Cultural vandalism - the smoking ban decimated pubs in Britain & Ireland
I was interested but not surprised to read that:
Almost a quarter (22.5 per cent) of Ireland’s pubs – almost 2,000 in total – have called time forever since 2005, a report from the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI) found.
See: Ireland’s pubs closing at faster rate than ever before in major blow to tourism (Telegraph)
Did anything happen that might, conceivably, have kick-started this startling drop in the number of pubs in Ireland?
Hmmm, let me think. Oh yes, in 2004 smoking was banned in every single pub and bar in the country.
Within months of the ban being introduced, the Vintners Federation of Ireland was claiming that many of its members had experienced a significant drop in sales since the introduction of the ban.
The VFI said small, rural, family-owned pubs and pubs in border counties had been hit particularly hard by the measure.
The VFI claimed daytime trade had dropped off considerably since the smoking ban came into force, with many customers staying in the pub for a shorter period of time.
That was in June 2004.
Two months later, in August 2004, I went to Ireland and visited several towns and cities (including Galway, Waterford, and Kilkenny) to see for myself what impact the ban was having on pubs and bars.
With my own eyes and by speaking to local people, including bar owners and staff, I discovered that some pubs that had previously been open at lunch were now closed until 5.00pm, when they would finally open their doors.
I was told that the elderly pipe-smoking beer drinkers who used to gather for a pint at lunch were staying away now they could no longer smoke indoors.
In 2010 a report commissioned by Forest for the Save Our Pubs & Clubs: Amend the Smoking Ban campaign noted that:
Using data from [Ireland’s] Revenue Commissioners, researchers found that the number of pub losses demonstrate a very close statistical relationship between the introduction of the smoking ban in 2004 and the rapid decline of the Irish pub ...
Analysis of statistics set out in the Statistical Report on the Revenue website showed that Ireland lost 1,097 pubs in the four years immediately following the ban.
Researchers found a striking similarity between the rate of closures in Ireland following the ban, and those in Scotland, England and Wales following theirs – despite considerable differences between the pub traditions.
See ‘Smoking gun: is the smoking ban a major cause of the decline of the pub in Britain and Ireland?’
Needless to say, although the DIGI report has analysed stats going back to 2005, the year after the smoking ban was introduced in Ireland, the report (The Irish Pub: Supporting our communities) doesn’t mention the ban at all.
Am I surprised? Of course not. Despite the evidence, it’s rare to find anyone who will admit that the ban contributed to the serious decline in the pub estates in both Britain and Ireland.
In March 2009, for example, I noted that:
New Labour's favourite think tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), has today published a report entitled Pubs and Places: the social value of community pubs.
Supported by the likes of CAMRA and Alcohol Concern, the report found that the main factors contributing to the rise in pub closures include:
* Competition from shops and supermarkets where alcohol is much cheaper, which has led to more people drinking at home
* The current recession which has reduced pub incomes
* Increases in tax on beer
* The prices that some pub tenants have to pay the large pub companies for their beer
* A fall in beer drinking and a growth in wine drinking
* Increased regulation which small community pubs find the hardest to deal with
Incredibly, just two years after the smoking ban had been introduced, it had been airbrushed out as a potential contributory factor in the sharp increase in closures.
Meanwhile, a Forest report published in 2017 to mark the tenth anniversary of the ban in England found that 20 per cent of the entire pub estate in England in 2006 (ie before the ban) had subsequently closed in the decade after the ban.
In total, there were 11,383 fewer pubs in England compared to 2006, a decline of 20.7 per cent since the smoking ban was introduced on July 1, 2007. (‘The Road to Ruin: The impact of the smoking ban on pubs and personal choice’.)
No-one, least of all Forest, denied there were other issues in play, but the smoking ban was clearly a significant factor too, and what infuriated us was the blatant attempt to sweep the impact of the ban under the carpet.
Make no mistake, the smoking ban was cultural vandalism. Introduced on the flimsy pretext that it would ‘save’ the lives of thousands of bar workers who had previously been ‘forced’ to breathe environmental tobacco smoke, the policy was a disaster for the pub industry.
I’m not suggesting we continue to fight old battles - it’s too late for that - but it’s not too late to fight attempts to ban smoking outside pubs and bars, whether that’s in beer gardens or new licensed pavement areas, before even more pubs are forced out of business.
But more on that next month.