Pete Robinson: Smoking ban victory for German publicans

No doubt you will already have read about this news so I won't dwell on the details. Nor will I gloat and beat my chest proclaiming with a roar to the smoking-ban-holocaust-deniers that my observations were correct all along.

Suffice to say German publicans have won a major battle in Germany's highest court that effectively overturns their smoking ban until 2010 - when a small minority of professional antis will have another stab at the issue.

Again I predict they will fail as surely as Gordon Brown in a popularity contest.

But the big question is why can't we achieve something similar here in Blighty, when all we are asking for is a small piece of the fairness and compromise shown in almost every other European country?

The answer is hiding in this line from The Publican's news report of Germany's victory: "The situation differs to that in the UK where a total smoking ban covers all public places, meaning a level playing field for all businesses."

When our Trade leaders SHOULD have been fighting against the ban they fought instead for the 'level playing field' - i.e. the blanket ban. With greedy eyes fixated on bogus figures predicting a surge of new business they gambled everything on the 'new opportunity' and lobbied hard for no exemptions whatsoever, e.g. for members clubs.

In so doing they signed their own death warrant. ASH must still be laughing into their Doctor Scholl sandals.

The result isn't a level playing field at all. It's HALF a field, and shrinking fast. The rest has been handed over on a plate to the supermarkets and cut-priced off-trade. It's been freely awarded to the takeaway industry, like Domino Pizzas who have seen profits surge upwards by 33% since the smoking ban.

What's more the door has now been left open for swathes of new anti-pub legislation and taxation coming from a Government under pressure from the temperance lobby. And all with barely a whisper of opposition from an Industry that's already proved itself to be a complete pushover.

The Trade backed the wrong horse and committed commercial suicide on a catastrophic scale, with the worst yet to be seen. If you think it's hurting now you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Far from admitting their monumental cock-up and changing course these wise men-in-suits steer ever closer to the beconning rocks while their share prices tumble into the basement. They insist it's all YOUR fault, for not mortgaging your wife and kids to convert your pubs into trendy coffee bars bedecked in teak and chrome.

It's not just our Industry leaders either. We are all to blame - for our appalling apathy and blind faith in doing as we're bloody well told. We naively believed New Labour's 2005 manifesto pledges and never saw the blanket ban being slipped in under the radar.

Even during the short window of opportunity for action most of the Trade fell for the calm reassurances that the ban would not affect trade beyond the first four months. We meekly surrendered to the antis without a shot being fired.

Contrast that with Germany, where a series of marches saw over 1,000 publicans at a time marching through major cities. Almost every bar raised petitions signed wholesale by their eager customers. Huge numbers put up a standard wall sign outside declaring - "Rauchen in dieser Kneipe" - This is a smoking pub!

German trade bodies argued the usual dubious statistics and produced their own which stood up to scrutiny. Through the German media politicians were forced to see their ban was highly unpopular and likely to lose them votes.

Yet here we are still doing nothing but hide in our cellars wearing a tin hat, in the forlorn hope that somebody, somewhere will sound the all-clear and things will return to normal.

They won't. I tried to warn from the beginning smokers will NEVER accept the ban. They aren't simply away on a temporary sulk.

They've moved on to a new and cheaper way of socialising that better fits their needs.

Just read the papers, turn on the TV, and look at the message we are sending out. The smoking ban is a huge success warmly embraced throughout the Trade. Two thirds of Licensees think the smoking ban is the best thing since sliced bread and the same number would never overturn it even if they had the power.

Sure, pubs are closing but that's just the credit crunch, innit?

Nothing to do with the smoking ban. Anyway loads of pubs are making a mint now 'cause with all that clean air they attract a better class of customer. We don't want those horrible smokers back, no way.

Have we all gone mad? Allowing ASH to dominate press releases leads to smoking customers believing they are no longer welcome in pubs - and they are blaming you! You might just as well hang a sign above your door saying just that unless you help counter that propaganda.

The Trade has a day of reckoning to come when the carnage of our shrinking pub stock becomes too great to bear. At that time we will be forced to confront the truth head on, although it may well be too late.

Meantime I watch in despair as our Industry busily stokes it's own funeral pyre.