Dim Ysmygu

Tom Watson mentions the new Irish laws banning smoking in public places, and I wanted to mention here a suggestion I made in the comments there.

Generally, I think whether or not people want public places open to smoking or not is something that can be determined by market forces. If there's a big demand for smoke-free pubs, clubs etc then those that do exist - for an example of an entirely non-smoking pub there's the Phoenix in the City of London, but I'm sure there are others - will prove successful and eventually more pubs will follow their lead.

However, one idea I had - and please feel free to point out any flaws you spot - is a middle ground (you could call it a third way, I suppose) between an outright ban and the current situation. From what I can tell, and someone with more knowledge on the actual law in this area may be able to enlighten me here, the current situation is that a building that's open to the public is regarded as a place where smoking is permitted unless the owner/manager/landlord has chosen to make it non-smoking. How about switching the position so that the assumption is that a place is non-smoking unless the person in charge chooses to make permit smoking in that area?