The big smoke

Scotland is benefiting from a rather unusual tourist boom:

According to British tourism officials, the introduction of a ban on smoking in public in Ireland earlier this year has triggered a boom in foreign holidays designed around the nicotine habit — with Scotland a favoured destination.

It's not only tourists who are coming over:

Mary White, Amy Kissane and Mairead Curry, all students from Co Westmeath, are spending the summer working in Edinburgh, so that they can smoke in public.

“The options were to stay at home and find work or to come to Scotland, where we knew we could enjoy a fag in the pub,” said White, 20, a business studies student. “Coming to Scotland is like being let out of jail. As soon as I got off the plane, I sat on my bag and lit up.”

The Scottish Executive wants to encourage young people to come here and work - and they are! Needless to say our politicians will introduce the same neo-fascist laws in our own country, thus undermining the tourism boost as well as the influx of young workers. Oh well.