The Null Device

England is to ban food from pubs, after a compromise public smoking ban is thrashed out by New Labour. The ban will fall short of blanket smoking bans, such as the ones in Scotland and Ireland (and even Wales, which, whilst being governed by English law, has been given the right to ban smoking), and will ban smoking from any pubs which serve food. Which means that pubs have to choose between axing the haddock and chips and turning away their smoking clientele.

The smoking ban also highlights an asymmetry in British government: one of the main opponents of a full smoking ban was former health secretary John Reid, a MP from a Scottish constituency.

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Yesterday I met Cos at the Carrington Hotel, an old pub in Brunswick which has, so far, escaped the attentions of property developers, and ended up taking lots of photos (in various states of inebriation). Some of the better ones are here:

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