Smokers’ Poles

Virtually everybody in Liverpool smokes.  Sometimes this smoking is restricted to just cigarettes, but smoking, especially ‘rollies’, is something that they do. This also explains the high levels of COPD and, well, death, as a result.

Liverpool is not really that health conscious.  The entrance to any pub, any offices, any building, normally has a large cluster of nicotine addicts shuffling from foot to foot as they absorb their drug.  In Liverpool not much is done to stop the entrance turning into an open ashtray under foot and anybody normal wishing to enter or leave the building has to run the gauntlet of smelly smokers and their exhaust.

However, in London, there seems to be a move to protect normal people.  Ok, in London, there are less smokers per capita, but they still have a tendency to block entrances to buildings and leave behind their unsightly mess.

Why do smokers do that?  Why don’t they ever take their rubbish away with them?  Not only do they deposit all their fag ends on the ground for normal people to have to walk over, but more often than not, they leave the cigarettes alight as they discard them.  What is wrong with these people?

So, in order to try to unblock entrances and to make passage safer for normal people, many businesses in London are buying ‘Smokers’ Poles’.  The idea is that the pole indicates where smokers should go to inhale their drug, leaving the entrance to the building free from their anti-social behaviour.  For the less up-their-own-arse selfish smokers, the pole also provides a place for stubbing out the cigarette and disposing of the remains.  As you can see from the photo, this doesn’t stop them preferring to just drop them on the ground, of course.

With respect to health, London is growing far more healthy eating places as a norm (sushi, noodles and pasta is healthy, right?), whilst Liverpool retains its obsession with gravy covered rice’n’chips as a staple diet for supper.  Londoners, especially the younger ones, seem to be getting the message about being healthy.  Less are smoking, and more are eating non-fried fast food.

So, how long will it take before Smokers’ Poles mark out the place where smokers can go to partake in their ritual in Liverpool?  It may be a long time.  But, well done to Londoners for leading the way in getting these morons out of the doorways.

One comment

  1. I think it’s generally accepted that healthy living and wealth and prosperity are directly connected. People who are on benefits are much more likely to smoke than those that are in work. People on benefits are far more likely to pop into Mc Donalds for their sustenance than those in good jobs are. Opinions are divided as to exactly why this is , but it seems to just be part of the poverty trap that people get into and accociated bad living and health.
    Your article compares two cities at completely opposite ends of the social spectrum , so the differences are very obvious as you suggest.


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