Hello | Wed 3rd February 2010
I agree Icey & I'm an ex-smoker.

Most of our senior citizens would have been youthful in the 50's & 60's no doubt pushing the boundaries for a more permissive society, once they got it they decided they didn't want it anymore?

I see too many pensioners driving - it's not good for them or for the rest of us. Ban their cars and get them walking once again. It'll do them good. My dear old grandmother never drove, lived in a town that was basically 2 steep hills stuck together and she was still bounding around at 90.

Icey | Tue 2nd February 2010
You non-smokers really do seem to be gloating about this issue with the attitude of a child that has taken his ball home but only after he has got his own way. You had The Braye Beach. You had The Belle Vue. Now you have them all and the smokers, the ones who actually keep the proper Alderney local pubs ticking over in the winter have nothing and could possibly lose them as well. In the summer, when you have 50-100 people out on the street smoking what then? Of course, you’ll call the Police and then they will then want to ban that. Will some of these States Members and you quite frankly Johnny do-goods ever be happy until you have taken the very last part that makes Alderney Alderney and turned it into a sort of retirement home lifestyle for all who live here?

By the way, I am a Non-smoker!

Ne fume/ pas | Mon 1st February 2010
Well done States of Alderney got it right at last. On facebook I see that a lot of young people are planning to quit smoking on the 1st June so it looks like our States may acheive a good result with the ban,and it will be nice to go out and not choke on secondhand smoke and not go home smelling like an ashtray.

Auberge | Mon 1st February 2010
I totally agree Icey, most of the people that are against smoking probably never visit the pubs, and therefore don't realise how much thier business will suffer, they will all become off licences instead and people will become less sociable! Let the landlords decide if thy want to be a smoking or non-smoking pub! Living in the UK I have seen all our local pubs declining!

Auberge | Mon 1st February 2010
I totally agree Icey, most of the people that are against smoking probably never visit the pubs, and therefore don't realise how much thier business will suffer, they will all become off licences instead and people will become less sociable! Let the landlords decide if thy want to be a smoking or non-smoking pub! Living in the UK I have seen all our local pubs declining!

Auberge | Mon 1st February 2010
I totally agree Icey, most of the people that are against smoking probably never visit the pubs, and therefore don't realise how much thier business will suffer, they will all become off licences instead and people will become less sociable! Let the landlords decide if thy want to be a smoking or non-smoking pub! Living in the UK I have seen all our local pubs declining!

Auberge | Mon 1st February 2010
I totally agree Icey, most of the people that are against smoking probably never visit the pubs, and therefore don't realise how much thier business will suffer, they will all become off licences instead and people will become less sociable! Let the landlords decide if thy want to be a smoking or non-smoking pub! Living in the UK I have seen all our local pubs declining!

Icey | Tue 26th January 2010
Thank you Auberge, I am also a non-smoker though am still against the ban. It would be intersting to see just how many of the people who are so for the ban suddenly become regulars at the pubs at 5.PM on a work day. Not many I'd bet.

Auberge | Tue 26th January 2010
We have been visiting the islands for 10 years, (we live in the uk,) and love Alderney so much we actually got married there last year! My husband stopped smoking about 8 yrs ago, and I stopped 6 yrs ago, but I think it's absurd that non smokers can dictate to others!
I thought it was great that Alderney had NOT joined in the ban, what a shame that this has now happened - be individual, please stop dictating what people can & can't do.

Hello | Sun 24th January 2010
Well Icey, I was joking but when you think about it the suggestion utilises much of the same logic which brought along a smoking ban.

If you are going to legislate for public health should you not aim to improve the health of all?

I could avoid the tobacco smoke but your exhaust pipe does not stop puffing when it passes me in the street does it?

ron | Fri 22nd January 2010
Looks like my last visit, I smoke.

Icey | Fri 22nd January 2010
Hello, you are joking no?

Hello | Fri 22nd January 2010
Well that's the smoking sorted for the good of public health.

Now let's talk about all the cars we have driving around the gaff, particulate pollution, noise pollution, danger to kids. Make us walk for our own good, it would be a sound move and force us to improve our health. As a car ban would 'assist' even more people than a smoking ban what is stopping us?

An independently-minded non-smoker | Thu 21st January 2010
The people who are so happy to 'ban' should move to mainland Britain where they would be more attuned to the local culture.

Alderney has changed so much in the last couple of decades and it has generally been as a result of incomers from the mainland who seem driven to make the island a 'little England'.

By all means regulate to improve the lot of smokers and non-smokers (the spirit of cooperation on which small islands thrive), but do not BAN (the haughty small-minded assumed moral superiority that 'we know best').

Bluejacket | Tue 19th January 2010
It is so very obviously the correct decision that the only surprise is the closeness of the vote. Well done to the States' members for getting there in the end!

Bluejacket | Tue 19th January 2010
It is so very obviously the correct decision that the only surprise is the closeness of the vote. Well done to the States' members for getting there in the end!

Maderlock | Mon 18th January 2010
In response to Icey, not all change is bad, as not all of it is good. There is much about the island that is unique. I can see your point, though (you should where a hat), as the lack of over-bearing regulation is a real selling point for Alderney. However, regulation is clearly needed in the case that there is a provable connection between a practice and the health of others, not just the person who makes the choice of smoking.

Personally, I welcome it as one of the few things that I was dreading when I visit this year. Now I'm more excited than ever!

Icey | Mon 18th January 2010
That's another piece of Alderney's uniqueness gone then. Let's just change the name of the island and be done with it.

Sam | Sun 17th January 2010
At last the \"STATES\", has done something for the good & wellbeing of ALDERNEY. It wasn`t that difficult was it!

Thankyou Mr President.x

Pete | Fri 15th January 2010
A close vote, indeed, for Alderney's smoking ban, but so ,so long overdue. Thankfully, it will be possible to go out without the fear of clouds of toxic smoke.Most of Alderney's Bars do not have more than one room, so to go out and enjoy a drink in a pub is impossible. There may be a view that smokers should choose, but so many don't care where they blow their smoke. I think some of them even think it is OK to share their awful habit. Well done to the States. Thankyou. It saves having to leave the island for safer climes.