During the colder months – of sub-zero temperatures and severe weather warnings – you had to feel it for them. You couldn't pass a pub without noticing small groups huddled together for warmth like Adelie penguins or densely packed into shelters, like the one I see daily at The Beacon.
I should state at this point that I'm an ex-smoker, who thoroughly enjoyed it for 16 years. Early in my smoking career, when my habit was unknown to my mother (yeah, right), the pub was a warm haven and much preferred to the cold, windy garden.

Not so now and smokers must build up immunity to the temperature like explorers of the Antarctic trudging their sleds around walk-in freezers. In the future, Ray Mears will make documentaries involving tales of extreme human smoking endurance:

"Andrea survived by burning her trainers and conserving warmth with George, a pipe smoker she met at the jukebox."

Further bad news struck recently for the hardcore tabber: last year was the smoking ban, this year the patio heater?

News reaches us of the European Commission's plans to abolish energy inefficient goods in an effort to slow global warming and in its report, specifically mention patio heaters. I think the only sensible option for smokers now is hibernation.

Coating oneself entirely in nicotine patches and bedding down for the term of the winter seems preferable to death by frostbite. Otherwise, come the morning after, how many will we find frozen solid outside, like Jack Nicholson in The Shining?

Speaking of whom, Jack appears to have ducked the new law by lighting up at Claridge's Hotel at a press conference earlier this year. If Nicholson managed to circumvent the legislation by virtue of his status, you have to wonder where the celebrity smoking cut off point would be. Jack Nicholson? Let him smoke! Kurt Russell? Don't tell him he can't, but hide the ashtrays! Ross Kemp? March him out to the leper shelter with the rest of the civilians!

It's not just smoking that's under the cosh. What appears to be emerging in the country's collective conscience, is an unhealthy obsession with health. Don't get me wrong, a healthy lifestyle is sensible and highly desirable, but unlikely to be found down the pub.

A night out at the local was never really about physical health. Darts and pool don't constitute cardiovascular activity and some bar snacks come with a free heart attack in a little blue sachet.

That's before we even start on the alcohol. Only the sliced lemon could almost squeeze its way into "one of your daily five".

The healthy aspect of a night out in the pub, is more to do with mental health; a break from the rigours of life, spending time amongst friends in a convivial atmosphere and enjoying a thoroughly social activity.

Just like the theme song from Cheers, in other words.

I'm surprised at how easily this legislation came to pass. I know that this is progress (without which we would all still be hanging out in rancid bothies supping laudanum from wooden cups), but it's a shame that smokers are segregated from the rest of the pub.

Perhaps, with the lines of demarcation now firmly drawn, smokers should make a stand this summer; banish all from the beer garden without a smoke. Who could blame them?

With this preoccupation with health, smoking may just be the start. I have the feeling that something might be lost if we're not careful.

Could our local drinking landscape begin to change forever? Could it affect the way a night out is conducted, say in Whitley Bay? A glass of Fijian rain water at The Hairy Lemon, a half tank of pure oxygen at Easy Street, then a late night pilates session at Blue (with salad in pitta bread on the way home). It really doesn't bear thinking about.

Yes, smokers of the region, I am behind you (though, it has to be said, some way behind you, out of the rain and closer to the bar).

RICHARD RIPPON