Thursday, February 17, 2005
Day three
The third day of our fact-finding tour saw us speaking to Trade Unionists. These included representatives of Amicus, representing tobacco workers, and Mandate, representing workers in the hospitality industry.
One of the Trade Unionists lives near the border with Northern Ireland and he reported that when the ban first came in, his local pubs suffered a fall-off in trade on a Sunday lunchtime as families went North instead. However this has now been largely corrected. He also told us that people have been travelling to England or to the North and finding it difficult to adjust to smoking in the pubs there. Most of them prefer the fresh air in the pubs even if they smoke themselves.
Mandate produced some very useful survey results. They told us that since the ban opinion polls had found 82% support for it. 95% say that it is a positive health measure, 90% say that it benefits workers, 82% say that it benefits everybody and 78% said that their experience of restaurants had improved. 70% told pollsters that their experience of pubs had improved and 53% are more inclined to eat in pubs. It seems that trade has actually increased in pubs that serve food.
One of the Trade Unionists lives near the border with Northern Ireland and he reported that when the ban first came in, his local pubs suffered a fall-off in trade on a Sunday lunchtime as families went North instead. However this has now been largely corrected. He also told us that people have been travelling to England or to the North and finding it difficult to adjust to smoking in the pubs there. Most of them prefer the fresh air in the pubs even if they smoke themselves.
Mandate produced some very useful survey results. They told us that since the ban opinion polls had found 82% support for it. 95% say that it is a positive health measure, 90% say that it benefits workers, 82% say that it benefits everybody and 78% said that their experience of restaurants had improved. 70% told pollsters that their experience of pubs had improved and 53% are more inclined to eat in pubs. It seems that trade has actually increased in pubs that serve food.
