Taking an idea from New Zealand's progressive government, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has proposed a lifetime ban on purchasing tobacco products for those born after 2008.
Rishi Sunak is following in Jacinda Ardern’s footsteps | The Telegraph | Annabel Denham:
October 4, 2023 - "It should alarm us that the Prime Minister thought long and hard about smoking prohibition. It would be more reassuring to learn that this was another knee-jerk idea spouted out of the Conservative government’s random policy generator as its remaining days in power dwindle.... Had Number 10 given any deep thought to a progressive cigarette and tobacco ban – which will see the age at which people can buy these products rise by one year every year so that, eventually, no one can purchase them – they would perhaps have realised how ill-conceived, illiberal, infantilising and illogical it is.
"That the idea has its origins in New Zealand – the country that locked itself down for nearly the longest time and refused to let its citizens come home, and requires Māori theory of creation to be taught in science lessons – should have raised a red flag. Sunak, who recently re-instilled hope that he could be the true heir to Margaret Thatcher and cauterise the wound seared by 2022’s mini-Budget, has now aligned himself with Jacinda Ardern. He may be putting this to a free vote, but history will remember who put this legislation on the cards.
"Much as Akshata Murty may have endeared and persuaded delegates in Manchester of her husband’s commitment to Conservative values, there isn’t a shred of Conservatism in this policy. No personal autonomy; the idea that people will make trade-offs – and sometimes choose the unhealthy option, such is the wonder of the human condition. Though more often than not nowadays, when it comes to tobacco, they don’t: the proportion of smokers has fallen significantly in recent decades: from half of adults in the early 1970s to just 14 per cent now.
"There was seemingly no consideration of the unintended consequences – the black market that this policy will buttress and the corresponding reduction in tax revenues. And, as usual, the nannying measure is being cloaked in the language of public health and justified on the grounds that it will help protect our socialist, creaking healthcare system.
"Here are the facts, for MPs who may soon have to decide whether to wave through this awful policy. Smokers don’t cost the NHS money, they save it. A 2017 study from the Institute of Economic Affairs estimated a net saving of £14.7 billion per annum at the rates of consumption at the time, with the costs smokers incurred significantly outweighed by the sum of tobacco duty paid and the old-age expenditures avoided due to premature mortality.
"This policy would limit consumer choice and create a two-tier society, one in which 48 year old John could purchase cigarettes while Jane, his 47 year old wife, would need to procure them in the underground economy. Shopkeepers would be required to decide on the spot whether a customer might have been born in 2004 or 2005.
"Perhaps most importantly, prohibition does not work. As the examples of South Africa, India and others have shown, it puts smokers or drinkers at greater risk. It hands money to black marketeers at the expense of tax paying businesses: the South African government lost over 1.7 billion Rand (£77 million) in sin-tax revenue in April 2020 after tightening restrictions that March. In the 1920s, prohibition caused a crime wave across America.
"What is the enduring appeal of these paternalistic, petty regulations? They allow politicians to be seen to do something without spending money. As budgetary constraints have tightened while welfare, pensions and NHS spending have ballooned, elected representatives have pulled this lever with ever greater enthusiasm. But they do come at a cost. To businesses, consumers, workers in the form of lower wages. And pretty soon they’ll cost the Tories."
Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/04/rishi-sunak-smoking-ban-nanny-state-jacinda-ardern/
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Unveils Plan To Ban Tobacco Among Youth | 10 News First | October 5, 2023:
No comments:
Post a Comment