In the news

He might be asset rich and cash poor? Maybe.

Yeah, okay.

He may need to sell a shoe.

9 pound coins

No such thing.

Hire car now and then, innit.

Ah, ok, you continue sticking it to the man avoiding paying £3.20 parking every now and then.

Of course, you may eventually save up enough to more than cover the first parking ticket you eventually get.

I’m not trying to stick it to anyone, but that £3.20 is better in my pocket than in the local council’s.

Met Police raiding Laurence Fox's house this morning after he boasted in an interview he'd be "out there with an angle grinder" re. ULEZ cameras is the kind of police harrassment I can get behind.

It's been nearly an hour so can we start the "end the war on smokers" campaign yet?

This doesn’t impact existing smokers only kids who do not yet smoke (or at least are under the legal age to buy ciggies).

Until of course shops cease stocking fags as the pool of smokers dwindles to a point where they are not worth it anymore.

Fox and the fake vicar have both been sacked by GB News.

As a former smoker with a 13yo kid I welcome the news.

I wonder how they’re going to excuse reinstate Wootton .

are taxes on cigarette sales ring fenced for the NHS?

I’m not trying to stick it to anyone, but that £3.20 is better in my pocket than in the local council’s.

Yeah, fuck those cunts trying to provide essential services to the crushed mass of the people on the dwindling supply of buttons the government still allow them to have.

They misspend, hand over fist. I have first hand experience of it.

So does every organisation ever.

are taxes on cigarette sales ring fenced for the NHS?

From ~2017 some portion of the increases in duty were ring-fenced for treatment of smoking related diseases in the NHS, but the general principle is that the Government income from the sales of cigarettes is vastly dwarfed by the cost of treating smoking related diseases.

Anything that cuts down the amount of smoking in the UK is going to (with a long lead time) mean less money needing to be spent on treating the results of that.

This is the tax dodger argument. No government, large or small, is ever going to be virtuous and prudent in all its spending, but that's not a good excuse for the dodging.

Let me get this straight. Are you saying I dodge tax?

Ah some are much worse than others. And most, we’re not obliged to fund without due diligence.

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Are you a really boring troll or hard of comprehension?

Is there a term for reverse hypothecation? So we'd just tax cigarettes to a level that would cover all of the cost of the harm they did plus the admin cost of the scheme?

Can wait to listen to all the whinging smokers gripe about this. In terms of victim complex narcissism iirc it goes:

1. Smokers
   
2. Drivers
   
3. Christians from stable developed countries where they're the majority
   

Why not both?

Absolutely no reason

No, I'm saying you're using the same shit excuse. What you're dodging is a charge on a scarce resource. Part of the point of the charge is to encourage people to consider how they use their cars. But you're all right, Jack.

It may surprise you, but drivers thinking they should be able to dodge accountability for what they do with cars isn't a popular thing on this site.