many as a leader of Lilliputian vision. But, the emboldened McConnell said, a radical message needed to be sent. Scotland’s record on smoking is dire: 13,000 families a year mourn a loved one who has died from smoking-related diseases, while a further 35,000 Scots a year require treatment in hospital for the same reasons.

The First Minister’s team were well satisfied by the immediate reaction to his announcement last week. But the battle over the ban has only just begun.

Down at the border town of Gretna, the radical nature of the First Minister’s plans will perhaps be most starkly felt. At the Garden House Hotel, on the Scottish side of the Border, the staff are not happy. "It’s fair enough banning smoking in the eating area because people don’t want to breathe in other folks’ smoke," said one local. "But as far as the lounge is concerned, they should have left it alone."

The hotel, Scotland’s most southerly, is only yards away from the Gretna Chase Hotel, just across the Border. Yet here, in England, locals will be allowed to continue to light up, if - as expected - the UK government allows smoking in pubs to continue as before. Ministers there (ironically led by Secretary of State for Health John Reid - from Hamilton) have taken a more moderate stance on the issue than Scotland, with reports of Reid’s displeasure with McConnell’s plans having emerged.

In defence, the First Minister claims Scotland is a special case; its record on smoking is far worse than England’s, requiring far tougher action as a result. But with a stark split opening up, campaigners are now hoping they can exploit this north-south tension to force McConnell into a climbdown. If English landlords keep the custom of drinkers who want a smoke with their pint, while Scottish licensees lose theirs, is that really fair?

"We are looking at the competition laws to see whether EU Human Rights legislation can be used here," said a spokesman for the Against an Outright Ban campaign.

Paul Waterson, chief executive of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, said: "We will pursue every avenue to ensure that the interests of the licensed trade are upheld. We are now entering a crazy scenario whereby if you smoke illegal drugs such as marijuana in the street you will be given a warning, but if you smoke a cigarette in a pub, you could face a £2,500 fine. It’s nonsensical."

The bid is, however, widely expected to fail. McConnell has taken advice from his legal team that a ban on public health grounds in Scotland is entirely within his powers. Within the Labour party ranks, it is not European law that is feared but the reaction of Scots themselves.

McConnell’s sweeping ban leaves little room for exemptions. Even private clubs with their own members will be barred from smoking. At the Garnock Labour Social Club in Kilbirnie, the mood is not good. The club is one of the party’s biggest, with a membership list of over 1,000. Manager Brian Kirk was frank about the plans. "If we have to follow this ban then it will hurt this place very badly indeed," he said. "We have quite a number of long-term members; it’s probably split 50-50 between smokers and non-smokers.

He added: "This year hasn’t been very good as it is, which is a general reflection on the licensed trade, and this will really hurt everyone. You are getting an awful lot of hype and propaganda that it is working well in Ireland, but if you speak to some of the licensees they will tell you that it has devastated them."

As for the Labour social clubs, so for the British Legion. There are still 98 such clubs across the country, where the nation’s war heroes can go to enjoy memories, a pint and a cigarette. Neil Griffiths, the national spokesman for the Royal British Legion Scotland, said that the reaction to the ban had been one of outrage. It would also, he warned, force many of the clubs to the wall. "This is going to cause extreme annoyance amongst the members. They are of the age that they don’t take kindly to government interference," he said.

The feeling that the ban has not yet been thought through properly pervades elsewhere. Grey areas remain about certain ‘public places’ - including prisons. In Ireland, criminals have been allowed to continue smoking, yet McConnell hinted last week that the ‘rights’ of those in jail who did not want to breathe in cigarette smoke should be respected. On the ground, prison officers fear serious practical implications.

Jim Dawson, of the Scottish Prison Officers Association, said: "If the ban encroaches into forcing no smoking throughout prisons then it will lead to unrest undoubtedly. And anyway, how do you fine prisoners if they are found to be smoking? They’ve got no money.We would much prefer if people had the choice."

There are also concerns about the cost. Local authority environmental health officers are likely to have to police the ban, and more money from the public purse will have to be found to pay for it.

With so much opposition in store, it is tempting to ask why McConnell decided to press ahead with the move. Before the decision was taken last week, ministers had been given polling data showing that roughly two-thirds of Scots did not want a blanket ban on smoking in pubs. McConnell has pressed ahead with the full ban in the knowledge that it is certain to cause deep controversy and anger among a large portion of the population.

There are two possible reasons for his boldness. Firstly, it appears the First Minister genuinely believes there is cause to wheel out the nanny state because of the sheer scale of the nation’s smoking problem: 30% of the adult population smokes - far higher than the UK average. New figures show that almost a quarter of 15-year-old girls and 14% of boys of the same age are regular smokers.

Furthermore, the economics are on his side. Research by Glasgow and Aberdeen universities has concluded that, even by the most cautious readings, a ban would produce a net gain for the economy - with a reduction in rates of absenteeism, time lost at work to smoking breaks, and the cost of fire damage to property.

Neither does McConnell have to worry about a drop in tax income from a reduction in smoking rates (estimated to be £120m), as - thanks to Scotland’s funding deal with the UK - the money from the Treasury to pay for the health service will continue to flow regardless.

Then there is the question of McConnell’s image. Knocked by the charge that he is purely and simply a political fixer, the First Minister has grown increasingly determined to prove that his leadership offers more than dull municipalism. He believes that he now he has a golden opportunity to correct that.

He sees the nine-month period book-ended by the opening of the new Scottish Parliament building in September and Scotland’s hosting of the G8 Summit next June as a chance to rejuvenate his place in both the public’s regard and the entire devolution dream. One of his close advisers summed up the mood on Wednesday night. "You can’t say he’s not got a big idea now," he smiled.

Yet it could still well transpire that he has chosen the wrong issue entirely upon which to hook his ambitions. And if it isn’t, he knows exactly who to blame. In the wake of Scotland’s move, Irish government officials have been slapping each others’ backs over their success in persuading the First Minister to adopt a ban. It was on a trip to Dublin in August that the First Minister first openly declared that he was in favour of such a move.

"They laid it on so thick that there was no conceivable way that anyone could have come away thinking that a full ban wasn’t a bad idea," said one source.

McConnell, it would appear, is simply the latest in a long line to fall for a spot of Celtic blarney. Whether or not he has their luck with his grand new plan is another matter entirely.