"Do you mind if I smoke?"

[Joy27]

It's a rhetorical question really, isn't it? Do smokers really expect the answer to ever be "yes"?

Yes, I do mind if my friends smoke in my garden then want to cuddle my baby.
Yes, I do mind if they smoke when we're in the park with our kids metres away.
Yes, I do mind if we're having a nice drink outside and I have to sit in a cloud of their smoke.

I know it's their choice and it's legal etc etc. But when it's unpleasant for the person with them, would it be reasonable for that person to say yes, they do mind? It would create a very awkward atmosphere imo.

Farting is legal as far as I'm aware, but imagine if I said to a friend "you don't mind if I sit here farting, do you?"

I don't really see the difference. Both smelly, antisocial habits.

(ps I know I sound sanctimonious. I'm an ex-smoker so it's the law )

oh couldn't resist - if you are an addictions person how does that marry with the idea that addicted persons are chavs?

Erm I'm thinking you're the person who needs a big glass of red when they get home - the biggest addiction we have.

Chavs indeed - you're in the wrong job.

@ the Alan Carr vittriol!

I tried it a couple of years ago, didn't work for me either to quit, or for the psychological stuff BUT I do know several people who used it years ago and haven't picked up a fag since and have no desire to

Thats just offensive as you know nothing about my life.

I never said that SUBSTANCE MISUSERS are chavs.

Learn to read.

Its not vittriol I swear down people here read things that aren't even there or written.

I just said I thought it was a bit and as an addictions person working with young people it would be frowned upon A LOT to use that method with young people.

I also said whatever works for you works.

Saying that people who smoke are chavs IS vitriolic.
It's an addiction.

Ladyanonymous, I read what you actually said and it was perfectly reasonable and harmless. I think the weather might be getting to people.

if it's an addiction, is it OK to call them junkies then?

SHE DIDN'T SAY THAT

Also, she never said that Allen Carr was rubbish. She just said she didn't know anyone it had worked for. Nothing wrong with that.

Thanks

Call us what you want. I am an ex junkie/substance misuser.

The label means not a lot to me.

Oh jeez - get over yourselves - I've been a smoker and non smoker.

I've never been an ex smoker though.

You can call a smoker a junkie if that's what an addict is or a chav. But a chav is commonly defined as a low class person - so define that in terms of smoking please - lots of different people smoke. Lots of different people are addicted to lots of thing. Are they all chavs?

No I don't think anyone who has an addiction is a chav.

I think when I have guests standing on the street outside my house smoking and leaving fag butts on the pavement its a bit for my neighbours.

That is unrealted to my thoughts on addiction.

But you will prob misread that too.

good lord

people legally smoking amongst the elements

whatever next?

twaddle I'd guess

SHE DID NOT SAY THAT SMOKERS WERE CHAVS

"I said I felt a group of people stood on the street outside my house smoking was chavvy, I did not say I thought smoking - in itself -was chavvy"

So not chavvy for you but for your neighbours?

So smoking en mass is chavvy but smoking is not. Unless it's in your street? Nice street?

So where should your guests smoke, outside someone elses house?

Incidentally, I read Alan Carr gave up for 7 months and started again. I do think it works for some but it is brainwashing that can wear off as he says smoking has nothing going for it whatsoever but it must have something for people to take it up again even when they have beat the so called addiction. Or maybe once a smoker always a smoker.

Ah - I give up.

Good luck with Alan Carr I hope you are very happy together in your new smoke free life .

I'm a smoker and I've stood outside with others smoking. So why am I not annoyed with Ladyanonymous ?

Oh wait. I know. it's because I understood what she actually said.

You lot sound like you'll going through nicotine withdrawal.

Relax

Breathe

I am perfectly happy for my friends to smoke in my back garden btw...

Ah sorted then Ladyanonymous next time say go to the back garden for a fag as you all look so common stood on my street.

Well yea, I kind of did actually but then my mates love me

As a smoker I would say they probably agree with you. I don't like standing on the street/outside the pub particularly either. Must admit I find it annoying that the anti's are having a go about us doing just that. I agree with walking on abit around childrens parks etc but it's nice to sit with a coffee or a drink on a summers day at a proper table with a proper ashtray so I don't think it's fair for people to complain.

A friend of mine has just come back from Bulgaria where they did introduce a smoking ban but everyone ignored it so it's gone by gone by the wayside. Also similar in Austria so another friend tells me so I think us Brit smokers have been very good about it all.

I have a sister who is anti smoking and do not smoke in her house, but for the fact that her garden is outstide and in the fresh air she has no problem with that at all.

When I go to a friends house who is obviously a non smoker I dont even ask if it is ok to smoke I judge every situation by its merits

sigh

All this talk has me reaching for my Marlboro Lights....

Here are Maylee's rules for smoking

1. Not in the company of children or pregnant women(inside or outside)

1. Not in the playground area of the park. Or in the garden if children are playing there.

1. Not indoors. At all. It's minging (hard to remember life before the smoking ban.....)

1. Not at the bus stop, train platform, etc.

1. All other areas are fair game for us smokers. That includes the street (YES, crikey, you non-smokers don't own the street!), the beer garden in the pub (the pub is sacred territory - sorry)and er...that's it really.

Oh and I don't care if smoking makes me a chav. Chav is a term coined by some of the middle classes who don't know how to relate to anyone but themselves.