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Ban means jobs go up in smoke
• I DEPLORE the announcement that the Essex Road Mecca bingo hall faces closure as a result of the Labour government’s decision to ban smoking in enclosed spaces (Don’t close the bingo, February 23).
The ban represents a serious intrusion of the state into private property, and is not only severely illiberal but damaging to people’s businesses, causing unnecessary loss of local jobs and revenue.
If the owners of Mecca Bingo wish to allow smoking on their premises then they should be allowed to. No one is forced to work there, and no one is forced to be a paying customer there if they don’t like it. And it is sheer cynical hypocrisy for Labour councillors to “protest” against the closure when it is their party’s government that forced through the ban in the first place.
What is even more chilling is your report about the council now hiring people to monitor the smoking ban – a further colossal waste of our money and a most unBritish intrusion by the state into the lives of private citizens. The sooner the country is rid of this intrusive and domineering government, the better.
JONATHAN THURGOOD
Chairman, Mildmay Conservatives
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