BBC coverage of Save our Pubs

I suppose it was as much as we could expect from the BBC. It reports on a Cross-Party group that wants to see an amendment to the smoking ban.

Andrew Neil reading from a Department of Health briefing as if it were a credible source of facts, and a list of what has damaged the licensed trade other than the smoking ban, more or less claiming that pubs have their day and the smoking ban is irrelevant. John Hemming arguing for a change principally to stop the mess and inconvenience of going through groups of smokers on the way in and out of the pub. Hilary Benn MP apparently oblivious to the pubs throughout the country that don't have gardens (is he still Labour?).

Nothing to challenge the underlying justification for the ban ... only arguments along the lines of 'the ban is very well meaning but not very well thought out'. And the only convert on the issue, Nick Herbert MP (Conservative), who has decided that the health of bar staff might cause him to rethink his opposition to the ban, should another opportunity arise to vote on the issue. And it won't, of course.

Thanks, Aunty Beeb.