Defiance: UK Day of Defiance Page 1

Read Newest Articles:? UK Day of Defiance Page 2

---

Pub smokers queuing for funeral car

03/07/2007

A stand-up comedian has been touring London’s pubs in a hearse offering smokers a haven.

Liam Mullone has been asking smokers outside pubs and offices to give his Civil Rights Response Unit a bell if they want a smoke in comfort.

“The smoking hearse will blow one last puff of smoke in the face of the Blair/Brown oligarchy,” he said.

“It will provide smokers with a place to light up out of the weather. I have a nice little smoking room in the back where you can light up, watch telly, listen to music and generally chill out.”

Mullone believes he can beat the ban in public spaces by stipulating those who enter must first befriend him on the community website MySpace.

“The smoking hearse is not a public space. It is a private vehicle. I agree to pick you up for a smoke because you are my friend. No money changes hands.

“There is no transaction. Just friendship and camaraderie between smokers.”

---

Group stage Halifax protest against smoking ban
July 3, 2007
The first attempt at a smoking ban backlash has started in Calderdale.
Smoking supporters staged a protest against the ban in Halifax town centre on Tuesday.
With a banner reading “No smoking, burn down Parliament”, the five protesters lit up in the Old Arcade.
They were objecting to new laws making it illegal to smoke inside which were brought in on Sunday.
Karen Wilcock, from Boothtown, who led the protest said: “I’ve been smoking since I was 14. This is the only pleasure I’ve got. If they take that away, what have I got?”
The 54-year-old said she and the rest of the protesters had received a positive reaction from shoppers walking past.
She pledged to carry on the protest every day until the ban was overturned.
Smoker Zoie Davison, from Illingworth, who was taking part in the demonstration said: “They’re trying to change our statutory rights. Churchill would be spinning in his grave because he was partial to a fag.”

---

Christopher Booker’s notebook

By Christopher Booker
July 2, 2007

All done with passive smoke and mirrors

Anti-smoking activists can celebrate today one of the most remarkable lobbying campaigns in modern politics. The statutory no-smoking signs outside every “enclosed public space”, including churches, synagogues, mosques and Buckingham Palace, will always remind us how they find the smell of other people’s smoke offensive. One thing they cannot claim, though, is that protecting people from others’ smoke will save thousands of lives.

The scientific evidence to support their belief that inhaling other people’s smoke causes cancer simply does not exist. In the course of writing a book on “scares”, I recently trawled through all the scientific literature on the health risks of tobacco, ever since Richard Doll’s seminal paper in 1950 alerted the world to the link between smoking and lung cancer (when 82 per cent of British men were smokers). Over the next 30 years, the realisation that smokers risked serious damage to their health led to a 50 per cent drop in the habit. But this divided people into three groups: more or less addicted smokers, generally tolerant non-smokers and fiercely intolerant anti-smokers.
At the end of the Seventies, the anti-smokers first seriously turned their attention to what they called “passive smoking”. Over the next decade, it is fascinating to follow how, try as they might, they could not come up with the evidence they wanted to prove that “environmental tobacco smoke” was directly harming non-smokers’ health. They became greatly excited by a series of studies which purported to show a link between smoking and cot deaths. But these somehow managed to ignore the fact that, in the very years when cot deaths were rising by 500 per cent, the incidence of smoking had halved.

A further series of studies in the Nineties, mainly in the US, claimed to have found that passive smoking was causing thousands of deaths a year. But however much the researchers tried to manipulate the evidence, none could come up with an increased risk of cancer that, by the strict rules of epidemiology, was “statistically significant”.

In 1998 and 2003 came the results of by far the biggest studies of passive smoking ever carried out. One was conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organisation. The other, run by Prof James Enstrom and Geoffrey Kabat for the American Cancer Society, was a mammoth 40-year-long study of 35,000 non-smokers living with smokers. In each case, when the sponsors saw the results they were horrified. The evidence inescapably showed that passive smoking posed no significant risk. This confirmed Sir Richard Doll’s own comment in 2001: “The effects of other people’s smoking in my presence is so small it doesn’t worry me”.

In each case, the sponsors tried to suppress the results, which were only with difficulty made public (the fact that Enstrom and Kabat, both non-smokers, could only get their results published with help from the tobacco industry was inevitably used to discredit them, even though all their research had been financed by the anti-tobacco cancer charity).

