Dxf

Hi

A friend told me there is a new "No Smoking" ban on the 1st December;

Anyone confirm this (ornot as the case maybe)

Davexf

Fred James

The health minister is threatening to introduce a total ban but it doesn't seem to likely before next year.

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news...le_23362.shtml

fionamw

Should be hysterical, considering the ´no smoking' bars currently full of chain smokers

agoreira

Nothing surprising there, I said a long time ago, despite all the posturing from Spain and it's smokers, that they would eventually go the same way as nearly everyone else. Just a matter of time, as usual they are still about 5 years behind the rest of the civilised world.

cricketman

mmm, I could argue they are ahead of the curve for many things:
- legalisation of gay marriages and adoption
- development of renewable energy, solar panels and windfarms
- investment into public transport and high speed trains
- tougher banking regulations than UK and US....
- remember they were one of the first to ban smoking in public places. Even though the law had a huge loophole it suceeded in getting rid of smoking in the workplace, cinemas, shopping centres, airports and many restaurants. I am able to pick from a number of non-smoking bars and restaurants in my area.

I think it must give some Brits a big ego-boost to keep saying how "behind" and "poor" Spain is. Spain is not perfect, but it is definitely not backwards.

fionamw

I wish I were!

agoreira

Well in UK not a problem of having to pick one, you know they all will be smoke free! Not sure where he gets some of his facts from, Spain one of the first in banning smoking in public places? Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Italy, Ireland etc were all earlier.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3758707.stm

steviedeluxe

Absolutely! Both political parties in the UK have been talking about a high speed train line connecting London to Scotland, but at best they're saying it's going to be at least 2025 before it's operational. I sometimes think (in some areas) the UK's ten years behind Spain!!
As you say Cricketman, in some areas they're ahead of the game, in some areas they won't be. When we find a perfect society I'm sure we'll be told!

Madridboy

Having a law and implementing it are one one thing but enforcing it is another. Our workplace is by law a non smoking place but we all smoke including the owner who pretty much chain smokes. My OH and I were talking about this yesterday and IM`OH´O not a great deal is going to change as how can the police watch every bar all day and night, especialy the more village bars where the owners and staff smoke. It's not like banning smoking on the metro which has cameras and security to (help) ward off problems, time will tell though.

chulo

A high speed or lack of one in the UK is not down to backwardness.

Spain is a very big country with lots of open space, making a high speed train system very easy to design, build and finance.

So geographically Spain needed a high speed train, it makes sense to cover large distance quickly than small distance even quicker, no.

Also the space, the UK has little room for a high speed train line that would not cause A) A lot of money B) Disruption.

The lines that make a high speed train viable are already used by slower trains. Those lines that are already in use cannot be used as you need long straight lines to allow the train to reach its fast speeds.

Problem with the UK is the distance between viable locations are densely populated.

So its not a fact that Spain is ahead of the UK, it was just a very easy project, due to geography.

Its not possible to measure a countries position when both are in the developed world.

There is a sooo many factors involved, although the comment about the banks being better regulated was funny.

I`d suggest one looked at the Spanish banks books before getting too comfy, there currently on a very fine balancing act.

Northern Rock got the business from the US ahead of BBVA not because of regulation, more people connections.

Spanish Banks may yet make headlines.

cricketman

I'm not saying Spain is "better" than the UK. I am just saying is not "poor" and "backwards" like so many Brits on here suggest.

It is a fact that Spanish banks are more closely regulated which meant they could not dabble in dodgy investment products that were based on mortgages given to the US poor and unemployed with no income checks made on those homeowners. It was illegal for Spanish banks to invest in those products.

That is not to say Spanish banks will not have hard times in the future, but anything that happens will probably be down to their domestic housing market and the unemployment rate.

btw, UK banks didnt fail bc of the UK housing market, they failed because of over-exposure to terrible US based investments which the bankers thought would help them get-rich quick, their very own pyrimide scheme.

chulo

You cannot blame US banks for the situation, the govt have made them the scape goat.

If the banks did not lend to those peeps, many would be homeless, that`s not good for politicians.

There were risk`s and rewards, the punt failed and everybody lost something.

Regulating this to never happen again will mean more people will have less, less pensions, less mortgages and loans and ultimately a worse standard of living.

The investors will look for other sources or not bother, companies will fail and jobs will be lost.

Spanish bank volume of bad debt held by banks and financing co-operatives, excluding retail credit cards, rose by 2.68 billion euros ($3.78 billion) in May from April to 81.7 billion euros.

The non-performing loans (NPL) ratio in May stood at 4.56 percent compared to 4.44 percent in April.

Spain's largest bank Santander (SAN.MC) said last month it expects to end 2009 with NPLs of around 3.5 percent, while bad debts for savings banks is expected to rise to 9 percent next year.

NPLs for the mostly unlisted, regional savings banks rose to 5.2 percent in May from 5.05 percent in April, while bad debt for retail banks rose to 3.95 percent from 3.81 percent a month earlier.

cricketman

I dont agree with the first half of your email, but everyone is entitled to an opinion

There is no social housing in the US then? That's not very civilised is it? Sounds a bit backwards to me. Luckily US citizens were civilised enough to vote in Obama to Europeanise their country. Now they're going to have a national health service, gay marriages and be mates with Cuba. Good on them!

agoreira

In a nutshell! Spain are great at passing laws, sh1te at implementing them. You won't get a harder smoking, drinking culture than the Scots, the Irish, Scousers etc but the law was brought in with the minimum of fuss, and nowhere have I seen it broken. If the Spanish are serious about it, it's not hard to implement, just a few hefty fines, threats of closure for locales that break the law would be sufficient.

cricketman

Be patient, it will happen with time. Things have improved loads already and will continue to do so. Just like with driving, Spain used to have some of the most driving deaths in Europe, now it is in the top half of the safest countries in Europe and is the country that is improving the most year-on-year.

This happened little by little. Because of their recent history, Spain does not accept fascist law enforcers unlike the UK. Instead their changes come through gentle nagging, little by little.