Mary Glindon MP: Stub out the outside smoking ban

The decision by the last Labour Government in 2007 to ban indoor smoking in public places such as pubs, restaurants, and parliament itself was a success on all three counts.

It has helped further reduce smoking, which has lifted the strain on our health service, and pubs are better for non-smokers whose clothes no longer carry stale odours long after they leave.

Any new government will review its smoking cessation policies and a suite of new policies is under debate. One possible approach has been leaked but hasn’t yet been agreed.

And that is the idea that smoking be banned in pub gardens and outsideareas in nightclubs.

It may be popular in opinion polls but while some nod in favour a significant minority is strongly opposed.

The difference with the 2007 decision is that non-smokers outside are negligibly affected.

The curb on indoor smoking was seen as legitimate and was easier to enforce but a ban on outdoor smoking would be harder to enforce and not a priority for hard-pressed police officers.

Besides, people have the right to smoke provided they harm no one else. And that can be done outside.

Additionally, driving smokers away from pubs and nightclubs will drive some of them out of business.

Have a thought for those who see smoking as a crutch in a difficult life. Remember older people, particularly single men, who nurse a pint and a tab outdoors and feel less isolated and even looked out for.

All this leads me to conclude that it would be unwise to adopt a policy of banning smoking in pub gardens but that it is right to use other means to discourage smoking.

Mary Glindon is Labour MP for Newcastle East and Wallsend