In the early years of this decade, the anti-smokers had become so carried away by the rightness of their cause that they no longer worried about finding disciplined evidence for their statistical claims. One notorious but widely-quoted study commissioned by 33 councils campaigning for a “smoke-free London” came up with the wonderfully precise claim that 617 Britons die each year from passive smoking in the workplace. No longer was there any pretence at serious debate. This was a propaganda war, in which statistics could be manufactured at will. (The European Commission’s 2006 figure for annual deaths from passive smoking in the UK was around 12,000, some 20 times higher than the figure quoted by the British Government itself.)

By the time the Commons pushed through the smoking ban in February 2006, a kind of collective hysteria had taken over. MPs fell over themselves in boasting how many lives they were about to save. One Department of Health official was quoted as equating its significance to the Act setting up the National Health Service in 1948.

As clouds of self-righteousness billow out over England this weekend, the anti-smokers may be entitled to give us their view that smoking is a thoroughly noxious and nasty habit, even that it can exacerbate respiratory conditions such as asthma or bronchitis arising from other causes. They can even claim that the ban will save lives by persuading smokers to give up. But the one thing they cannot claim is any reliable evidence for their belief that passive smoking is responsible for killing people. Sir Richard Doll was right. It is merely a sanctimonious act of faith.

---

Day of Defiance at Bolton on 1/7/07

I attended Freedom to Choose’s second Day of Defiance at The Swan pub, Churchgate, Bolton, Lancashire, UK on 1st July 2007 and what a great event it was.? Well, I say what a great event it was, but in fact it’s due to continue until 4 am tomorrow morning (July 2nd).

Nick Hogan, the landlord, reported that on the evening and night of 30th June his establishment was almost completely packed with about 700 attending and following on from a briefing provided earlier in the day for other pub landlords and the press.

To-day’s event commenced at about 12 midday and by about 2 pm the Swan was pleasantly filled with a fluctuating crowd of about 300 people from all over the UK.? Freedom to Choose members were drawn from Scotland (quite a few) and Wales with one even turning up from Northern Ireland.? English locations represented were: Nottingham, Leicester, Cambridge, Peterborough, Bolton and Manchester.

There were also a lot of non Freedom to Choose members too (and of course) and some had come specially from Manchester and other towns and cities surrounding Bolton to attend the event.

There was a superb traditional jazz band which played throughout most of the afternoon and a particularly colourful performance was given by the Accrington Scottish Pipe Band which was most stirring for the soul.

The press appeared to be there in abundance as well although this writer studiously avoided them preferring instead to leave the task of speaking to them to others more gifted in that department.? Some of the “defiers” even wore imaginative rigouts with a cowboy flavour which provided excellent material for press photographs.? It was good too to hear people on mobile phones telling their friends to “come on over as everyone is smoking”.

Furthermore, on more than one occasion I heard non-smoking attendees stating: “everyone should have freedom to choose”.

Nick Hogan also reported that his phone had been ringing continuously with messages of support coming in from all over the world including our colleagues from Hawaii.

The police were great and did not interfere, as promised, and the afternoon proceeded in an orderly fashion (no loutish behaviour at all and everyone friendly).? However, just in case anyone thinks this means the event was dull would be wrong.? It was a good old fashioned type pub event and nothing whatsoever similar to the rather crummy soulless atmospheres of pubs and bars which have been polluted by the policies of antismokerism.

With antismokers in mind, the highlight of the afternoon resulted from the actions of three of them who turned up to try and push their message. One particularly bold woman of uncertain age informed Nick Hogan that she had a right to choose too and that his pub was not, by permitting smoking, allowing her, her choice.? Nick explained that despite the fact The Swan is called a “public house” it is, nevertheless, still? private property in addition to being his home and that he may choose the conditions that prevail there and, moreover, that she was able to choose whether to enter or not.? The antismoker started to become enraged and a little aggressive, in fact she reminded me of an irate turkey with a knitting needle stuck in its bottom.? Nick’s response was to give her a practical lesson in what it means to have one’s freedom of choice truly taken away.? He physically removed her from his premises and told her she was barred!

