To think that smoking in a cafe garden is selfish?

[cupkakesandkittens]

I was in a cafe for lunch earlier, beautiful weather so sat in the garden at the back to eat, and there were a few people smoking as they ate/drank.
I understand that it's an outdoor space, and it's legal, but to smoke in such close proximity to other people who are enjoying a meal, is just selfish.
I also understand that I could have sat inside, but I didn't want to sit inside on such a nice day.
It just really irritates me, can they not last 30 mins or an hour without a fag?

It really is just about hating to see smokers having anything other than a shit time, isn't it.

As long as they're shivering in the cold & wet or banished somewhere second rate that's ok - when vaping took off like it did the po faced, sanctimonious, joy-sucking fun sponges were raging!!
How very dare a smoker or vaper have anything other than misery in their lives...

If anything, non-smokers should be thanking smokers on bended knee.
If it weren't for pubs, clubs, restaurants & cafes trying desperately to keep their smoking clientele then there wouldn't be all the lovely outdoor patio areas & spaces that are in abundance now

No it isn't. It is about not liking revolting stinks. The health risks of smoking don't bother me now it is illegal in workplaces, but it isn't good when you are downwind of a burning turd .

Please make sure you inhale continuously, dont just wave it around. Suck it in, get the full benefit .

I quit smoking a week ago. Nobody ever moaned about me smoking
Started vaping. Now I get "just quit smoking already" (I have!)
"Those will kill you" (because the fags won't?!)
"They smell bad" (worse than cigs?)
Can't win

I vape, too. Love my Curve e-cig. I don't use tobacco-based juices. I'm sure it won't be long before there's a bitching thread about vapes. There already have been.

e cigs smell bad?

I am sure some might, but as someone who is dating an ex smoker who now vapes I have no issue with the smell or anything of the vaping. As long as Ds isn't in the car I don't mind him vaping in the car but I would never 'allow' him to smoke in the car.

YABU - last summer a group of us were in a pub garden and were smoking. A family came and sat behind us, whilst we were smoking, and the old grumpy man then grumbled (out loud) for ages about it. There were about 15 other tables...do one! We have to go outside in the winter so you can go inside in the summer. Sounds fair.

Yay itss summer!
I'm finally warm after 8 months huddled in the rain trying to stop my fag going out......three words second two are off inside

Waving it around whilst drinking, gossiping & enjoying the sunshine is all part of the experience though!

It's glamorous

mum2Bomg
We have to go outside in the winter so you can go inside in the summer. Sounds fair.

Its funny that you never heard smokers say this was far when they could smoke inside.

I wouldn't do it in a cafe garden. Beer garden yeah, but not in a small area where nearly everyone's there for someone to eat.

I agree (and I'm a smoker!!!).

It's hilarious...

Seriously, chill out. The law changed and everywhere is nicer for it but you have a choice. You can be grumpy, move, go indoors to your lovely smoke free area, or be plain rude. The choice is yours. There are situations I can't stand so I choose not to put myself in them.

There is no excuse to be an arse unless someone is doing something illegal.

The same bloody thread every year .

There are plenty of places that now offer non smoking outside space.

If smoking is so offensive - seek those out, rather that have the expectation that the moral superiority of non-smokers justifies having dibs on the "premium" space, whatever the time of year.

Yes - smoking is bad for you, but quite frankly the stench of moral indignation on some of these posts is far more offensive.

ScoutandAtticus - Yanbu. DH and I moved indoors yesterday at a pub due to this. We just wanted to eat our lunch in the sunshine but couldn't stand the minging smell of second hand smoke. Yes it's legal, bit that doesn't make it right. Anywhere where people are trying to eat or drink should be smoke free. The joke of it is, the pub garden is opposite a green so making the garden smoke free bit offering somewhere for smokers to go would be easy. It amazes me that such a selfish and intrusive choice , never mind health risk to others , is still tolerated anywhere.

Right, and how often do you visit the pub?

