SIR - Five months on from the smoking ban and what do we find?

Well in Bingley, it's much the same in every pub. All the smokers (90 per cent of the regulars) sit outside all evening in all weathers while the few non-smoking customers remain inside, bored witless through lack of company and conversation, all tending to go home earlier than they did before.

As the nights have drawn in, almost all the older people have stopped calling in at all, except, of course, for "old George" (every pub's got one).

Our "old George" has, quite rapidly acquired a hacking cough, streaming eyes and another layer of clothing. He apparently prefers all this to the prospect of sitting in his house alone every evening.

In my opinion the only thing "anti-social" about smoking is the actual banning of it.

Since it came in we've lost our quiz night, one of our two pool teams and we've packed up our Sunday afternoon poker sessions as we all need to go out for a smoke too often.

So to all you non-smoking, non-frequenting campaigners thanks, you've made a lot of happy people thoroughly fed up.

A Kayel, Ayrton Crescent, Bingley