I haven’t laughed so much for quite some time…
Bladimir Tolstoy

Read more Blad updates at:? http://pro-choicesmokingdoctor.blogspot.com

Queen Elizabeth Breaks Smoking Ban. No-smoking signs have been put up at the entrances to Buckingham Palace used by members of the public when they receive honors, but there will none at entrances used by the queen, the royal family or senior aides.
Tony Blows who owns the Dog Inn at Ewyas Harold, found his pub at the centre of international media frenzy this weekend because his customers continued to smoke despite the ban.
Joe Jackson: Attention Smokers! Don’t stop the party. “Smokers need to know the true facts. The more we know, the better we can fight back. Do not allow yourself to be bullied. Do not apologise to anyone. On the contrary, explain to people why you’re a victim of unjust discrimination. You are enjoying a legal pleasure with a long and honourable history, and you’re contributing ?10 billion a year to your country in tax revenue. Be proud.
Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash has said that he is ready to flaunt the U.K. smoking ban.

---

Smokers ignore new law

July 2, 2007

DRINKERS at one Blackpool pub are openly flouting the nationwide smoking ban.
It came on the day England’s public places went smoke-free.

Hamish Howitt, owner of the Happy Scots Bar on Rigby Road, has vowed to ignore the legislation, which came into effect yesterday.

And on the first day of the new era, dozens of smokers joined him at his pub to light up and show their disgust at the “nanny state” legislation.

John Runciman, 51, from South Shore, said he wished more licensees had taken Mr Howitt’s stance.

He added: “If every landlord in Blackpool had refused then people would have had to have taken notice.

“It’s funny because two of the only places you can smoke are in prison and in parliament.

“They want to turn the place into a nanny state but still want to smoke themselves – it should be the same rule for everyone.”

Mr Howitt – chairman of Blackpool’s Pub Watch scheme – set up a political party named Fight Against Government Suppression (FAGS).

He now insists his venue is his party headquarters and anybody who comes through the door should be allowed to smoke as they are in parliament.

Another customer, David Freeman, 57, from Wolverhampton said: “I’ll certainly be coming back to Blackpool and this pub if they carry on allowing smoking.”

During the day, Trading Standards chiefs turned up at the bar to hand out a warning for the breach.

Mr Howitt said: “I think they’re going to go after me big time, but all I’m doing is saying that smokers shouldn’t be discriminated against.

“Some of the weather we get in Blackpool I wouldn’t even put my dog out in let alone my customers.”

---

Revolt In Style – A Freedom Dinner
The Daily Telegraph’s Adam Edwards joined “a pack of rebellious smokers for a last-gasp celebration of tobacco at the Savoy”.
“The event, titled Revolt in Style: A Freedom Dinner’, was organised by Forest and Boisdale Restaurant, the gloriously politically incorrect Westminster eatery where jazz, cigars and red meat are daily consumed in huge quantities by the great and the greedy. It was an opportunity for an angry, articulate minority to have ‘a jolly’ while putting across their political message.”
Read More

Watch the video:? Smoking Ban: A Freedom Dinner

---

---

The UK FLYER
A brilliant new flyer has been designed by one of our members, which can be downloaded.
Print it up double-sided, fold it neatly into three and distribute far and wide. It begins with a quiz that is sure to grab attention and what follows is a mine of information on the subject of the second hand smoke myth , which should make even the most apathetic Brit’ sit up and take notice.
http://www.freedom2choose.co.uk/docs/F2C-Flyer2.pdf

The UK “Day Of Defiance!”
Mike McFadden has developed an exciting new tool to help fight the Antis and expose their lies!? This file will print out to a carefully formatted 24 page document (formerly distributed in limited form as “The Stiletto”) that’s easily readable and understood by anyone, even in the middle of a dark and murky bar.?? It shows how they lie about the health effects of secondary smoke and how they lie about the economic effects of bans.?
The “Day Of Defiance!” is a version that has been customized for use by the British and others participating in the July 1st stand against unjust smoking bans, but it can also be an incredibly effective consciousness raising and educational tool when distributed to pubs and such in areas where ban battles are going on.
In general it’s a great educational and activation tool for fence-sitting politicians or media folks or even just for lackadaisical smokers.? It’s not a “conversion” tool: it won’t bring an avowed Anti to our side.? But for anyone else (including any nonsmoking friends who’ve worried about all the “studies” condemning secondary smoke) it’s a must read!
Feel free to distribute it widely, but for best effect it’s always worth printing it out!
http://pasan.thetruthisalie.com/

Day Of Defiance: Antismokers Get Nervous!

As July 1st approaches the antismoking extremists over in Britain are starting to wonder if they’ve hit a truly sticky wicket!

