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LAST ORDERS: John Barrett outside the Brown Cow
'I can't be fagged any more'
Frank Wood22/ 2/2006
A PUB owner who threatened to sell up if the smoking ban was given the go-ahead is sticking to his guns.
Ex-paratrooper John Barrett, who owns and runs the Brown Cow on Bamford Road with partner Julie McNiece, vowed he would sell the pub and move abroad if he was forced to stop his customers having a smoke.
After last week's vote in the Commons to ban smoking in pubs, clubs, restaurants, public buildings and even private members' clubs, he is off house-hunting in the States this summer.
And as good as his word, John plans to sell the pub before the ban comes into force next year.
He says it will be a sad day when he and Julie leave because their customers are also their friends, but that the vote was 'the last straw'.
He said: "I would have been here for four years when I reach 50, so I'll just bring it forward.
"If MPs really wanted to do something for the health of the nation and ban tobacco products completely I could see the sense in that. I would support it, even though I smoke and would probably find it hard to give up.
"But they want the tax revenue to continue from cigarette sales and they expect people like licensees to carry on being unpaid tax collectors for them.
"The first thing I will be doing is getting rid of my cigarette machine. I'm not being a tax collector any longer.
"When the news came on television that MPs had voted for the ban, I looked round the pub and 17 of the 25 people in here were smoking. I've invested a small fortune in filtering machines and extractor fans. But they'll now go too.
"All the political correctness in this country is ridiculous. So I am out of the door."
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23/02/2006 at 14:14