Your Typical Small Village Smoker-Hater Neo-Puritan

So I followed a link to an article on Sky.com titled "Fifty Pubs Closing Every Week, Research Says."  Nowhere in the article is the smoking ban mentioned, not even in passing.  Because when I talk to pub owners, many of them say their business would improve if smokers were allowed to smoke inside the premises.  Who likes being forced to stand outside in the cold, or rain?  Some pubs, however, prefer to be non-smoking. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  Every business owner should be allowed to choose.  It's their business, their property.  Before the smoking ban came in, we sometimes went to non-smoking establishments and we never complained or said they should allow smoking.  We respected their choice. 

Anyway, pubs are closing for a variety of reasons, some of the are just really shite and would have closed even if there wasn't a ban, but we all know that the smoking ban has had a detrimental effect on the pub trade.  Anyone who says it hasn't is a fucking liar.

Right, so I read the article, and then started to read the comments, which is always a recipe for elevated blood pressure.  Sure enough, some moron called Taxpayer-2010 writes this (as always, emphasis mine):

Posted by: Taxpayer-2010 on April 20, 2012 4:13 PM -- I live in a small village (Lambourn, Berks) - there are 2 rough pubs on the high street that always have tattooed smokers in their doorway but there are a dozen good pubs with friendly atmosphere and good food within a couple of miles. If one of the high street pubs close I would be delighted, if they both closed it would make the village much nicer after dark.

There are many bad effects from the recession/debt hangover but people drinking and smoking less is not one of them.
If a pub is well run and has decent food it will survive - if it relies on a core customer base of alchoholics (sic) and idiots then good riddance.

First off, what does having tattoos have anything to do with anything?  I have no idea what the percentage of people with tattoos is, but it's pretty up there.  Almost everyone I know has a tattoo.  People from all walks of life have tattoos -- rich people, poor people, politicians, doctors (even hateful activist doctors), schoolteachers...  Having a tattoo doesn't make you evil, or an alcoholic, or a thug, or a yob, or anything but someone who has a tattoo.  Tattooed people are not scary.  Do you want to see something really scary?  Click this link!  That's scary.  Imagine bumping into it her in a dark alley late at night.  *Shudders*  I'll take my chances with the tattooed people...

Secondly, during this recession people are drinking more and smoking more than they were before.  Tobacco and alcohol stocks are skyrocketing since Labour did us all in.  That wouldn't happen if sales weren't booming. Look!

Cigarette Sales Just Fine, say Big Tobacco

Thirdly, if you want your local businesses to close, you're a hateful dick, and you'd rather see people go on the dole than earn a decent, honest living.  You need to support your local businesses, and even if you don't want to give them your money, you can still support them by leaving them a-fucking-lone to get on with their business.  They aren't hurting you.  No one has attacked you in the village, because if they had, you would have written about it.  They are simply people out for a pint with their mates who are forced to stand outside because of bigoted anti-smoker people like you.

The only thing we need to get rid of is hateful people like you, Taxpayer-2010.  No, wait, we'll keep you around so we can be reminded just how stupid, arrogant, bigoted and hateful people can be, you arsewipe.

H/T - DP once again.