Mark Daniels: Gillian Merron - You're a bit wrong

I love it when Government ministers make sweeping statements that have no basis in fact at all.

Today, public health minister Gillian Merron MP made the slightly laughable statement that the smoking ban has not caused any pubs to close. In fact, she hailed the ban as a roaring success with over 80% of the general public actually supporting it.

I'm not a smoker - never even tried it - but I do not agree with the ban at all. I am, however, a big advocate of believing we should move on from it as a trade; sitting around waiting for it to be repealed will just mean that more pubs go under while they hope somebody comes round to see that, while smoking in shopping centres probably should be banned, smoking in public houses should have been thought through a lot more carefully.

Of course, the smoking ban isn't the only reason pubs are closing at the moment. There's a fairly hefty recession going on. Gordon Brown's government just LOVES smacking us with higher and higher tax increases. Supermarkets sell booze really cheaply to people who can go home and have a cigarette in the comfort of their own home without being booted out of the building for the heinous crime of doing so. Public socialising is changing. And, yes, there are pubs suffering at the hands of some particularly restrictive contracts right now.

But the smoking ban has certainly caused most pubs, especially those that were traditional drinking outlets (like mine, for example), a lot of pain - and it has caused a lot to close, too.

To say it hasn't is, frankly, ridiculous and shows a severe lack of knowledge of the problems the pub trade is facing right now.

I can't speak for every pub, but I'll use mine as an example: before July 2007 my pub had a steady, successful trade. Figures fluctuated, but not wildly, and even in the depths of winter and the heaviest rain we knew we would have customers through the door.

These days we experience more of a 'tourism trade', which can only be attributed to the smoking ban. In the depths of winter the place will be empty, we'll struggle to make our numbers work and we have to severely reduce staff. If it's pouring with rain when we open the doors I can guarantee nobody will walk through the door.

Give them a modicum of sunshine, however, and the smokers pour out to bask in the sunshine and enjoy a long-awaited freshly drawn pint. Our figures soar and we have good days. Sadly, there are more rainy days than sunny...

It's true that more non-smokers use pubs these days than they ever did before; just not as much as the smokers used to.

My pub might still be going, fighting its way on in the face of adversity, but - since the smoking ban - many aren't.

I'm praying for a cracking summer this year following the long, cold winter that has broken so many businesses. Sadly, The Sun newspaper got it right in July 2007 when it printed a cartoon showing smokers standing outside in the pouring rain, surrounded by floods. Underneath, the caption read: "The scientific data isn't wrong... the monsoon rains are caused by people smoking outside."

It's Nearly Christmas!

Did you realise that today is ten months until Christmas? I've got my seven-year-old wound up already...