The Greeks have soon seen through the ludicrous situation of the ‘benefits’ of smoking bans as they have now revolted and the ashtrays are back on the tables! They have basically stuck two fingers up to the establishment-and quite right too!
The Dutch, led by the relentless Wiel Maessen, soon gathered an army of bar owners and a fighting fund as they saw business disappearing at a rate of knots. Happily, their law has been amended to include choice and business is picking up again-rapidly.
CamerCleggs, for your benefit I’ll repeat:- CHOICE
The Greek economy is similar to ours – in tatters – well, just slightly better than S.Irelands actually!
“This ban is the final blow,” Yiorgos Kavathas, general secretary of the Greek restaurant owners’ federation, told Reuters. “Cafes and restaurants are shutting down. Our union estimates that at least 20,000 will close.”
Now there speaks a man of sense. What is the point of extremely healthy longevity when faced by poverty? Absolutely none.
Greece is teetering on the brink of poverty, as we are, but the people of this country are not prepared to put up with such an imposition as this. A bit different to our lot then! Let’s look at the roll of honour, shall we?
Hamish Howitt – defied the ban – mercilessly pursued by ‘the system’ and hounded out of business.
Nick Hogan – defied the ban – mercilessly prosecuted by ‘the system’ and finally imprisoned.
Tony Blows – defied the ban – mercilessly prosecuted by ‘the system’ and financially ruined.
Ray & Gill McHale – defied the ban – sold out by their pubco, prosecuted & financially murdered by ‘the system’. Now homeless and jobless.
Kerry Fenton – defied the ban – with a ‘Research Centre’. Pubco (in conjunction with council) closed pub immediately. ‘The system’ rendered her homeless & jobless.
Out of 60,000 pubs, as was, we have a handful of ‘warriors’ prepared to fight the worst law ever implemented by any government of this country. What are the rest of them doing? Nothing, except bleating about losing business and struggling with bills as they pile up.
Various ‘bodies’/organisations have come up with weird and wonderful ideas for salvation but there are only two viable options; which are: get rid of the beer tie which is crippling tied tenants and then reform the smoking ban as that is the only way to refill the pubs!
Do this new government of CamerCleggs read this site, well I certainly hope so because up to now they are doing an appalling job of resurrecting this dying country.
Amend the smoking ban and immediately resurrect the internal economy & rid the country from such as Punch, Enterprise et al as they are nothing but blood suckers who have built empires on a bed of sand!
The Greeks have shown the way to go-open defiance. We seem happy to let 6500 businesses go to the wall; they don’t want to see one single business do that!
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