Shisha smoked out of Islington

By Andrew MacAskill

Turkish restaurants in Islington may be forced out of business when the new smoking legislation comes into force in July.
Middle Eastern restaurant owners across the borough have joined a national campaign to make shisha exempt from the incoming legislation.
Shisha is a stand-up water pipe device used to smoke flavoured tobacco, popular in the Arab community. It will be outlawed along with cigarettes and cigars in bars, restaurants and coffee shops.

Akala-Ali, who runs the Café Gallipoli on Upper Street, is encouraging his customers in his restaurant to sign a petition on the Number 10 website calling for shisha to be excluded from the ban. The petition has received 1500 signatures so far.
Customers pay eight pounds to smoke a pipe in the Café Galliopli and Mr Ali is concerned the loss of income will ruin his business.
He said: “This time next year I don't know what I will do, or if the restaurants will be open. People come to the restaurant in order to smoke shisha and an important source of income is from shisha.”
The owner of the Café Bazaar restaurant on Caledonian Road, Omeed Naziori, is also concerned about the impact of the ban and argues smoking shisha should be exempt because it less harmful than inhaling smoke from cigarettes.
“Smoking hookah contains less tobacco and nicotine than cigarettes, so it poses less of a danger,” Naziori said. “Forcing people to smoke shisha at home will increase exposes children and young people to the harms of secondhand smoke.”
The Department of Health disputes this. They claim shisha is worse for peoples’ health than cigarettes, saying that whereas a cigarette lasts around ten puffs, the average shisha session lasts 80 minutes, the equivalent of 100 puffs.
Ibrahim El-Nour, who co-ordinates a pro-shisha smoking campaign group is now considering bringing the ban to judicial review, on the grounds the government did properly consult the café owners and restaurant owners.
El Nour also argues it is a violation of his human rights, and banning smoking shisha will take away an important social activity for the Muslim community, who use it as an alternative to drinking alcohol, which is forbidden in Islam.
“To ban smoking shisha is an attack on a way of life for many Arab people.
Smoking shisha is a way for people from the community to come together,” he said. “Shisha is the equivalent of a pint in the pub. A nascent part of British culture will be lost if the ban stands.”

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Last call for historic bingo hall

by Max Colchester

AFTER nearly 50 years Islington's historic Mecca bingo hall on Essex Road is to call its last number, leaving its 49,000 members in the lurch.

Rank, Mecca Bingo's parent company, has blamed the impending smoking ban for its decision to close the hall on March 25.

The company estimates that between 50 and 70 per cent of its customers smoke, and that the financial impact of the July 1 ban will result in a significant fall in business.

Already the company says that revenue has dropped 15 per cent in Scotland where the ban has been in place since last year.

Lesly Hughes, a spokesperson for Rank, said: " We don't want to have to close our bingo halls but we have no choice.

"Currently the government taxes our industry twice. This costs the industry £85m a year. Coupled with the smoking ban, this is reducing profits. As a result, we have to have to look at which areas are no longer commercially viable. The Essex Road Mecca was one of those."

But Labour Councillor Joan Coupland, said: "It's wrong for them to look at the effect the smoking ban has had on bingo halls in Scotland and say that just because people cannot smoke they are not going to come. I think they are just using that as an excuse."

Despite announcing an operating profit of £72m for its bingo enterprise, the company is still going ahead with its plans to cut 200 jobs and save £10m.

Rank explained that the Essex Road branch was chosen because of the close locality of another bingo hall at Hackney. Another issue was the fact that, as the hall is a grade two listed building and former cinema, it costs more to maintain.

The Islington hall is hoping to transfer its 30 staff to other halls.

Hughes said: "We will do everything we can to relocate them to different premises." One of the
managers at the Essex Road Mecca admitted he was worried about his future. He said: "At the moment I am not sure where we are going to go. It is all a bit uncertain."

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