“I’d had enough of being pushed around by the Government.”
the reply by Government was to push him around some more. If there had been a group of machete-carrying fascist murderers chopping British heads off I suspect the pub owner would not have pushed the panic button and the police would have arrived 2 hours later with bags to pick up the heads and mops to clean up the blood. The authorities would have said “only people carrying out the tenets of their religion. Nothing to see here. Move on”
The government is willing to force people to stop smoking “to protect their health”, but not willing to expel the millions of fanatics who want to chop their heads off.