Smoking: no taxation without representation

Tuesday April 22, 2008

Smokers, says Robin Butler, are not fairly represented by government, so why should they pay £10 billion a year in tax?

From its coinage in mid-17th century colonial America, the rallying cry “No Taxation Without Representation” continues to resonate in the modern world. Perhaps it’s an appropriate slogan to be adopted by up to 12 million British citizens who insist on their right to enjoy smoking that other great American import, tobacco.

While there can be no denying that we smokers pay punishing and ever escalating taxes (currently around £4 on a packet of fags), can we claim that we are not represented? Worse than that, we are routinely misrepresented, from the gloomy, overspun utterances of a self-appointed health elite striving for political influence, to those late night TV black propaganda films using lurid images designed to link smokers in the public mind with purveyors of disease and death – unsexy, degenerate, and not the kind of people anyone would want for friends!

What a scurrilous, dishonest campaign, conceived to drive a wedge between smokers (the bad guys), and decent, wholesome, clean-living non-smokers (the good guys). It all serves to create a mythology in which smokers are no longer perceived primarily as fully paid-up members of the human race, but only as the sum of everything our detractors define as negative and destructive, and therefore not entitled to the same consideration as ‘proper’ people.

Affront

This puts me in mind of the way in which homosexuals were ‘dealt with’ in the early to mid-20th century. Homosexuals were seen as an affront to the masculinity of ordinary, decent blokes; they let the side down. Consequently, it was perceived as the duty of ordinary, decent blokes (usually in gangs) to beat the shit out of queers. Unpleasant, but, you know, it had to be done, and as the victims had no recourse to justice it was done with the tacit approval of the state.

That same bullying gang mentality is clearly evident in many of the individuals and groups who target smokers. There is something of the totalitarian in the mentality of these people: everyone has to be the same as them. But, instead of recognising its inherent dangers, our Government has harnessed this wave of mindless intolerance to launch its own attack, issuing a mass social exclusion order against millions of innocent British citizens.

To police this act, they have created a new army of town hall snoops whose job it is to sneak around spying on people before scuttling back to their offices to write up their reports and set in motion the machinery that would give hitherto exemplary citizens a police record. New Labour? New Taliban.

Representations

Before this ban came into force, there were many representations by and on behalf of smokers. People from the leisure industries, pubs, restaurants, bingo halls, insisted that they could provide safe smoking areas in their venues which would meet the demands of all their customers. Indeed, many of them already had effective facilities installed.

All the arguments for the protection of individual liberties of smokers, balanced by effective means of protecting the health and comfort of staff together with an acknowledgement of the non-smoker’s right not to be exposed to tobacco fumes, were swept aside by a government that was determined not to listen. When an elected government decides that it only wants to represent some of the electorate and not the rest, something has gone seriously wrong with democracy as most people understand it.

Which brings us back to the issue of no taxation without representation. Does this government have a moral right to collect a tobacco tax from people it is trying to airbrush out of society? The money at issue is no small sum. Including VAT, it amounts to almost ten billion pounds a year.

Happy

Personally, I’d be very happy for the Chancellor to have this money, every last penny of it. But hardly on the terms imposed by this ban. Apparently, many other people feel the same way, taking their chances buying their tobacco products online, or making regular trips to the European mainland to collect their maximum duty-free allowances.

If you are not in a position to do this personally, because you do not possess a car (or happen to harbour a particular animus towards the French), you may consider it to be highly discriminatory not to be allowed to pay someone else to do it for you, like, for instance, your friendly neighbourhood fags ‘n booze smuggler.

And if the major criminal gangs are now moving in on the act, that tells me at least two things. First, that they already have a huge, expanding customer base in the UK, and second, in a society that rates organised crime, with all its associated corruption and violence, as one of its greatest fears, we are opening up Pandora’s box with as little hope as Pandora of recapturing its demons.

Principle

What a mess. Do I deliberately break the law in pursuit of a moral principle, or do I jettison my principles in order to obey the law? Sure, we can break the law and buy smuggled tobacco products with relative ease, though I’m not advocating that anyone should.

Unlike the discredited bunch currently running the country (and I say this with sincere regret having been a lifelong supporter of the Labour Party), I’m not telling everybody else what they ought to do. You deal with your own moral quandaries, and I’ll deal with mine!

The Government has seriously overstepped the mark. Not only has it has compromised its claim to be an inclusive government, but it has acquiesced to the hectoring, bullying demands of an unrepresentative health clique, swallowed wholesale every ludicrous myth about smokers and smoking, and inflicted deep wounds on society and itself.

Hysteria

In the prevailing atmosphere of intolerance and hysteria, there seems little hope of any healing. We have not been fairly represented, therefore, I believe, that this government has compromised its right to collect tobacco tax, and that by continuing to do so will serve only to deepen the resentment and bitterness that so many of us feel.

If there was ever a social contract, guaranteeing personal freedoms as a condition of meeting our social responsibilities and duties as citizens, then in the case of many millions of citizens, the state has just torn up its part of that contract.

Robin Butler is a retired recruitment consultant and training officer who spends his enforced social exile at home in the company of his two similarly elderly cats

Comments

Joyce (Tue Apr 22, 07:57 AM)

The Government ran a TV ad a few years ago in which it was suggested that smokers who bought smuggled ciggies were, in effect, aiding and abetting full blown criminal gangs, enabling them to embed the hard drug clulture into our society. I remember feeling very angry, unaware that the Government was but taking its first baby steps on the road of demonisation of smokers. I truly don’t believe that, without a market for smuggled cigarettes, the gangs’ drug dealings would have been jeopardised or contained. I do believe, however, that this ad was an early indicator of this Government’s mentality. Can’t sort out the drug culture? Blame individual smokers. Can’t sort out the infrastructure? Blame motorists for using their cars, and so on.

