Derek Honey's letter about the smoking ban in pubs (Oxford Mail, February 4) is as smugly self-righteous as most of the correspondence he writes.

His anecdotal assertions about pub economics, customer trends and smoking statistics related to the ban are without statistical traceability - as usual, he states his speculative assumptions as fact.

Contrary to his comment, the ban was not intended to stop people smoking. It was created to stop smoking in areas where non-smokers are subjected to the ill-health effects caused by smoking.

I don't know which pubs he is visiting, but in my experience, there has been little change in the people atmosphere, and big changes in the air quality.

His comment about many MPs losing their seats over the ban shows how completely out of touch with reality he is.

His words ring with the petulance of a pouting smoker. Is that the root of his complaint?

JOHN JONES Burwell Meadow Witney