Despite the idea of banning smoking in public, and restaurants in particular, rapidly gaining acceptance around Europe (even in among the puffers of Italy) Hungarians remain deeply sceptical of any measures that may improve their quality of life, and their food. In addition to having listened to hours of ranting from jittery smokers, at last we have one concrete example of just how desperate the pro-smoke campaign has become. This impassioned article - in the normally objective economics daily Napi.hu - was clearly written by a hacked-off chain-smoker with a hacking cough and serious problems thinking straight in his presumably strictly smoke-free workplace.

The article entitled "Restaurants fear catastrophe," gives two entirely implausible reasons why the dining business in Hungary will go belly-up if puffing were to be banned at the table. First, many of our favorite eateries are housed in "listed" (protected) historic buildings, which means they would not be able to house the advanced ventilation systems required to remove all the smoke. Second, a completely smoke-free environment cannot be achieved in a space smaller that 100 square meters - and 60% of Hungarian restaurants fall in this category. On the basis of this logic, there can only be one solution - a blanket ban on eating in public.