Although smoking rates are declining, the epidemic is far from solved
The Health secretary is at the forefront of a campaign to stop smoking in Britain completely.
Why is it that they want to stop a perfectly legal pastime for millions?
maybe it's the money it costs the NHS?
Smoking costs the NHS £2.7 billion a year
Nope it can't be that. From HMRC website, the tax take last year is £10.3 billion (Vat included). Now that is nearly 4 times as much as the cost to the NHS. If we eradicate smoking altogether it will mean that a typical family of 4 will have their tax go up by £500 per year. You anti-smokers are going to love that, aren't you?
No, just more control freakery.
SOURCE
As I've said since long before I began to blog, governments are far more addicted to the baccy revenue than the average smoker is to the nicotine. If they genuinely believe what they say about the health issues and also genuinely cared about the welfare of smokers they'd ban it. Not the not-really-a-ban-more-an-inconvenience 'ban' that's in vogue but a proper 'this is actually and properly illegal now, right' type ban (Jeremy Clarkson said something similar in his Sunday Times column last week). That they don't speaks volumes. I think we can take it for granted that it's not through any libertarian leanings, so the next obvious possibility is that they want to bully smokers but don't want the money to stop.
ReplyDeleteTempted to SHOUT here - I've got a huge problem with that £10.2 billion - in 1998 The Government Actuarial Office as was were commisioned to report on tobacco. The numbers published in that report in 1999 were £10.2 billion vs. £1.7 billion.
ReplyDeleteHow much have fags gone up, how many have given up?
This looks like made up bollocks of a high order. Even The Bliar in his last months in No. 10 was still quoting the 1999 report total without mentioning the tax take.
I'm tempetd to do the arithmetic - *somebody should* 'cos it simply doesn't ring true - at all........
Oh, and the pdf of the report disappeared from gubmint cyberspace in about 2004/5 IIRC