For all kinds of reasons, pubs have been on the decline for decades. I am sure that the smoking ban hasn't helped, but that is just another factor in a long process. Smoking is class related, it is practised more among the lower social groups than the higher professional ones. I find it difficult to believe that the smoking ban will be changed, although some kind of accommodation for those indulge in those habits, no doubt, will be found.
If you are a smoker, pension providers will give you a better pension, confident that they will not be paying you too long. Yes, there will be the heavy-smoking centenarian, but insurers have actuarial evidence that smokers do not live as long as non-smokers. They also have poorer health
and cost the Health Service more, but they can confidently be given a larger pension while a-waiting their final car ride. Do we have any actuaries on this web? Life is a quest for definition, evidence and statistical probability. Leave all else to the public house philosophers.
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