On the day the smoking ban came into force, all House of Commons bars became non-smoking.

The Commission agreed that, with effect from 4 April 2005,

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the estate should be smoke free save as otherwise provided:
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smoking should continue to be permitted in the Members Smoking Room, Annie’s Bar, Bellamy’s Bar and the Churchill Room Bar, but not in other catering outlets: and that steps should be taken to improve ventilation in those bars where smoking is to be permitted:
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smoking places should be identified off the Committee Corridor and in a covered area outside the main building:
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advice and assistance should be offered to those seeking to give up smoking:

and that such changes should be communicated via the All-Party Whip to be published on 27 January.

I don’t know how many bars HoC has, but 3 smoking bars seems pretty good to me. I bet you can take your drink into the smoking room as well.

I had a small involvement in that case, and I can tell you that the dad’s statement that he only “smacked” his child “once” is strongly contradicted by at least ten eyewitnesses. One witness told the court – under oath, with penalties for lying, mind – that it was a “vicious attack”.

Of course, all of that is considerably less exciting than OMFG the totalitarian PC leftist thought police will imprison us all in teh ZaNu-Labour re-education camp!

There’s a lesson to be learnt here about selective reading, granting credence to convicted liars for political reasons and the shittiness of tabloid journalism, if you care to learn it.

What with the Stalinist French plot waste of money bureaucratic dictatorship our masters in Brussels European Union going after the networks on data protection re Phorm, bloggertarians must be finding things very hard to understand.

I think that the law was / is about to be changed on this, isn’t it?

Paulie, it’s been two years since Gordon Brown made the promise, as part of the swishing of his new broom, to repeal that part of SOCPA. We’re still waiting.