I hope I have not insulted any of our Dutch colleagues with my ‘brilliantly executed’ (google) translation of “Common sense prevails”. Thank God for that! Hail the Netherlands I say!

You may remember that our bans ran along very similar lines – the reactions didn’t!

We, the licensees, meekly withdrew our ashtrays from tables (even outside in some cases!) and sat back wondering how this new law would affect our pubs.

The Dutch had a slightly different approach – they met it head on from day 1.

Some 250 bars each contributed approximately 250 euro’s apiece to a fighting fund and promptly went to war with their own government – and mostly left he ashtrays where they should be! In Holland they have a slightly different set up to here as many bars are small ‘one man bands’ and therefore employ no staff. Therefore, if there’s no staff ‘s no need for a smoking ban – kapiche?

Finally, the new Dutch government have had to concede the point and Weil Maessen, who represents the Dutch small bar umbrella organisation KHO now has confirmation (from the Ministry of Health) that all Dutch bars of 70 sq mts or less will now be exempt. That is 750 square feet of eutopia to many smokers. Can you imagine the upsurge in business here if every pub had 750 sq ft of smoking area? It wouldn’t matter if the entire pub/club was 50,000 sq ft it would become immediately obvious that the smaller portion would generate more revenue through bar takings!

We thank the Dutch for their marvellous tenacity and courage in the face of ever present evil minded killjoys abundant within the corridors of EU power.

Wouldn’t it be marvellous if all owner/manager pubs formed some sort of action group in England for the Dutch have proved that if you don’t speak they can’t listen!

Congratulations Holland! Gezond verstand de bovenhand