Don't mention the smoking ban.

Shuiab Khan of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph (East Lancashires answer to the Socialist Worker) has just written a rather pointless column on local pubs, entitled,

"OK, I didn’t go inside, but it was still my pub"

Despite not really frequenting a pub, I must say I always had an affiliation to one.
I could go as far as to say that there actually was a sense of pride that this was ‘my pub’.
Did it really matter that we never went inside one? Should it have mattered?
Not everyone visited a pub but they still thought of it as one of their own.

Most of it is similar meaningless guff, particularly to an ex pub manager who knows you don't make any money from someone who calls your pub your own but simply "affiliates" themselves with it rather than patronising it.

He also mentions some tat about landmarks and stuff.

I wasn't going to bother passing comment until I read this:

Yes, we can blame changing demographics but that is not the case for the majority of the pubs closing down.
It seems simple economics is forcing landlords to shut up shop.

 Apparently every pub he's ever been "affiliated" with has shut down; he's now lamenting that fact.

There were seventeen comments at this point; some arguing the case of "changing demographics", white areas turning Asian, some calling drinkers horrible intolerant names and some criticising the author for refusing to integrate with the rest of the community by not using the pubs.

I added this:

""It seems simple economics is forcing landlords to shut up shop.""
No it isn't. It's down to the smoking ban.

I expected a debate with the rabid anti-smokers to begin in earnest.
However, my comment was simply deleted.

That's what they wish they could do to smokers these days. Simply press the delete button and have us disappear.