And Then A Natty Tin Foil Bonnet...

...and it’s firmly planted on my swede as I type. About wot? E-cigarettes.

You noticed how it’s starting to play out? This is my tin foil adorned take on it so don’t expect anything serious, okay?

It started with governments  looking for another money stream so they got a bucket and labelled it ‘Pleasure’. Who to hit? Got it! Tobacco users. There’s millions of ‘em! Hay, we need an excuse though. No problem. Health; and we’ll get help from a ‘study’ from a friendly source ‘proving’ that tobacco’s a killer. Then we can say, we’re here to help you stop by pricing tobacco products out of your reach and also preventing kiddies starting. Yes, you will thank us.

As anticipated, some folk stopped using tobacco but, as also anticipated, not in any huge numbers thus the Pleasure tax bucket continued to fill.  

Then, out of left field, e-cigarettes popped up and were mostly ignored by government and most tobacco users and the number of folk dropping tobacco for e-cigs wasn’t really significant and made no discernible difference to the bucket.

Shortly thereafter, proving once again that governments and the various branches thereof don’t communicate, Public Health England published the results of a ‘study’ that ‘suggested’ e-cigs were in excess of ninety percent ‘safer’ than tobacco products. One can only imagine the phone call they received from the revenue office the day they dropped that bombshell...

Anyhoo, as a result, smokers started switching in huge numbers partly due to tobacco prices and partly due to the announcement by PHE.

The switch to e-cigs accelerated apace and too late the government realised the Pleasure bucket had a gaping great hole in it dear Liza, dear Liza. Damn! Wot to do? It’s all about health, right? Outlaw the item that’s enabling many to stop smoking? Damn! We’ll look like utter clowns if we do that. Damn! Wot to do...

Okay says government, let’s phone a ‘friend’, one that’s looking for a bribe – sorry, funding - and get them to produce a ‘study’ and leak it to the press suggesting that vaping may have hidden risks.

After that, slowly over time, so as not to look like the dumb asses we actually are, we’ll ramp up the vaping bad for your health message until the time we can safely step in and announce that, in the interests of the public’s health, we plan to level the playing field and tax all vaping kit and liquids the same as tobacco products thus keeping our health virtue signalling credentials intact while rather than just plugging the hole in the Pleasure Tax Bucket, we’ll need a far, far bigger bucket dear Liza, dear Liza. JD; doubles all round.

As I’ve typed many times, it’s not often I’m right and I’m probably wrong again but I’m bookmarking this page for future reference as I feel the games afoot.

Quote;  Me, with reference to the linked article.

“Thickett; The collective noun for a group of professors or academics who produce ridiculously questionable ‘studies’.”