The last day

In the pub. The usual lunchtime clientele. Half a dozen men are standing at the bar drinking pints, watching the Liverpool-Everton match on the telly, with Big Davie behind the bar offering a sardonic commentary on the football. Two or three older men, sitting with their nips and half pints, are studying the racing form in the Record and of course puffing away on their roll-ups. Davie keeps a stock of blank betting slips in a glass on a shelf behind the bar and, from time to time, someone will slip next door to the bookies to put a line on. Taking advantage of a lull in business, Jeannie the barmaid is having a quiet fag at the end of the bar.
The room is not particularly smoky, although at least three-quarters of the customers have lit up. There is a ventilation system but it is not turned on. As one would expect in central Edinburgh, the customers are of mixed backgrounds: workies, locals, a couple of students and the occasional bourgeois footie fan. As the Hearts are away to Falkirk today, the usual group of Tynecastle attendees have not turned up for their pre-match pints. People are not particularly well-dressed, apart from Big Davie in his perennial white shirt and tie.
This is not a wonderful pub. It is a decent bar which keeps decent beer and sells it at a reasonable price. The conversation is not sparkling: Jimmy swears too much and Bert can be dreadfully boring on the subject of the construction business. But it's the best place to go for a drink in comfortable surroundings with no hassle.
The chat at the bar is desultory. Davie is having his leg pulled about the no smoking signs that have suddenly appeared but which are not yet being obeyed. There is no scope in this pub for an external shelter or awning. The view about the ban is regretful rather than bitter; no-one in this pub would break the law. Some will simply stop going to the pub; others - depending on the weather - will step outside into the street for their nicotine.
But the atmosphere - both literally and metaphorically - will have changed. Business in the pub will suffer. Jeannie may have to be laid off. Did it have to come to this? Those people advocating the ban never drink here, so why destroy the modest pleasures of those who do?