Deborah Arnott is the mother of two teenage boys and director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).
So it wasn\’t disparities in tax that led to the growth in smuggling.
As if it wasn\’t bad enough that she wishes to overturn hundreds of years of empirical evidence on tax rates and smuggling, her next sentences are:
And though you report that HM Revenue and Customs officials \”admit that widening disparities between European tobacco tax rates are likely to be pounced on by industrial-scale tax evasion gangs\”, due to changes in tax and exchange-rates in Europe, the disparities are likely to decrease, not increase, over time.
That is, that prices do indeed influence the extent and volume of smuggling, but because the price disparities are shrinking thus the smuggling will shrink.
Despite appearances, I\’m not really a grumpy old patriarchal bastard, I am indeed feminist (for a certain value of \”feminism\”).
But if this is the standard of logic we\’re going to be exposed to as a result of women claiming their righful place in the agora, might I humbly suggest that you\’d be better employed making sandwiches for those teenage sons?
She’s getting an almighty kicking in the comments.
Still, I expect George Monbiot is bringing her a cuppa and telling her not to worry, it’s just ‘astroturfing’ by those filthy, filthy smokers…
Progressives – they only have to believe something for it to be true
To be fair, I don’t think it’s the lack of a willy that makes Mrs Arnott a complete phuquewhit. After all, George Monbiot is another ….
Okay, let me retract that thought
Mark you, it might have been a male – insofar as Aussie males exist – who wrote a subheading in the Telegraph at the weekend, explaining that a new film was about a British family on holiday abroad. The text beneath revealed that the holiday was in the Scilly Isles.
There’s plenty of smart women about. Most of the men in charge of Fakecharity groups seem to be pretty dumb too.
On the subject of smuggling, I heard that quite a few drug gangs switched from narcotics to cigarettes because while the financial benefits weren’t so great, it was also the case that the penalties were much lower.
She certainly is getting hammered in the comments and for once the Guardian censors are asleep. One of the best comments points out that smugglers aren’t bothered about selling to children and finishes by asking whether she wants children addicted to cigarettes. Nothing like uses their often used tactic of ‘the chiiiildren’ against them.
Hang on, though, perhaps she does want children addicted so she has a job for life at ASH.
While I believe it’s best to have a stay-at-home parent (and usu. this will be the mother), I am on several boards and the women are generally much better performers than the men. It’s just my experience, but they are less greedy, less aggressive, less insecure and often make my fellow men look like children. I didn’t expect this to be the case, by the way, but it’s pretty noticeable in this context at least.
I think the real reason is maybe the realisation that high tobacco taxation is actually a tax on the poor.
Hence the demand for smuggled goods.
As for the disparity between taxes on continental europe I cannot see that changing ,after all they are fighting against or flouting the smoking bans there anyhow.
The lesson from history clearly shows. prohibition = smuggling.
All ASH have really achieved are thousends of pubs closing since 2007 and an increase in youth smoking
http://www.politics.co.uk/news//opinion-former-index/health/youth-smoking-up-despite-ban-$1255914.htm
Don’t deny it, it’s true and a familiar pattern of increases in youth smoking always follow bans.
Make something seem rebelious and it becomes fashionable.
Deborah Arnott and ASH have failed,miserably and practically destroyed the UK’s pub culture,alienating,denormalising,and throwing thousends out of work, still they will say it’s been a great success no doubt.