Pubs used to be where working class people went to drink beer and socialise. There used to be loads of them. Even the tiniest village would have 2 or 3 doing thriving trade. They were not only businesses and leisure venues but local landmarks, many of which had been there for hundreds of years. You could trace local history through their names and locations. They were a huge part of our heritage.

Then you got your smoking ban.

Things had been bad for a while because of alcohol duty and brewery contracts but the smoking ban was the absolute death knell for the industry. Do you really think pubs can survive on the custom of nice MC families who visit maybe three times a year for lunch (and barely buy any beer) because a) the sun has come out in the UK b) they're not working and c) they're not abroad (probably surrounded by smokers but not minding a bit because it's all just part of the vibrant local culture)?

Meanwhile, the people who used to go to pubs are now mostly drinking at home. Lots of them are smokers. Some still smoke indoors around their children. What a win for PH, eh?

I can just about see people's point with cafes - they are primarily places to eat (although very few had outdoor seating before 2007 - the spaces you're whinging about were put there to retain smoking customers and are maintained throughout the year for the same reason) - but pubs?

It's cultural appropriation. You've taken something that wasn't yours, moulded it to be more acceptable to your tastes and in the process excluded the people who built it in the first place. Now you want to mould it further because it's still not quite how you'd like it.

I remember when the ban came in and a colleague said "brilliant, I can now go to the pub and not stink of smoke".

Fair enough.

I asked at the time she went to the pub: answer "never - because of the smoke".

Again - fair enough.

A year after the ban I ask "how are you enjoying being able to go to the pub?". Answer: "I've not been, it's not really my scene".

Agree Pube.

The irony of people complaining about adults smoking in a beer garden because they want to take their two year old there for lunch.

Apart from about two weeks in 1992 I've never smoked. Unless I'm having smoke blown directly at me though I can't say that people smoking in a situation like that, in an outside garden after all, bothers me especially. I just can't get that worked up about other people doing stuff that's perfectly legal near me and if I didn't like it I could move.

Pubs are, well..public spaces. I like them, warts and all usually.

Yanbu. The ban should include outside cafes/restaurants.

I'm a recent ex-smoker. I was eating outside at a cafe just yesterday. Someone at the next table was smoking. Didn't bother me.

But I'm sure there were some people who decided to be offended because that's the only excitement they get.

Totally agree with Pube.

I love these threads. The anti-smoking hysterics that believe they or their dc will suffer some terrible disease from a bit of second smoke .
Get over yourselves. When and if smoking is banned, the government will have no hesitation in clawing back that lost revenue from other sources, i.e. all you anti smokers will be clobbered some other way to make up that lost revenue. And then you'll all have something else to moan about. Be careful what you wish for, it'll probably hit your pockets more than it ever has people who smoke.

I'm a non-hysterical hater of fags. I hate them because they smell rank. I wouldn't want to eat or drink next to someone smoking in the same way as I wouldn't want to sit next to an open drain or someone who was farting.

Here are the TAX BENEFIT vs HEALTH COSTS facts about smoking. I think they are impartial, at least they are meant to be. Looks like the smokers are contributing more tax than they cost the NHS. However, if you look at the wider costs to the nation i.e. sick leave etc then they are probably a drain.

Regardless of the maths I think I'd rather have less people dying young from lung cancer etc and pay a bit more tax.

For every sprightly 95 year old who has smoked a pack a day their whole lives that you hear so much of there are many more smokers that have died prematurely and from really quite unpleasant illnesses.

Exactly HiddenMeaning which is precisely what my DF is currently going through. He is in agony and know he is doing to die in some months. We all have to live with that too.

That's very sad to hear Longtime

mum2Bomg

My point is that the arguments that smokers use now are the same ones that non smokers used to use and the response (from smokers) was 'its legal, go away' (spice that up how you like) and then do what they liked anyway.

I still think that if smokers (as a group) had been more thoughtful of others there wouldn't be a smoking ban.