It was at the Yard of Ale pub in Margate that I smoked my third and last cigarette.  I can remember it clearly.

Finished up a late night Saturday shift working as a waiter at Cheyenne Spur and some of us ambled down to join those already in very full swing. The year was 1991, my first out of school. Man, that feels like a lifetime ago. The Yard was a long, thin bar, very cramped, but it had atmosphere.

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For many smokers, it may feel like a lifetime ago that selling cigarettes etc wasn’t banned. Many have had to cheat, trawl and bootleg to get their hands on a ‘skyf’. I saw a bloke at a petrol station the other day, smoke hanging on his lip while he waited for his tank to be filled up. Has he not seen Zoolander?

What I remember from that night at the Yard – at the peak of my wild, partying days (hardly) was that the smoke was a Texan. Or was it a Winston? Or was Winston one of the waiters at Spur? Maybe the excess number of Lion lagers fogged the memory that I thought was so clear.

Whatever the case, the combination was enough to give me such a brutal hangover the next day that it cured me forever – smoking immediately and drinking not long after. Plus, I never really got the hang of it. I did not like that sharp, burning sensation.

So, all along I was probably secretly in the anti-smoking camp – you know, smokers outside please and all that. Loads of self-righteousness. But the recent ban on smokes seems a bit ridiculous… and unfair. And encroaching on some basic rights perhaps, with some excessive policing of it all.

Sure, smoking is addictive and not necessarily great for your health. But it’s not illegal. Many of my colleagues have tried to give up, some successfully for good, others for a while. Others not at all.
At least some have had the grace to forewarn you. ‘Nothing personal, just on the edge, haven’t had a smoke for three days and I really, really need one!’

I cannot imagine how they must be feeling. The argument that it’s better for the nation’s health doesn’t really sit. If that’s the case then shouldn’t you ban anything with sugar in it? Cut the smokers some slack.

It reminds me of boarding school days … the more the boys were forbidden to smoke, the more they found ways and means to do exactly that.
And perhaps ease up on the clamping down on our freedoms, because that’s what it looks like – not helped by the swirl of fake news, conspiracy theories and general uncertainty.

If that’s not the case then give us a little reassurance.

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