I like this letter.

I can't see that it's online but here it is in its glory as sent:

Wanstead & Woodford Guardian

Guardian House

480 – 500 Larkshall Road

Highams Park

London E4 9BD

Dear Dominic Yeatman

In your columns I have been called “a UKIP moaner” because I said that the smoking ban is killing the pub trade. Last week you did a feature on the problems the pub trade is having locally but the report dismissed the smoking ban as being part of the problems all pubs are facing. Cheap supermarket beer was given as one of the main causes. People do not go to pubs just to drink beer. They go to pubs to socialise. Sitting at home with a 50p can of supermarket lager is no substitute for that

In a recent announcement, the British Beer and Pub Association cited various reasons for the sudden increase in pub closures, running at five a day, including cheap supermarket beer and the smoking ban forcing pubs to increase food sales which have smaller margins than pints and shorts. For the smaller pubs with limited cooking facilities, the smoking ban has been terminal they say

The BBPA also fears the government’s beer escalator tax and unnecessary red tape such as statutory codes of pub conduct will hit operators hard

Those of us who actually use pubs have seen with our own eyes the devastating effect that the smoking ban has had on the pub trade thanks to this anti business pc government

Nick Jones

Redbridge & Waltham Forest

UK Independence Party

Absolutely Nick, telling it as it really is.

Yes, they did publish it!