Saw the craziest thing about the Smoking ban on Fox News of all places. Apparently, some pub in Southampton has got round the ban in a truly brilliant way. The landlord read the bill that will ban ciggies in pubs (sorry ciggy ) and found a loophole. He wrote to a tiny country, some island off the coast of South America and asked them if they would like an embassy in England. They said yes and after some legal work they declared the pub to be a consulate of this tiny place. Embassies and consulates are NOT covered by the bill because they constitute foreign soil! Punters there can have a fag with a pint all the time, and once in a lifetime they might have to have a cheif or an ambassador on the futon!
Brilliant idea imho. So, if your local boozer's landlord wants to keep his pub smokey, tell him to get in contact with some miniscule nation that will probably never even visit the UK and make his gaff an embassy!