It can take months of careful organization to pull off a successful revolution based on civil disobedience… or it can take just a ticked-off citizenry that’s just mad as hell ‘n not gonna take it anymore!?

Led by just a few outspoken pubowners and smokers’ rights and freedom of choice advocates a full scale rebellion on the British Isles this July 1st is a real possibility.? Spurred by anger over government nannyism, outrage over the increasing awareness of the lies that formed the basis of the vote for their smoking ban, news stories of outrageous enforcement spending and snooping plans, and just old-fashioned British refusal to give in to anything that even smells of fascism, the start of the British smoking ban is in trouble.

On July 1st there may be more pubs turning a blind eye to smoking than there are collaborators with government enforcement squads, not just in England, but in Scotland and Wales as well.? As enthusiasm for resistance has escalated the Day Of Defiance! has even taken on a truly international flavor as The Smoke Vote! organization based in USA’s Hawaii has thrown its full weight behind supporting the redcoats and has called for the date to be known as World Defiance Day!

While notice is short and plans haven’t been nailed down, smokers’ rights groups across the US are planning for actions to show they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the British defenders and are thinking that widespread English defiance of their ban may be the new “shot heard ’round the world” as smokers, their friends, and bloodied businesses rebel against regulations that increasingly deny smokers ANY haven to gather and socialize in relaxed company.

See and download the World Defiance Day! poster from Hawaii? http://pasan.thetruthisalie.com/documents/HIPR070107.doc
Visit TheSmokeVote.com? http://thesmokevote.com/ , the BBC Action Network
?http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/G1478? and Freedom2Choose? www.freedom2choose.co.uk? for more information and updates!? Download the Day Of Defiance! booklet? for a concise and hard-hitting tool that exposes the lies beneath the smoking bans!

Support the British Revolution against the American-based Antismoking Empire!?

Attention Freedom of Choice Defenders Everywhere!
On July 1, 2007, hundreds of pubs in Britain will stand in Defiance to their new nationwide smoking ban. This date, a true Day Of Defiance, also marks the first WORLD DEFIANCE DAY. In a show of support for our Brit friends and to show worldwide solidarity for our movement to Defend Freedom of Choice, we smokers and friends in Ventura, CA will also stand in DEFIANCE to our own smoking ban.
WORLD DEFIANCE DAY will be celebrated this Sunday at
The Star Lounge
Ventura, CA
3:00pm- 5:00pm and therafter.
You are more than welcome to join this momentous event as we continue our battle against the ever growing and alarming governmental intrusion into our daily personal, private and business lives.
Our battle cry is Martin Luther King’s bold statement many years ago, “ONE HAS A MORAL OBLIGATION TO DISOBEY UNJUST LAWS”.
This law is indeed unjust.

World Single Page Flyer
“WORLD DEFIANCE DAY” THIS SUNDAY, JULY 1, 2007
click here
Print out copies of this sign and distribute them to your favorite spots to support Freedom of Choice this Sunday!
(Note: Use ‘Landscape View’ in Printer Preferences)
From:? Illinois Smokers Rights – http://www.illinoissmokersrights.com

---

Smoking ban stubbed out!

June 8, 2007
Rob Stocks
CONTROVERSIAL Blackpool landlord is preparing to take on the Government by openly flouting the nationwide smoking ban.

Hamish Howitt, who runs the Happy Scots in Rigby Road, today invited every smoker in the town to head to his bar on July 1 – the day lighting up in public places is outlawed.

The landlord, who set up his own political party – UK FAGS – to oppose the smoking ban, insists he will not pay any fine levied against him and says he will take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

He claims stopping smoking inside pubs adds up to a “hate crime”.

Mr Howitt says he will flaunt the ban when it comes into force.

He said: “As far as I’m concerned this ban isn’t legal. Smokers are going to be humiliated, made to stand outside.

“To me it’s a hate crime and I’m not going to take it lying down.

“I won’t be stopping my customers smoking.

“They can try and fine me, they can take me to court, but I won’t pay.

“I’ve been in touch with my lawyers and we are already preparing to take this to the Court of Human Rights.

“What is more, I think we can win.”

Mr Howitt already has plans for a stand of defiance the day the ban comes into force by having an open “Smoke In”.

