if we all give up smoking will they put more tax on petrol as we all?

Question

inhale car fumes as for what smokes cost the nhs i think they have paid enough for the treatment in taxes

Answer 1

Im not sure what you mean exactly, but my personal opinion is that this whole Goverment drive to stop people smoking is such a huge contradiction. The tax and the revenue on tobacco in this country is the main funder of the NHS so if we were all to give up then exactly what would happen to our supposedly free health care syestem?
And can I just add to the comment below that 'smokers' take up beds in hospitals. I am a non smoker however, its fair to say that a majority of ailments are self induced. For example, obesity and all the health problems related to that such as angina, heart problems. Drug and alcohol abuse and all the side effects asociated with that. Poor diet and lack of exercise I believe is the main reason for many ill health issues, It is very naive and unfair to blame smokers for taking up space in hospitals considering it is the revenue of their habit that provides you with the priveledge of a free knee operation.
And have you not heard of public transport?

Answer 2

It is fair comment to say that smoker`s have paid for the treatment in taxes, but the money they pay is largely taken up by treating smoke related illnesses, the problem is the time and expense taken in treating a smoker is wasted when the smoker continue`s to smoke and becomes ill again because of it. If surgeon`s did not have to treat smoker`s they would have more time and bed space for patient`s that have to wait for really long period`s of time, smoker`s ailment`s are avoidable and pretty much self inflicted, I am at present waiting for a knee replacement operation and have been for the last three year`s, in that time I have known four people who have been treated for smoking related cancer`s, they have all been treated immediatly because they were deemed to be needing treatment because their cancer`s were life threatening, I agree that they should be treated first but if they did not smoke and get cancer because of smoking then I could have had my op instead of them, I also pay my taxes, but any illness I get is not caused by me abusing my health and yet I get pushed aside and the slot I could have had is given to someone else.
We use our car`s mainly as a neccessity these day`s not as a luxury, if I did not use my car I could not get to work, car`s designer`s have been very successful in cleaning up car emmission`s, therefore at least trying to improve thing`s, it cost`s a small fortune to keep a car on the road, it seems that the car owner has the burdon of paying for everything, and then blamed for everything, your comment about car fumes we all inhale has some merit but can you see how we can do without car`s? I cant, smoker`s drive as well as non smoker`s, you at least could give up smoking but I bet you cant give up driving.
Chris.

Answer 3

Lets hope the smoking ban frees up our hospitals, a large percentage of people seen in the NHS have smoking related disorders. The NHS wouldn`t need the tax revenue from tobacco then.

Answer 4

the government is raking in billions in extra advantageous VAT sales because of the severe fee of oil. Do you comprehend that gasoline accountability is utilized first, after which the VAT volume is then calculated on the total value of the gasoline, collectively with accountability? so as that they are literally taxing a tax. Say working example the fee fee of a litre of petrol is £0.30. accountability is extra to that to make the total £a million.00 (working example). you're then taxed 17.5% on that, bringing the total to £a million.18. notwithstanding, if the VAT replaced into only utilized on the product factor, the VAT might only be 5 pence - making the fee according to litre £a million.05. So nevertheless ridiculously severe, yet not particularly as undesirable as £a million.18. and due to the extra advantageous VAT sales on the product value, the government would desire to very particularly arise with the money for to decrease accountability via numerous pence according to litre. In cutting-edge financial markets, based upon checklist oil expenditures, we could continually be paying £a million a litre or much less.

Answer 5

They will certainly put taxes onto something, when have you ever known a government give up a source of income.

The point you mention about car fumes is a valid one. There is an alternative to fossil fuels being burnt in car engines, especially diesel engines.
The alternative is Vegetable Oil. If this government were trully concerned about health, then they would publicise and fund development into the use of VO in diesel engines.
The demand for VO crops would put every farmer in the world to work and would create industry in countries currently deprived of any form of usefull exports.

Instead the government ignore the obvious and support the oil companies in their continued research into fossil fuels, knowing full well that a diesel engine running on VO (as it was designed to by Rudolph Diesel) produces zero harmful emmisions.

I grew up in an era when the government were encouraging and sanctioning such adverts as "Marlborough cigarrettes, Good for you"
No wonder many of us started smoking with that kind of advice.
After years of raking in the taxes, the government are now telling us we will be prosecuted for smoking in public as passive smoking is a killer.

Well is it? Yes they have looked at what is in exhaled and free burning cigarrette smoke and found loads of noxious chemicals which in any great quantity could cause harm. Yet I have never seen or heard of a death certificate which states that this or that person died of passive smoking.

Check on any A&E waiting room and see what ailments are waiting to be seen, drink related, drug related, asthma related (probably from car exhausts), obesity related, stress related, behaviour related and industrial accident.
You would be hard pushed to find a smoking related case and if you did it would be the exception, not the rule.

Yet no one screams that the fat drunken druggy lady (who crashed her car while out of her head ) is costing the health service a fortune.
Oh no, that headline is kept in reserve for the poor old guy who fought in the second world war then worked down the air polluted pits all his life and just happened to be a smoker.
How dare he now come to hospital expecting to be treated for what may or may not have been caused by smoking.
Silly old sod, fancy lighting up a ciggy when he was lying trembling in a trench in the middle of the night thousands of miles from home.
Didn't he realise that one day the NHS would be groaning from the weight of all the foreigners coming into this country and getting free treatment. How dare he!

You see, life is full of choices, some of us make wise ones and some of us, with a little coersion make wrong ones.
The only decision (which is to a great extent out of our hands) is when we meet our maker.
Wouldn't it be better for us all to get to that meeting having lived a lifestyle that suited ourselves and not one dictated by whoever has the biggest mouth.

Is smoking any greater a self inflicted injury than Aids caught by homosexuals? Will anyone refuse Aids sufferers the enourmous cost of treatment or perhaps the politically correct brigade will turn a blind eye to that argument.

I have every sympathy for those who do not smoke and have to suffer the smell of cigarette smoke. i will always extinguish a cigarette if it offends anyone and try to never smoke in public. This makes me a better person than most because I have never met a non smoker with an ounce of sympathy for those who do smoke.

So to all you anti smoking campaigners out there, keep pushing to have cigarettes banned alltogether and I hope I am around to watch your faces when the tax burden falls on your doorstep.

Answer 6

I gave up smoking cos I thought I'd fell better and alleviate a growing respiratory problem, and maybe not be broke cos of spending on smoking. Well, I still feel awful, I'm still poor, and I still have to decide between food and petrol on a weekly basis. Cheers. Sorry, I have to take that back, I can't afford to drink either.

Answer 7

I don't think that there is much doubt that taxes will go up elsewhere. Don't forget though that people like Tony Blair, who is driven a very short distance from Downing St to the Commons in his chauffeur driven armoured car, hate all other drivers. More punishment is likely to be on the way.

Answer 8

Stand back and wait for the taxes to hit us like a ton of bricks when this bunch of morons realise they are losing millions in cigarette revenue. They will start charging us all to go into pubs , cafes ,restaurants and other public places for the privilege of breathing clean air.

Answer 9

I think you will find that the government has already compensated for their loss in tax from the expected drop in tobacco revenue when they arranged for an increase in the fine for using phones whilst motoring.

Answer 10

The government will put taxes on anything they can when the money stops rolling in from cigarette duty. Oh, they already do!