Here’s an interesting (but not unexpected) piece by the FT’s Matthew Engel on the damage wreaked by England’s smoking ban:

The more laws governments pass, the more they are subject to the oldest law of all: the law of unintended consequences. And smoking bans are having bizarre consequences across the world…In Britain, where smoking in enclosed public places became totally illegal in 2007, beer sales are down by 10 per cent; analysts attribute half of that to the smoking law. Pubs are now closing at a record rate of 36 a week. The publicans I talk to (and they have plenty of time to chat these days) have many complaints but the loss of the smokers is top of their list. Some are on the pavement, but most stay at home. Pool tables stand empty; darts leagues wither. This may not be so noticeable in the cities. The pubs that are closing are mainly small and often rural, precisely the places that are crucial to their communities… Big city drinking barns survive; gastropubs may thrive. The inns of Olde England face extinction, killed by the well-meaning.

I’d dispute that “well-meaning.” Many anti-smoking activists are anything but. The rest of what Engel has to say, however, is spot-on. He continues thus:

There are similar reports from Ireland, where the broadcaster Gerry Anderson said bars now had the atmosphere of a dentist’s waiting room. In France, more than 500 of the 40,000 cafés and bars disappeared last year. Again, the ban is largely blamed. And in France, the climate is more conducive to sitting outside with a Ricard and a Gauloise. Latest figures suggest there has been no effect at all on tobacco consumption in Britain or Ireland. And anecdotal evidence is that kids are now staying out of pubs, heading for any open spaces they can find, getting bladdered on cheap supermarket lager and smoking their heads off. When the ban came in, all the non-smokers twittered about how they could now safely visit all the lovely smoke-free pubs. And did they? Did they heck! I hardly ever smoked in pubs myself. Nor does anyone else now. They do not drink in them either. Brilliant.

The effect on the bar trade in New York City (and elsewhere in the United States) has, I believe, been not so dramatic, probably reflecting the fact that many of the anti-smoking fatwas were introduced at a time of economic strength, a time that’s now firmly behind us. It’ll be interesting to see if that prompts politicians (who also have a responsibility not to damage the economic health of the communities they represent) to relax laws that are not only an affront to freedom, but an assault on small business.

I’m not holding my breath.