The hotel above is in the heart of the ancient seaside town of Whitby (made famous by Bram Stoker and his book, Dracula) which is teaming with tourists and visitors 24/7. It [The New Angel Hotel] should have survived anything barring a Tsunami. Like any seaside town that faces the North Sea, when that cold icy wind blows towards it then you have to wrap up well. Tourists are hardy beasts and will cheerfully wander round in a force ten gale to see all the wonderful sights their chosen resort has to offer but when it comes to relaxation then they seek out warm and inviting pubs or clubs in which to imbibe a drink or three whilst chatting wistfully over digital photos of aunty Dot partaking of the Dracula Experience.
Since the 1st of July 2007 the law of the UK stipulated that the auntie Dot’s of this world, if they smoke, would have to go outside in all inclement weathers to partake of that particular verboten fruit, no matter how old or infirm.
No matter what the anti smoking, Tobacco Controlling prohibitionists may tell you, over 9000 business have been wiped out and that is directly attributable to the smoking ban, period! For anti smokers to deny this in light of many sources in the hospitality industry is another attempt to pull the wool over the
MPs have started to listen now as many in the hospitality industry are clamouring at their doors in ‘the big house’ asking for some respite from the ban as it dawned on them that appeasement has cost them dearly. The irony is that appeasement doesn’t work as a political strategy, as Neville Chamberlain found out to his cost in the 1930’s, and we know where that led.
Since before the ban came into our lives Freedom2Choose have been at the forefront of dissent towards it and have a proven record of making representations to our governors. F2C has made many alliances with august bodies like the CIU and Shisha bar associations.
A Call to Arms
As reported by Simon Clark on his blog Taking Liberties there will be a special reception in the House of Commons on the 29th of June 2011 hosted by The Rt Hon Greg Knight MP (Conservative), Roger Godsiff MP (Labour) and John Hemming MP (Liberal Democrat).
Our chairman, Phil Johnson will be attending along with Dave Atherton and a few others from F2C.
Phil Johnson and Freedom2Choose would like members and non members alike to help in delivering a strong message to the pre reception MPs about the destructive nature of an ill thought out piece of legislation built on a tissue of lies and misconceptions.
Phil has put together a letter and a submission form for circulating to landlords and club stewards. He will be taking the completed forms to deliver to the MPs on the 29th of June. A copy of the form is shown below.
The original printer friendly form and letter can be downloaded and printed from here (pdf) or here (word doc).
We rarely get the chance to make representations “face to face” with our MPs, especially when it comes to the smoking ban experiment, so we should grasp this opportunity by both hands and then some.
We need these forms filled in by your local landlord/steward ASAP and sending to:
Phil Johnson, Chairman, Freedom2choose, 37 Windley Road, Leicester, LE2 6QX.
I’ll finish with a quote from the chairman of F2C, Phil:
“Will this country finally wake up when every person has to carry a plastic type credit card, which goes through the till and alerts the barperson as soon as you have purchased your 5th drink, that your limit has been reached? This is your chance to show this government that you, the businessman, know your business best.”
9 comments:
Oh no, not The Angel Hotel as well!!! I’m so sorry. They used to have a real fire, and a great range of proper ales, and a sleepy dog lying in front of the fire, and local fishermen smoking their pipes, and it was very friendly. It was a wonderful place to go to on cold holiday evenings and a great tourist attraction in its own right. Damn this smoking ban to hell!
Good luck with the campaign.
Aye Lysistrata, that pic was taken eight days ago when me, the Mrs and the bro in law took a day trip there. That was the first sight I saw when I got off the bus. It looks so mournful and throws the whole place out of character.
Bloody shame.
The only problem here is that the majority of smokers do not have a 'local' any more.
We would not know the landlord of any of the pubs in our areas as we haven't been to a pub for almost 4 years.
This is obviously the last call for smoker & licensee support. What have tenanted pubs got to lose now, they've already lost most of their customers! Well done freedom2choose, keep punching where it hurts.
@anon 03:55. Thanks for the words of encouragement, it is well received here and much appreciated.
Witches, I understand what you are saying but are you really telling me there are no pubs/clubs within your vacinity, in Essex?
I have four watering holes witnin walking distance, two working mens clubs and two pubs and I have no idea who is the landlord/lady or stewards. Tomorrow is a bank holiday and I will take Phil's letter and form with me in an envelope marked "for the attention of the landlord/lady/steward" etc. I'll leave it a few days before asking there if they got my letter etc.
On Tuesday I'll take a short bus trip to a local market as Tuesday is market day. I'll take the above letters to the three pubs that are left, all of which I do not know who runs them. In one of the pubs I'll purchase my elicit rolling baccy from man without a van who chuckles at me doing my nudge nudge, wink wink routine, cos he couldn't give a flying **** who sees him, he has never been "dobbed in" yet.
I know for a fact that my chairman has sent out a helluva lot of letters in his local area of Leicester and spent a small fortune of his own money to do so, and he doesn't even smoke now!
And here's the clincher, they'll send the forms to Phil and my job is done, all I had to do was buy a drink and leave an envelope with the bar staff.
Go on, give it a try Witches, you know you want to.
Thank you for your kind words and offer of distributing to the 'great unknowns' I'm afraid that Leicester too has become a a 'foriegn land' of tenants as all the 'old watering holes' have now changed hands due to either forsight to get out or simply going skint and having to get out! My local brewery (Everards) are suffering greatly but then 'Sir' Richard Everard did actually write to Blairs government adding his total support for a total ban as he himself visualised 'the millions of non smokers waiting in them there hills'. His pubs are empty, 3 have been sold (no longer fitting Everards portfolio-Everards speak for 'can't find not no more mugs anymore!) and several stand empty-and that's when they are open as well!
I have posted to the remaining pubs (not just Everards) who don't deserve to die the death of a thousand cuts, in the hope that they will, at long last, see the futility of the situation and try to help themselves!
Because of general apathy very few licensees will know about SOPAC or the 29th-we need to make them aware of both-as well as ourselves.
If everyone wrote to their nearest 5 pubs and/or clubs it would give me the opportunity of contacting their MP-and I really don't care how many I have to talk to down there, I WILL BE HEARD!
Up to pres we have, attending this function:- Mr & Mrs Chairman (Bosslady knows the pubtrade inside out etc)
Aqua & Budgie
Dave A
B7
Bill Gibson (tbc)
More the merrier folks-maximum impact required please!
The New Angel in Whitby is to become a Wetherspoons (make of that what you will). See here.
New Angel, New Quay Road, Whitby, North Yorkshire. New Angel Hotel closed in December 2010 with JDW negotiating to buy the property. (Whitby Gazette, December 2010). Still not completed, January 2011. (Whitby Gazette, January 2011). Contracts exchanged, revised plans to be submitted. (Whitby Gazette, May 2011).
Keep fighting!
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