One in 20 hospital admissions in England is due to smoking and treating illnesses related to the habit costs the NHS £5.2 billion a year, official statistics suggest.
Given that baccy taxes bring in around £8 billion a year the NHS is still in profit then.
Good, people are paying the external, societal, costs of their actions and enjoying themselves in the process.
No more need be done then.
Something does need to be done…
Smoking taxes should reduced by 3/8ths
Or better yet, get rid of the tax, AND the NHS which subsidises smokers health (and thus requires the tax).
You make the mistake we have all made about taxes. Taxes are income for them to spend as they see fit. See road taxes etc. and not as some balancing act.
All they see in the outgoing.
Tee hee!
Almost exactly a year ago, the shock horror headline was Treating smokers costs the NHS in England £2.7bn a year, compared with £1.7bn a decade ago, a report claims.
So the cost of smoking has nearly doubled in the space of a year? Despite the fact that the number of heart attacks has fallen by ten per cent? (or whatever figure they’ve made up most recently)
And think of the reduction in pension payouts! Because apparently all us smokers are going to live ten years less than everyone else.
If we can somehow persuade all kids that smoking is cool – by making all cigarette packets white and not allowing them to be seen anywhere in shops, thus making them seem all the more alluring – then I reckon we could just possibly bail the country out from the financial disaster Broon’s compass has led us to.
Light up for Britain.
Hang on what about the money we are due back ?
“Light up for Britain” it’s the change we choose.