Time for a cig

[Maik]

Unable to ban smoking in public places, the Greek government is considering to implement a measure according to which indoor smoking will be allowed at certain hours.

Greeks stubbornly refuse to comply with European Union directives that prohibit smoking indoors in public places. Since smoking is tied with social activities such as eating and drinking, it is next to impossible for restaurants, coffee shops and bars to not allow patrons to smoke. “No Smoking” signs in such places are only for show.

Health ministry officials have put on the drawing table a plan to implement “smoking hours” in restaurants, bars and coffee shops, according to Mega television report. The plan is to allow smoking only for certain hours.

General Secretary of Public Health Yiannis Baskozos said on television that according to his experience, in other European countries there are certain hours when smoking is allowed, and others when smoking is prohibited.

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/05/30/greek-health-ministry-considers-time-schedule-for-public-smoking/

[Bryan-in-Kilkis]

How completely ridiculous.    Time-keeping, for a start, is hardly the Greeks' strongest quality, and secondly they are hardly likely to comply with such a law if they can't find it in themselves to comply with a blanket ban.  It's a pity that when "the Greeks gave the world culture" (ha!), they didn't keep a smidgeon of it for themselves.   

[Maik]

It's a pity that when "the Greeks gave the world culture" (ha!), they didn't keep a smidgeon of it for themselves.   

Oh, I say! 

Culture dish / Ashtray

Time to wake up and smell the ciggie smoke.

...I'll puff some your way 

[TonyKath]

The NHS and various newspapers are reporting that the UK smoking ban has reduced children's hospital admissions by 11,000 per year so it's a shame Greeks cannot see it in a wider context.  My guess is that in the UK the ban was preceded by a number of years of growing opposition to smoking and government anti-smoking campaigns which made the ban more likely to be effective when it was introduced.  I suspect that this didn't happen in Greece so there was never sufficient support to launch it.  However I would expect that allowing restrictions to be lifted for a few hours per day would be seen as a total abandonment. 

Tony

[expat]

As a non smoker.
Rem,ember this, the next target in the uk are the grossly fat gits that cost the nhs a fortune!
then we move onto something else, erm cars kill lots of people, fat gits wont walk so we keep the cars so that kids can be dropped off on the yellow lines outside school, cars kill people, will we ban them? not a chance, too much money involved.
Let the Greeks have a ciggy, people are dying of starvation across Europe, get a life and put things into prespective! if you want to ban things, then stay in the uk.