Yes agreed, to a point.
Now I'm playing Devils Advocate here. Benefit cheats, tax dodgers yes.
Smokers no! (Yes I am a smoker but I'm trying to look at this realistically/logically.)
Every time you hit the smoker with a higher tax some pack in. At the same time more smokers, (not me because I don't have the contacts), will buy their fags from 'Jimmy' at the local boozer for half the price. This increases the tax dodgers, puts peoples health more at risk because of smuggled imports that can contain anything from cabbage leaves to rat droppings and therefore increases the strain on the NHS. They, (we), have already been ostracised by being forced to smoke outside in all weathers whereas before most work places had smoke rooms that were ventilated. Bad weather will not put off a seasoned smoker or someone who wants a skive.
Hit all the system cheats and include booze. Stop all this cheap stuff being sold by the supermarkets, restrict it back to proper off licences attached to pubs. Booze kills/maims more 'innocent' people each year than fags do. Passive smoking may affect people but it is a long term exposure not a sudden event such as a drunk driver taking out a couple of innocent bystanders at the side of a road or just popping down to the shops/strolling with their girl/boyfriend/taking the dog for a walk etc.
(just to make it clear, I also enjoy a drink but know my limits and will NEVER get behind the wheel after drinking ANY amount of alcohol or get in a car with someone who has).
You will never stop smokers and you will never stop drinkers but you can stop drink drivers by hitting them REALLY hard with a stiff fine, (over £2,ooo), and if involved in an accident which kills someone a stiff prison sentence.
But then those type of policies wouldn't get you elected would they?
