Everybody acknowledges that the smoking ban has devastated
the bingo clubs in Scotland. Independent bingo operator Martin
Carroll has been so badly hit by the ban, that he has become a
candidate for the regional list seat of Glasgow in Thursday's
Scottish general election, on the ticket of amending the
smoking ban to allow separate rooms for smokers, where space
allows, and otherwise to allow licensees discretion.
The Scottish PR system means that a vote of 6 per cent
of the electorate will win a seat – seven MSPs are elected
under this system in each of the eight Scottish regions. The
Publican Party is also running candidates in Highland, Mid
Scotland and Fife, Lothians, and Central Scotland. Uniquely
the candidates have used pubs and clubs in order to inform the
public of their campaign. Licensees and customers in both
wet-led and food-led pubs, smokers and non-smokers, appreciate
the slogan 'freedom of choice', and many are pledging support.
The misfortunes of Scottish Carlton Bingo under the
smoking ban feature in today's offering from the Scotsman.
Against an average decline of 11 per cent reported by the
Scottish Licensed Trade Association, the (pre-tax) losses of
Carlton have reached 62 per cent. Since Carlton has been able
to open new venues, the impact of these losses has been
considerably buffered and Carlton seems optimistic that the
public will cease to connect smoking with bingo – even though
70 per cent of bingo players are reported to be
smokers.
Conversely Imperial
Tobacco reports an 11 per cent profit, and does not see
any serious decline in tobacco use resulting from the ban.
The Scottish press has been mysteriously quiet on the
subject of the ban over the course of the election campaign –
partly because the major parties have not focussed on it in
their manifestos. The Carlton Bingo and Imperial Tobacco
stories point to substantial drawbacks in the implementation
of the ban – tobacco companies remaining confident and
communities losing social amenities. The Scottish Executive's
comment on the bingo story, claiming that stakeholders were
involved in pre-ban consultations, does not persusade us that
people in the pubs were adequately consulted. Let's hope it
serves as a last-minute reminder before the General Election
that the ban is not an unqualified success.
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If
you are concerned about the erosions of freedom being imposed
by the Government, please donate towards the judicial review.
If every smoker, tolerant non-smoker and libertarian
donated as little as £1.00 or if every pub and club who will
be adversely effected by the ban were to hold just one fund
raising night, and raised as little as £50.00 each, we would
have all we need within a week!! This would enable us to stave
off the ugly precedent this legislation contains for further
erosions of personal liberties in the future.
