Wednesday
(0)It is strangely comforting to see that the 'class war' instincts of old Labour are not entirely dead yet:
John Reid, the Health Secretary, yesterday dismissed the demand for a blanket ban on smoking as "an obsession of the learned middle class".Speaking at a Labour Party event, he said he was reluctant to use compulsion to outlaw something that was a source of pleasure, particularly to working class people.
That Mr. Reid has to fight the corner of working-class people at a Labour Party event speaks volumes about the evolutionary path of the modern left.
Earlier, Mr Reid expressed his views even more bluntly when he took part in a round-table discussion with some of those invited to contribute to the consultation.Told that they were discussing a smoking ban, Mr Reid said: "Let me play devil's advocate. What enjoyment does a 21-year-old mother of three living on a sink estate get? The only enjoyment sometimes they get is having a cigarette."
One participant objected quite strongly, telling Mr Reid her mother died of lung cancer.
But Mr Reid, a former chain smoker who has now given up, said it was best to provide people with information and let them decide what to do for themselves.
Now, perhaps, Mr. Reid can take the next logical step and denounce the levels of tax that working people have to pony up in order to enjoy their smoking habit. Then the bien-pensant can safely re-classify him as a 'right-winger'.
And now the man's being pilloried for a variety of crimes against political correctness that he seems not to have committed. Apparently his remarks are said to amount to patronising the poor (because they mustn't be negatively portrayed as a group, and in any case have lots of other pleasures) and calling them stupid (because only stupid people smoke for enjoyment rather than as a victim of seduction by superhumanly wily multinational tobacco companies).
Posted by Guy Herbert at June 9, 2004 07:37 PM
Now, perhaps, Mr. Reid can take the next logical step and denounce the levels of tax that working people have to pony up in order to enjoy their smoking habit.
Here are the statistics:
Taken from:
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets/html/fact16.html
The price of a pack of 20 premium brand cigarettes currently costs £4.65, of which £3.72 (80%) is tax.
So if you smoked 20 a day for 30 years thats £40,734 to the treasury.
The Treasury earned £8,055 million in revenue from tobacco duties for the financial year 2002-2003 (excluding VAT).
Of course, smokers are a huge drain on NHS funds:
Research by the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York has shown that the cost to the NHS of treating diseases caused by smoking is approximately £1.5 billion a year.
Thats £6.5 billion up for the goverment.
Unsurprisingly this info was taken from an anti smoking website. I just might quit.
Posted by kenny at June 9, 2004 07:54 PM
"What enjoyment does a 21-year-old mother of three living on a sink estate get?"
I would have thought that it was quite obvious that smoking came AFTER the enjoyment bit...
and to think that all the welfarism encouraged and enabled "21-year-old mother of three living on a sink estate" to exist.
Posted by Rob Read at June 9, 2004 08:19 PM
The price of a pack of 20 premium brand cigarettes currently costs £4.65, of which £3.72 (80%) is tax.
Slightly off-topic, but I discovered today that I pay more than 100% tax on my electricity and gas bill. I pay about 5.6 euro cents per kWh peak rate, about 2.5 off-peak, on top of which I am charged 6.49 cents TAX!!!
How this can even be permitted under European law is beyond me.....
Posted by mike at June 9, 2004 09:46 PM
Rob Read - 'and to think that all the welfarism encouraged and enabled "21-year-old mother of three living on a sink estate" to exist.'
And for her to be considered "working class".
Posted by Verity at June 9, 2004 09:54 PM
This is being described as a 'gaffe', which as we all know is politicobabble for 'inconvenient truth expressed in a public forum'.
One of the first things I will do when I become benevolent dictator of the UK is abolish Excise Duties and shut the Customs Service down. It would be fun to watch the tobacco smugglers reversing the direction of their trade.
Posted by David Gillies at June 10, 2004 05:53 PM
