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"No to cheap tobacco" says CMO
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
The CMO has complained about the availability of cheap tobacco.
Story
Two thoughts, the tax burden just encourages people to buy abroad, thus failing to address the issue and reducing the income to the Treasury. Secondly, who's going to tell him that there is no limit on duty-free - in spite of what Customs might try to enforce...
Story
Two thoughts, the tax burden just encourages people to buy abroad, thus failing to address the issue and reducing the income to the Treasury. Secondly, who's going to tell him that there is no limit on duty-free - in spite of what Customs might try to enforce...
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Comments
Now you can fly to the likes of Spain, Greece and Portugal and bring back 12 cartons quite legally, at a very reasonable £18-£21 per carton or thereabouts.
There is not a lot authorities can do about it. If they hadn't chosen to rip off the British consumer, fewer people would bother buying so many fags abroad...
The prices aren't high because there's an attempt to rip people off, but to try and wean people off cigs by making them expensive.
And whilst i'm sure its the greatest thing to happen ciggarette sellers in Spain, greece et al - I'm not so sure its great for the NHS, the British taxpayer or smokers.
nope, with any drug the user will use it anyway, regardless of external influence, it takes more than high prices for a smoker to quit, it takes heart and determination...that reminds me, how's it going anyway with the fags rolly? :razz:
no point quitting now is there?
get behind me satan!
actually theres far less smokers than it used to be, and all groups other than young women are cutting usage, thats more of a cultural change
i like the current advert, if you smoke you stink
is that indicative of the fact that cigarette prices are high or is it indicative of a general downward trend over the last 30 years in the number of people who smoke...i think the latter mate, and if this is the case i see no point in raising the price of fags for NHS reasons, less smokers/higher prices, something doesn't sound right there, oh yes the government wants the money for their own desires...forgot that one
Surely your not being serious? Tobacco is taxed so highly because people are addicted to it and will still pay.
1) Is it working
2) Could Mr Brown do wothout all that tax money
they use the same excuse on petrol (i.e. to reduce the number of motorists on the roads) - personally I don't believe a word of it!
I read somewhere that for every £1 smokers take out of the NHS, they put about £3.50 in.
BUt whilst people are willing to believe that the government tax tobacco for noble reasons, Brown will continue to milk the cash cow until the pips squeak.
Hope all of you who voted for Blair are happy.
We still pay it.
It's the one of the thinnest guises the government uses as an excuse for tax. For every person that gives up smoking because of the price hike, there'll be another 100 that take the tax increase on the chin and continue to smoke. You giving up justifies the governments actions because you’re a nice statistic for them to have, however, that still doesn’t stop the them collecting massively from the tax increase. It’s a win-win for them.
I remember watching a documentary about it a little while back. Smokers and drinkers prop up the NHS. The evangelists can go on about how smokers clog up the NHS but it's simply not true. If everyone stopped smoking the NHS would fall over from lack of funding.
Oh I'm sure that there is a tax benefit (naive to argue otherwise), but that just shows that its a dual use tax, as by putting up the prices it also does discourage people from smoking or at least makes them cut down - so there is a health benefit.
And the tax has to be seen together with other Government policies such as the aim to ban smoking from pubs and the amount of money put into helping or persuading people to give up smoking. If it the Govt was cynically just using smoking as a way to tax people it wouldn't be in there interest to introduce measures to cut smoking down.
They have to keep up appearances.
Besides, this government just love to interfere with our freedom. NOt that I disagree with banning smoking in all public places, though.
I think you give the government more credit than it's due. I don't think it could be convincingly argued that the ridiculously disproportiante level of tax on tobacco is "for our own good". I think because smoking is viewed on the whole as an anti-social activity and obviously does have negative effects on peoples health that it's seen as as an easy target for tax. IMHO i think people have the simple attitude of smoking = bad so taxing smoking = good. The current attitudes towards smoking almost allows it to be stand outside of regular reasoning as far as tax is concerned. If the government started taxing foods that were bad for you at extorniate rates i wonder whether there would be such an apathetic attiude towards it.
I completely disagree with another blanket law coming in with regards to the smoking ban. It's just another right that's been totally stripped away from the public.
To take it literally, british law would prevent anyone from slowly poisoning their fellow man, so why should that be different regarding tobacco smoke? How can that be defined as a right? In theory they would just be an extension of the laws that are already in place to protect us from other people harming us.
It should be banned in all public places. If smokers want to kill themselves thats fair enough, but leave me out of it!
So where does it stop? Are we constantly going to keep banning things that may be detrimental to other people? Should we create laws to ban all unnecessary car journeys because it also pollutes the environments, ban all foods that are not good for you because they could contribute to a person’s ill health which may deprive you hospital bed or ban alcohol because some twat has drunkenly laid into an innocent passer-by?
Meanwhile massive environmental issues are being ignored which affect the earth and everyone on it as a whole.
No you view your right as more important - the smoker may view there right as more important.
Of course that's the trouble with lots of 'human rights' - my right to suggets all Catholics are child abusers conflicts with the rights of Catholics not be offended.
Your right to get naked conflicts with my right not to have people flaunt their bits when I'm trying to eat my lunch.
IMO its a mixture of both - Government does tax it for revenue reasons, but to say its not also doing so for health reasons is wrong. It taxes petrol and alcohol heavily for the same reason, ie there is some benefit in reducing use of them. By the same process it doesn't tax children's books as it things that they are a good thing.
Tax isn't raised as a means in itself (though it may feel like that) but to fund Govt policies and as a way to regulate behaviour.