Smoking laws to cost votes (From Oxford Mail)

4:30pm Wednesday 25th July 2007

With the smoking ban now in force in pubs and clubs to encourage smokers to stop, where will the Government get its £10bn from to replace that tax?

From other sources, of course.

Will the anti-smoking lobby be pleased when their income tax increases, and petrol tax and VAT go up with every other tax?

Somehow I don't think so.

I think this Act will be the downfall of the Labour Government as was the Poll Tax for the Conservatives.

Labour's electoral strength is in the north-west and north-east of England, with its tradition of working men's clubs.

Will they vote for Gordon Brown if he calls a General Election in May if we've had a bad winter and they have had to stand outside to have their fag?

Already, Labour have lost the Scottish Parliament and are in negotiation to share power in the Welsh Assembly with the Nationalists.

Both countries banned smoking before England.

After only a few weeks of the ban, many pubs are suffering a loss in trade, along with the increase in litter outside.

Some have even experienced trouble.

According to the financial press, two major brewers have announced they intend to sell off many of their pubs without a garden or separate rooms.

They are very astute business enterprises, so surely that proves something of what the future holds?

We pretend to be a country of consultation, yet a third of the population are smokers whose opinions have not been considered.

That is an awful lot of lost votes.

DEREK HONEY Queen Emma's Dyke Witney

Letters RSS Feed