The effects of the smoking ban in the UK

Tim Worstall at the Adam Smith Institute blog posts on The effects of the smoking ban in the UK. He opens his message by noting

I'm sure there was supposed to be a massive increase in the pub trade as a result of the smoking ban. Absolutely certain of it in fact. For there was that huge pent up demand, wasn't there, all those non-smokers who were denied their right to a social pint or two without reeking like an ashtray?

He ends with the observation

So, umm, pubs are going bust left right and centre as that heaving mob of non-smokers desperate for a watering hole turns out not to exist, to have been a figment of some fevered imagination.