Smokin'

Well, it's the first weekday of the new anti-smoking laws and already the smokers in Chambers are plotting ways to flout the ban. We used to have a smoking room but now its patrons are being forced out onto the streets like the reviled social pariahs they are. Before the ban came in there was much discussion as to whether a set of chambers really constitutes a workplace. The answer seemed fairly obvious to the non-smoking majority - we may be self-employed but we employ clerks, admin staff and cleaners so, yes, Chambers is a workplace. After much huffing and puffing about the Nanny State and the freedom of the individual (and, in fairness, making some good points on both those topics), the smokers reluctantly agreed.

This afternoon I caught one die-hard smoker sheltering from the rain and having a sneaky fag in the doorway to our building, which is expressly forbidden, on pain of a public flogging. I grinned at him in a "your secret's safe with me" way and he looked a bit sheepish. We then started chatting about the maximum penalties for smoking in prohibited places, not displaying a "no smoking" sign and other related criminal acts. Neither of us had a clue, though I think I remember something about a £50 fixed penalty. Note to self... must take more interest in the law. Especially laws on which everybody seems to have a very strong opinion. Everybody apart from me, that is. I'm glad that my days of waking up stinking of smoke the morning after a night out will soon be a distant memory, but in the great scheme of things, I'm almost ashamed to admit that I lost interest in the smoking debate ages ago.