FRIDAY TEATIME at the pub, when droothy workers meet for a couple of pints and a fag. Well, last night was the last time that will be possible.

With the ban due to come into effect at 6 am tomorrow, we asked some smokers and non-smokers winding down in the Pillars Bar, Dundee, after a hard week for their thoughts.

Smoker Brian Anderson said, “I think it’s a load of nonsense, but I suppose I’ll go outside for a fag now. I think it could cause a lot of trouble as well. If you get drunk people from other pubs passing by when there’s a lot of other people having a smoke there could be aggro.”

Alex Robson, another smoker, said, “It’s a good thing in a sense, but the regulations have come too hard, too quick.

“I agree with a total ban in cafes, restaurants and anywhere else food’s served, but it should have been introduced more gradually in places like this. There’s a separate no-smoking lounge here and I think most pubs would have been able to have totally separate areas.”

Non-smoker Brian Donnelly said, “I don’t believe in a total ban. There should be separate areas for smokers and non-smokers and people could choose which one to go to. I don’t drink in the non-smoking lounge because it’s my choice to drink in the bar. That’s my right, but as of tomorrow smokers will have no rights at all.”

At the Hawkhill Tavern, John Smith (not his real name for domestic reasons) said, “I’m a non-smoker and I’m all in favour of a total ban—especially as my wife, who’s a smoker, has said she won’t set foot in the place if she can’t have a fag with her drink.

“But seriously, I think it’s proper that people like bar staff should have the right to work in a pollution-free environment.”

Another regular commented, “I don’t have strong views either way, but what annoys me is that the council will have 35 officers carrying out Gestapo-type raids. I doubt if Tayside police could muster anything like that for a major heroin bust.”