THE Scottish Government is fond of setting a target or two. One of its most ambitious is to achieve a “smoke-free” Scotland by 2034.
Figures released yesterday as part of the Scottish Household Survey for 2014 suggest that significant progress is being made. The number of Scots who smoke has fallen to one in five adults, a drop of three per cent on the previous three years and the sharpest decline since 1999.
There has also, of course, been a significant health dividend for the nation. Apart from the obvious reduction in smoking-related illnesses, recent legislation has had the side-effect of providing gratuitous on-the-job memory training for shop assistants striving to remember where individual brands have been placed.
And the ban on smoking in public places has had a positive impact on our day-to-day lives. Few people lament the passing of the days when the atmosphere in our smoke-filled pubs was as eye-watering as the prices. Nor do we miss the pretence of having smoking and non-smoking tables in restaurants, where the clouds of nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide were expected to respect strategically placed signs. For many of us, our clothes are decidedly less whiffy these days.
All in all, things are looking up. Scotland is a better place, without doubts.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here