Bring back...

[Nini]

All I know about SodaStreams is that the CO2 canisters used to "fizz" your drink of choice could potentially blow a cupboard door off if mishandled.

[Sput]

TAB and Marathon Bars deserve shelf space once again.

You're an idiot. ONLY THE NAME HAS CHANGED.

[Slagathor.]

I detected a very slight taste difference with the name change. At the time, I even asked my mates and my family and they all agreed with me. I preferred the old Marathon bars.

[tvmercia]

I even asked my mates

i refuse to believe you have friends

[Stuart*]

I even asked my mates

i refuse to believe you have friends

I suspect he was locked in a room with 9 other wasters grabbed off the street for market research. During the 19 minutes they weren't tasting the product (for which they got vouchers) then possibly they referred to each other as "mate" to ease the tension.

[Stuart*]

I detected a very slight taste difference with the name change.

Have you tried NOT slicing and eating the wrapper? It may make all the difference!

[Slagathor.]

I even asked my mates

i refuse to believe you have friends

I suspect he was locked in a room with 9 other wasters grabbed off the street for market research. During the 19 minutes they weren't tasting the product (for which they got vouchers) then possibly they referred to each other as "mate" to ease the tension.

[johnnyboy]

ZaNu Labour is a **good** soundbite!

I couldn't get on the site for some reason this weekend so not been around to respond.

On the smoking thing, I think we'll have to agree to disagree. To the "person" that thinks I should leave the country because he doesn't like something I do, that's exactly how Nazi Germany started.

BTW, Nazi Germany was the first ever country in the world to introduce a smoking ban!

[johnnyboy]

Johnnyboy...leave the country as soon as possible please. Don't come back. I think you'll find a lot of the civilised world is introducing smoking restrictions, so you and your filthy habit will be hard pressed to find a home soon.

Oh and repeating a soundbite over and over in an attempt to make a feeble point (ZaNu) is VERY New Labour

One last thing, could you explain to me why it's alright to describe something I do as a "filthy habit"?

Is it alright for me to go over to a fat person and call them "disgustingly obese"? Would it be alright for a devout Christian to go over to a gay person and say "filthly homosexual"?

What level has the brainwashing of your type reached when you can look down on someone and say something like that? Why is tolerance alright for every other minority but it's OK to demonise and villify smokers?

[johnnyboy]

The situation now is that the person who gets the pleasure also has to suffer a bit for it, and I think that's fairer.

That is a truly strange thing to say. Because I and 10 million+ people get pleasure out of something, we should have to suffer for it?

Why not allow indoor, sealed-off and ventilated smoking areas?

Oh right, I forgot. You want to control smokers and their non-smoking friends. Not very live-and-let-live.

The worst you get is coldness for 10 minutes when it's cold.

Thanks very much for that generous concession, oh tolerant master.

- I metrolove that I don't have to wash everything I've been wearing after I go the pub now.
- I like that the fag burn scar on my hand I got in a crowded club won't be repeated without some serious effort.
- I LOVE that when I have a cough it's not exacerbated by the air in pubs. That's definitely true, but beyond that I'm not up to date with the research. You'll forgive me for ignoring your "junk science" comment JB, since I take you to be a slightly biased indicator! I'll refrain from making judgements about the health impact except for that the particles are obviously lung irritants.

I'm pleased you like that. As stated earlier, the "smoke-everywhere" culture was wrong. However, denying 10m+ people a simple pleasure of sitting in the warmth with a beer and a tab really does show what's wrong with this country.

BTW, the air in restuarants has far more carcinogens that a pub which allows smoking. It's just because it smells nicer that people do not think it is a "threat". Of course it is not a threat though - it's the dosage that counts, not the ingredient itself.

The "science" behind second-hand smoking is junk, even though for every one showing some link, six more do not.

Incidentally, France's smoking ban is forcing people outside as has California's.

That's true, but there is a provision for indoor smoking in the legislation. Most people didn't think the law would be enforced, but they're clamping down hard on it like the £300m-a-year" smoke-free" force in the UK.

From Wikipedia - "Under the new regulations, smoking rooms are allowed, but are subjected to very strict conditions: they may occupy at most 20% of the total floor space of the establishment and their size may not be more than 35 m²; they need to be equipped with separate ventilation which replaces the full volume of air ten times per hour; the air pressure of the smoking room must constantly be lower than the pressure in the contiguous rooms; they must have doors that close automatically; no service can be provided in the smoking rooms; and cleaning and maintenance personnel may enter the room only one hour after it was last used for smoking."

There is apparently a mad rush on in France to get these rooms installed. I hope most of them do so in time before they run out of money.

Oh, and the stuff you said about pubs closing is characteristic of what you accused the health studies of doing: you're only considering one variable - smoking ban and no smoking ban - when there are many more factors in pubs closing.

I agree with what you're saying. The effect of cheap supermarket/off-licence booze is having a terrible effect.

However, according to CAMRA, 56 pubs were closing each month prior to July 2007. Now it is 200 a month.

[Alexia]

One last thing, could you explain to me why it's alright to describe something I do as a "filthy habit"?

Is it alright for me to go over to a fat person and call them "disgustingly obese"? Would it be alright for a devout Christian to go over to a gay person and say "filthly homosexual"?

What level has the brainwashing of your type reached when you can look down on someone and say something like that? Why is tolerance alright for every other minority but it's OK to demonise and villify smokers?

Well, the Church are so prejudiced against all those who don't follow the rules of their little anthology of fairy tales that attacks on minority and other "heathen" groups are normal, but not life-threatening.

The media and various other institutions have been teaching us that thin is better, and forcing anorexia onto younger and younger people. Dangerous and potentially life threatening, but involves some level of choice on the part of the individual as to whether they believe that being thinner than they are would boost their "self esteem" (for self esteem, read ego)

However, these pale into insignificance when I am sat quite innocently in a pub enjoying a pint, when two seats down from me, a 4-inch piece of paper containing a mix of processed leaves, tar, nicotine, chemicals and more is burning, producing a noxious mix of poisons and a clothes-clinging, hair-holding smell that is infinately more unpleasant than any sweat or other smell.

Yes, smoking is filthy. It dirties you, your lungs, but more importantly, it dirties us, our lungs, and (as lifelong non-smoker Roy Castle would attest if he was still with us) is a dangerous and life-threatening activity that those around you are forced to be complicit in because you think it's "social."

Your minority is a minority for a reason. There's less people who think smoking is acceptable than those who think it isn't. And tolerance doesn't have to be extended to all minorities. I don't tolerate bigots, racists and fundementalists either. I grant them the right to speak alright, just don't ask me to spend more than 5 seconds in their company.