HOTEL LOCKS OUT NO-SMOKE WALLACE
Jun 12 2005
AN Orkney hotel owner has barred Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace – after the MSP backed a smoking ban in pubs.
Allan Cooke, who took over the Stronsay Hotel with his wife Carol last year, is angry that the Scottish Executive is banning smoking in public from next June.
He has barred all politicians who voted for the legislation, including local MSP Wallace, who recently announced his resignation as the Scottish Lib Dem leader.
The hotel owner claims that about 80 per cent of his customers smoke.
He said: ‘If they expect people to stand outside smoking in an Orcadian winter, they must be out of their tiny minds.
‘Not a single person I have spoken to thinks this is a good law. When this law comes in I will seriously consider shutting the public bar and just use the premises as a private hotel.
‘I would like other pubs and hotels to follow my lead. We shouldn’t be held to ransom by the Government. ‘ The licensed trade claims a ban could cost 30,000 jobs but Wallace said their estimates are too high.
He said: ‘Once we have listened to all sides of the debate – and we have – ministers need to do what we believe is right
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