The Laffer Cliff

The other day I noticed for the first time in a while the cost of a packet of 20 cigarettes. De-sensitised as I am to the voracious greed of HM Government, aided and abetted by the shrieking harpies of by the Puritan Front, I was still shocked. I can’t imagine anyone paying that for a packet of cigarettes, and I expect a drop in sales will ensue, to be claimed by aforementioned plunderers and puritans as a victory. Most insulting of all is the new packets containing 14 cigarettes.

But let me point out to the sons and daughters of Satan Temperance, the reason I’ve only just noticed is because a friend of mine came back from abroad and brought me a package of the finest tobacco, and someone else is doing me the same favour right now. Neither of these people smoke, and neither of these people were asked to do this. It has becomes such a well-established fact that Britain is a tax hell-hole, that bringing back tobacco has found its way onto the itinerary of many travellers who wouldn’t dream of lighting up themselves, and all this is before we come to the smugglers.

Greed and puritanical zeal; two vices united in blind embrace, have forced the price of tobacco to such a point that one is obliged to circumnavigate the domestic impost, to the benefit of foreign governments and criminals, and who could even feign surprise? As for my contribution to UK tobacco duty, forget about it. I’ll let the Belgian taxman have it instead.