How our government solves problems: more tax

[PAH]

All you need to know about the state of our country and its future prospects.

If they're going to do this, at least make it something more than the price of a packet of fags.

Next, they'll be issuing on the spot fines to the asbo generation. Oh wait, they've already done that haven't they? Yeah it's really working.

http://news.uk.msn.com/Article.aspx?...mentid=7553649

Call for annual £10 smoking licence

Forcing smokers to apply for a £10 permit to buy cigarettes could help people to quit, a government health adviser said.

Professor Julian Le Grand, chairman of Health England, said more people might stop smoking if they had to "opt in" by applying for an annual permit and paying a £10 fee.

"Some 70% of smokers actually want to stop smoking. So if you just make it that little bit more difficult for them to actually re-start or even to start in the first place, yes I think it will make a big difference," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

He said some people would be deterred from smoking if they had to make the effort to fill in a complicated form, get a photograph taken and pay a charge.

"It's a little bit of a problem to actually do it, so you have got to make a conscious decision every year to opt in to being a smoker," he added.

The proposal is one of Health England's suggestions for preventing illness which has been sent to health minister Lord Darzi Simon Clark, of smokers' rights group Forest, said the smoking permit proposal was outrageous.

"We are becoming not just a nanny state but a bully state," he said.

"Smokers already face record levels of taxation and this would be another financial hit on them. Tobacco is a perfectly legal product.

"There are a whole host of things out there that are potentially dangerous. If smokers are targeted in this way, it's a very short step to slapping a similar charge on anyone who wants to buy alcohol or any other product ministers don't approve of."

[miffy]

A smoking license? If you want to smoke thats a personal choice not gordos.

How the hell is that gonna help people quit (even it they did want to).

With the amount of tax on fags, it's probably cheaper to be smoking illegal drugs.

We're just one step away from the tax on fresh air aren't we.

[Denny]

A smoking license? If you want to smoke thats a personal choice not gordos.

How the hell is that gonna help people quit (even it they did want to).

With the amount of tax on fags, it's probably cheaper to be smoking illegal drugs.

We're just one step away from the tax on fresh air aren't we.

You're right, that's exactly what we are heading for. If fresh air was divisible, it would have happened already.

I expect the government have lost of lot of fag tax as a consequence of their own health campaigns to get people to quit along with the July 07 smoking ban in July, so this is another way of recouping some of that lost revenue under the false pretences that they're encouraging people to smoke less when they know darned well it won't do anything of the sort and they'll raise more money instead.

This is a ludicrous scheme and is the first of many steps the government probably intend to do impose levvies on people just for wanting to carry out perfectly lawful activities.

What next, a tax on chocolate?
A tax on biscuits?
Tax dispensations on lettuce?

This country is becoming more 'Orwellian' by the day.

[Denny]

Grumpy Old Contractor

We've got Grumpy Old Women and Men on BBC, so I don't see why we shouldn't have a good old whinge on CUK too.

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Yesterday, I was in Tescos supermarket queue (a guaranteed high sensitivity zone for me) and the person being served in front of me was faffing around with god knows how many coupons and vouchers which needed to be individually scanned in. It looked to me like it was going to take ages and I wanted to get home. After all, it was Friday night after a long week at work.

So, I intercept the cashier scanning in the customer's vouchers and asked the following question politely: is this going to take a long time, or is it worth me moving to another checkout?

To the reasonable and intelligent cashier, this would be a reasonable question, requiring a reasonable answer along the lines of: 'no madam [sir] this won't take long, just a couple of minutes, I'm sorry for the hold up...'

Did I get this type of answer? No.

What I got was this: 'I'm serving this customer [as if I didn't know this already.] The customer then glared at me [as if I had said to the cashier in a loud voice 'can you hurry this twat up you idiot.] He then didn't apologise to me, as any reasonable person would have for having so many coupons to pay with, and instead turned to the cashier and said "just take as long as it takes."

So I was none the wiser about how long I could expect to wait for. Now that was very friendly, informative and helpful wasn't it? Not only was I not given the information I wanted, I was made to feel guilty as if I had imposed on the cashier and the customer in an unreasonable way.

Now, I don't know what kind of training these cashiers get, but clearly it has nothing to do with customer satisfaction or being helpful. Concepts that are alien to the young these days, in far too many instances. Why it is even remotely possible to level this degree of ignorance and rudeness to a paying customer with impunity is beyond me.

So I just switched queues anyway. But I fully intend to ring Tescos head office to give them a piece of my mind and get them to drag these ignorant numpties into a training room and introduce them to concepts they are clearly unfamiliar with: good manners and a helpful attitude to answering perfectly reasonable customer queries. Hopefully, they will take action, and perhaps send me a voucher for some free goodies too, by way of an apology.

[miffy]

<snip...>
What next, a tax on chocolate?
A tax on biscuits?
Tax dispensations on lettuce?

Wasn't there some talk on taxing junk food?

I'm suspecting chocolate and biscuits will get somehow find their way into that category (although maybe not initially). People should be able to eat what the hell they like not be told what to eat or price it out of their reach. The banning of junk food ad's on TV is just laughable.

I'm surprised alcohol hasn't had more tax stuck onto it. The justification will of course be because of the costs to the health and police services on a friday night. I'm sorry, I thought we already paid for that and no doubt the longer opening hours are of course generating more tax overall. I didn't realise our essential services needed to turn a profit now.



We need to put together a common sense party I think.

[swamp]

I was in Tescos

That's where you went wrong.

Oh, and Tesco

[bogeyman]

Yesterday, I was in Tescos supermarket queue

Aren't you are one of the Merry Wives of Waitrose then?

Some contractor you!

[Gordon Brown]

The only thing in Britain that won't have a new tax is voting Labour.

HTH

[Denny]

Aren't you are one of the Merry Wives of Waitrose then?

Some contractor you!

I do go to Waitrose or Sainsbury if I am going to an out of town location, but tend to just pop into the supermarket that's most convenient at the time when coming back from work.

[Denny]

We need to put together a common sense party I think.

Too right, we do.

This political elite nonsense has gone way overboard now. It's time that we reclaimed our lives as our own, instead of being treated like mindless automatons incapable of making our own decisions (not being allowed to, in other words) that is really only a sinister attempt to suit the aspirations of the overtly fundraising (taxophile) government of the day.