Smoking ban

[slycat]

Hmm, it would appear that the government would like to have their cake and eat it (or should that be have their cigarette and smoke it?).  Not only do the governemnt tax the heck out of smokers, but now they are proposing a smoking ban.  Surely it would be more logical to ban cigarettes alltogether or would that be too much of a blow to the government's income?

Comments

[mattlazycat.livejournal.com]

or would that be too much of a blow to the government's income?

Hell yes it would. Let's say 25% of the UK smokes 20 a day (I think that might be a bit low, but it'll serve to illustrate a point). That's 15,000,000 times 4 pounds tax (on a 5 pound pack of cigarettes) per day. That's £22 billion per year, or about half of what the government spent on the NHS in 2001 (or all of what they spent on defense).

In comparison, smoking related illness costs the NHS £1.5billion per year. You could say that smokers more than pay their way in Britain, and you can see why the government would rather not ban smoking entirely.

[abinturongbinks.livejournal.com]

Additionaly, if they banned smoking altogether the people who quite willingly give all of that large proportion of the government's income to them would have an uproar. Not everyone who smokes continues to do so because they're addicted, some of it is want too although they're likely intermingled. Either way, remember the war demonstration? 25% is quite a big number of people to be having withdrawals, and a lot of the drunken louts, townie types, powerful business people and service industry would be going mental without "lovely fags!" Banning outright isn't an option, though it's maybe coincidence that both responses so far are from smokers.

[silvertomcat.livejournal.com]

I'm a smoker myself and I think this could be a push in the right direction. I do feel cynical about the whole idea of the HUGE amount of tax that the government puts on them, but then again it is a luxury. It isn't my right to smoke, it's a pleasure (if you can imagine smoking paper and ground leaves as that) but I smoke mainly when I'm in a pub...and everyone around me is doing it...makes me feel it isn't so bad, but the fact is IT IS! I should be made to think about it because it's a terrible habit and ad for me. Maybe now myself and others will think about it more and what we're doing.

On another note, it's not like they're reducing my choice, just making sure that no-one else has to put up with my polluted air. And if you think of it, it's a risk for the government when you think of possible lost revenues. It seems like they're doing something DECENT about all our health instead of just concerntrating on warring with another country. They're being proactive...shouldn't we be pleased?