He said: “I’m inviting people from all over the country to come and join us. The plan is for everyone to come together and light up at the same time on July 1 to show what we think of the ban.” Mr Howitt, who is chairman of Blackpool Pubwatch Scheme, believes many Blackpool landlords back his stance, but will be forced to toe the line or lose their jobs.

Dave Daly, who runs The Castle in Central Drive, said he didn’t agree with the ban, but would have to go along with it.

He has called on Blackpool Council to help out pub owners by allowing more social spaces, with tables and chairs, outside premises.

He said: “People gathered in doorways smoking is just going to make the town look untidy.

“In places like Bank Hey Street it won’t be good for other businesses.

“I hope the council will do that and allow us to set up these areas, which it would be our responsibility to keep tidy.”

Blackpool Council said it would try to avoid confrontation with licensees over the ban.

Coun Tony Williams, cabinet member for culture and communities, said: “As a council we are expected to approach smoke-free enforcement in a non-confrontational way, focusing on raising awareness and improving understanding.

“Our enforcement officers, along with the police, will work closely with local businesses to ensure that they are complying with the new laws.

“If a business is found to be in breach of the new legislation, we will issue a warning and give advice on what they need to do to comply.

“If our attempts to encourage compliance fail, then enforcement will go ahead, resulting in prosecution and, in respect of pubs, this could lead to the loss of a license to operate.”

Coun Williams said concerns over anti-social behaviour were the reason pubs were not being given permission for outdoor social areas.

July Smoking Ban Set To Slash Beer Sales
June 18, 2007
Beer sales at pubs, bars and clubs in England and Wales could drop by 200 million pints per year following the smoking ban, experts predict.

---

Hundreds of pubs to flout smoking ban

June 3, 2007
Adam Lusher and Miles Goslett
A campaign of civil disobedience against next month’s smoking ban will see hundreds of pubs flouting the new laws.

Pub landlords plan a ‘day of defiance’ on 1 July

Landlords at up to 200 pubs are planning a “day of defiance” when the legislation comes into force next month, allowing customers to light up on July 1. The number involved is expected to grow and some publicans have vowed to continue to break the law beyond July 1 if customers want them to.

The Sunday Telegraph can also reveal that, with a survey showing that three million smokers plan to defy the rules, the ban is facing three high court challenges.

Nick Hogan, 40, of The Swan pub in Bolton, Lancashire, who has emerged as a figurehead for landlords staging days of defiance, said: “This protest is growing and we are still a month away. It is a -protest against dictatorship. It is not about being pro-smoking. It is about the freedom to choose.”

Under the 2006 Health Act, mirroring similar legislation in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, it will be illegal to smoke in virtually all enclosed public spaces in England. Breaking the law will become a criminal offence punishable by a ?50 fixed penalty fine. Landlords, restaurateurs and employers failing to prevent smoking on their premises could be fined up to ?2,500, but will normally avoid a criminal record.

The Government estimates that the ban will cost ?1.6 billion, but says it will bring a net benefit to the nation of up to ?2.1 billion, including an annual saving of ?100 million to the NHS as a result of a 1.7 per cent reduction in the number of smokers.

About 3.7 million workplaces will be affected, including nearly 200,000 pubs, bars and restaurants. Many are investing in special “non-substantially enclosed” outdoor smoking shelters.

Nathan Wall, the operations director of JD Wetherspoon, has estimated that his pub chain alone has spent nearly ?1 million on creating smoking havens.

The ban will also affect private members’ clubs, with many of London’s most exclusive -institutions planning cigar dinners as last, smoky laments before July 1. At midnight on June 30, The Naval & Military Club in St James’s Square will stage a ceremonial “extinguishing of the cigars”.

“They will then be re-ignited in the courtyard,” said Ian Gregory, the club secretary.

Many are incensed by the prospect of “Orwellian” tactics to enforce the ban. The Government has given local authorities ?29.5 million to prepare for July 1, and about 1,200 council employees are expected to be trained to police the ban. Ian Gray, the chief trainer for the Government, recently said that he expected “compliance officers” to take a softly, softly approach initially but admitted that “officers do not have to identify themselves when they enter premises and they can film people to gather -evidence”.

Supporters of the ban cite studies including the 2005 British Medical Journal report which concluded that 30 people in Britain die every day from passive smoking and that 617 deaths a year are related to exposure to workplace smoke.

Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, has declared the ban “a triumph for public health [which] will protect everyone from the harm of secondhand smoke”. A poll, released last week by Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), found that 78 per cent of people support the new rules.

