When is a law not a law?

If you bring in a law surely the idea is to enforce it. Not this year in Spain it seems. It is now illegal to smoke in public places, and for public places read bars and restaurants. There are exceptions, for example if the bar/restaurant is over 100m2 then there need to be two seperate sections, one non smoking and one smoking. Logical! Except that nobody is actually following the law. I was in Asturias for the New Year and 99.9% of the bars had a note on the door or window saying that you could smoke. Some advised that smoking was bad for your health but you could still smoke. I didn’t actually see anywhere it was banned but I am leaving the 0.1% as such because I am sure that somewhere in Asturias there is a bar where you cannot smoke.

Here in Valencia I saw the first bar with a no smoking sign today in Segart. They had five customers, three of whom were smoking outside while drinking their coffees and boy it was cold this morning. Don’t hold your breath for a change very soon.

Saying all of that there are many restaurants where smoking is now banned, almost all of Heron City/Kinepolis is now smoke free.