UK: LETTER: Smokers Deliver £11bn to Taxman

Source from:  Leicester Mercury (uk)  01/09/2013

The Government's latest stomach-churning campaign designed to emphasise the dangers of smoking tobacco will no doubt persuade some people to kick the habit.

But I cannot understand why the Government wants people to stop smoking. Smokers contribute more than £11 billion in tax a year to the Exchequer.

The NHS spends about half of this amount treating people suffering from smoking-related illnesses, which leaves a nice little earner for the Government.

Of course, it doesn't end there because smokers tend to die younger, which means that they tend to draw less in pensions and benefits than non-smokers.

The Government sees smokers and drinkers as milch cows always ready to cough up (pardon my metaphor) more tax revenue.

If smokers and drinkers kicked their habits overnight, the Government would have to drastically increase the taxes paid by everyone in the country, which wouldn't go down very well.

Asking people if they would like to pay more tax is akin to asking turkeys if they vote for Christmas.

The resultant chaos would probably mean that we would join America at the fiscal cliff.

Don Tallis, Wigston.

The signing of the £300 million contract with Interserve ("NHS staff set to transfer to private firms", Mercury, December 28) is betraying our health service and all patients unlucky enough to need treatment in it.

The NHS has been in decline for years. I have seen it on the frontline, having worked in it for over 30 years.

The treatment of the nursing staff has deteriorated over the years, putting them under even more pressure.

The nursing staff have in the main gone into their jobs because they have a vocation, but have repeatedly been taken advantage of by the governments in power and chief executives' deplorable treatment of staff through their sickness policy.

I don't see there will be an improvement with Interserve taking over, only a more rapidly decline of treatment for patients and of staff.

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