However, another survey by Alliance Pharmacy found that 17 per cent of smokers – about three million people – will continue to light up in public places.

Prison officers are angry that their workplaces will not be smoke-free because cells are classed as homes and exempt from the ban.

Brian Caton, the general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, revealed that representatives have voted unanimously to challenge the exemption. “If campaigning does not work, we will be seeking a judicial review,” he warned.

The Save The Shisha Campaign, meanwhile, is demanding exemptions for England’s 650 shisha, water pipe or hookah bars, including 15 in Leicester where Miss Hewitt is a local MP.

The third judicial review is being prepared by the Freedom to Choose organisation using the Human Rights Act.

---

Smoke-in planned in protest over ban

June 1, 2007
Written by: Ewan Turney

A mass light-up will take place at a Bolton pub on 1 July in defiance of the smoking ban.

Nick Hogan, licensee of the 750-capacity Swan in Churchgate, will openly flout the ban and has invited hosts from across England and Scotland to join him. Individuals caught smoking face a ?50 fine, while Hogan could be hit with a fine of up to ?2,500.

I am not relishing breaking the law, but someone, somewhere has to make a stand
Nick Hogan of the Swan.

“I am not relishing breaking the law, but someone, somewhere has to make a stand,” he said. “I expect to be prosecuted and go to court where I will challenge the morality and legality of this ban. I am not pro-smoking, but I am pro-choice.

“I should be entitled to put a sign up saying this is a smoking pub and give people the choice of whether they want to work here or come in here to drink. If the no smoking pub across the road was full and I had three customers then market forces would dictate my future but it should be my choice.”

Hogan, who has a free-of-tie lease at the Swan, plans to spend ?10,000 on an air filtration system rather than on an outside shelter for smokers.

“I don’t think my trade would drop off too dramatically because I have a courtyard but I need all the other venues here to remain in business – both friends and competitors. It is the diversity of nightlife that brings people to Bolton.”

Although Hogan is a member of the Freedom to Choose group, which is seeking a judicial review of the ban, spokesman Robert Feal-Martinez confirmed there was no official support for the smoke-in. “While I understand his reasons, when laws are enacted they should be adhered to,” he said.

A Bolton council spokesman said: “We will be observing what happens on the day and will take action where appropriate.

---

REVOLT IN STYLE: INVITATION TO A FREEDOM DINNER AT THE SAVOY HOTEL, LONDON,
MONDAY 25th JUNE 2007 from 7.00pm
James Leavey will be a guest.
Read Full Details:? http://www.forestonline.org/output/page379.asp

---

Pub’s ‘light up’ protest against smoking ban

25th May 2007

A PROTEST against the smoking ban is being planned in Bolton on the day it comes into force in England.

Organisers hope people from all over the country will flock to The Swan in Churchgate for a “mass light up” on July 1.

But council chiefs have vowed they will crack down on anyone flouting the ban which outlaws smoking in all enclosed public places.

Landlord Nick Hogan has agreed that The Swan can be used for the protest because he is so infuriated by the ban.

Speakers from Scotland and Wales will be attending to talk about how the law, which has already been introduced in both countries, has affected them. Mr Hogan has invited Bolton’s landlords and publicans to the event. He said: “I’m not pro-smoking, but I am pro-choice.

“If people don’t like my smoking policy then they have the chance to go somewhere else. This is our act of defiance.

“I have respect for the law, but I have no respect for an unfair law. I don’t want to break the law, but I feel I’ve been pushed into it.

“At the end of the day it’s my pub, not the Government’s.

“Cigarettes are a legal product. If the council wants to ban smoking in its buildings or it is banned in the hospital, then that’s fine because they are publicly-owned buildings, but my pub is not.”

Council chiefs have vowed to keep a close eye on those ignoring the ban. Cllr Cliff Morris, leader of Bolton Council, said: “We will be looking at this situation and we will be taking legal advice.

“If there is anyone breaking the ban, then we will be looking at taking appropriate action.”

In Bolton 29.6 per cent of people smoke compared to a national average of 27 per cent. The Bolton News launched its Stub It Out campaign when these figures were revealed, calling for a ban on smoking in all enclosed public places, including pubs, clubs and private members bars.

In February last year MPs voted for such a ban and anyone caught flouting it after July 1 will be fined ?50.