As for myself, I lay the blame for the very ugly tone of many comments on smoking-related online press stories squarely on the Government.

I find it morally repugnant that a Government can spearhead a campaign of demonisation of its own citizens whilst grabbing billions in revenue from them. We’re probably paying for those damned adverts!

tug wilson (Tue Apr 22, 09:50 AM)

Robin is spot on with all the comments made,most of the points made are being said all over the Country,this Government does not have the right to impose such a ban,the elections can not come soon enough,we can then get rid of this Labour mob who think themselves more important than the people who elected them,and let that be a lesson to the next Government,take away peoples Freedom 2 Choose at your peril,Tug.

Jon (Tue Apr 22, 12:09 PM)

If the Government’s wish was to exclude me from society, then it has succeeded; but at a cost. I never buy British tobacco and, for the last three months, I have not bought any alcohol in the UK. Since the smoking ban I have not had a meal in a restuarant nor sat in a cafe and have only visited a pub twice, when work conversation required it and someone else was paying. I once did feel a bit ashamed about the tax avoidance; but, since the smoking ban and the subsequent pronouncements about not providing health care to smokers and drinkers, I no longer do. I have also ripped up my organ donor card. I’m a middle-class 51 year old without so much as a parking ticket and the smoking ban is the only legislation which has got me roused. However, like most of us, not roused enough. There is effectively no hunting ban because Otis Ferry and his pals had the balls to do something. Maybe we get what we deserve?

Peter Thurgood (Tue Apr 22, 01:15 PM)

Well said Jon, I have been saying words to this effect since this awful law came into being.

I too have not been in a pub since the ban came in. I do still go to restaurants however, but they tend to be smoker friendly restaurants, either with heated patio areas, or very friendly owners who hate the ban as much as I do, and do their best to accommodate.

You say that the smoking ban is the only legislation which has got you roused, this is where we differ, for I am getting more and more roused every single day, at the terrible injustices which I am reading about.

Only this morning, I read about a bus driver in Cumbria, who was fined £210 because his wheelie bin lid was open by 4 inches. This was a week’s wages for this poor man, and on top of that he now has a criminal record.

How can any responsible Government allow and condone such behaviour? It is criminal, and we should all rise up against it, like you rightly say Otis Ferry did with the hunting ban. A Government is elected by the people to serve the people, this Government forces us to serve them. They have given local councils carte blanche to impose any new regulation upon us they see fit, with the added power to also impose massive fines on us if we do not play strictly to their rules.

We pay the Government taxes with which to run our country for us, but they squander this and get us deeper and deeper into debt, so that they do not have any money left for all the services they are meant to provide. Consequently, local councils are told to raise their own money by whatever means they care to implement.

They are only getting away with all this because we are letting them. We need to be more like the French, and march and form blockades, instead of which, we seem to have a small band of faithful supporters, who, like yourself, are very good at putting their feelings into writing, but not into positive action.

There are, allegedly, 15 million smokers in this country. Can you imagine the impact if we could mobilise them, and set up huge marches and meeting across the country, all to take place on the same day? The fuel protesters did it some years ago, and it looks like they might be doing it again soon. The Countryside Alliance also did it, so why can’t we?

Another way of protesting and making ourselves heard, is civil disobedience. Smoke where you want to smoke, do it en-mass, in pubs, bars, railway stations etc. Ignore litter laws, make a point of throwing all litter, not just cigarette ends, everywhere, make the dumb councils work for their money. I know that most people do not want to make the streets look like pig pens, but it is the only way to let these councils know that we mean business, and that we are fed up with being dictated to.

If you do not have a weekly bin collection, then sack your rubbish up and dump it on the council office or town hall’s doorstep. Then if their services do not improve, get together a group of say 40 households, and all refuse to pay your council tax. If they fine you, then refuse to pay that as well. What are they going to do, imprison everyone?

You end up saying, Jon, “Maybe we get what we deserve?” Well here’s a chance to get what we really deserve, and to give this Government a taste of what they deserve also.

Peter James (Tue Apr 22, 02:03 PM)

Here here Peter T.
Fully agree!

Ross (Tue Apr 22, 04:38 PM)

Peter Thurgood, you took the words right out of my mouth. I have just been reading about the wheelie bin incident on the Daily Mail website, shocking but the council’s arrogant and snooty reply sums up all that is wrong with the UK authorities today.

As for paying tobacco tax to the UK Government, you would be surprised how many people already share the same view, especially since the ban.

Well, for the past ten years, I have bought all my cigarettes abroad. As a business traveller I have access to duty free, but I have also organised several day trips to Europe using the budget airlines.

You can, for under fifty pounds, enjoy a great day out in a European city and legally bring back a substantial number of cartons of cigarettes. When you start to run out, get online and book another cheap flight. Easy….!!

You do have to spend quite a bit in one day, but the savings in the long run are so huge it is worth it.

Peter Thurgood (Tue Apr 22, 05:09 PM)

I keep wondering how long it will be before they find a way to stop us even buying duty frees. I know people say that they cannot do that, but with this Government they seem to be able to get away with anything.

After all, it is for our own good isn’t it??????????

timbone (Tue Apr 22, 05:52 PM)

With what you said Peter, I am always a little reluctant to say how much I save on tobacco, but I am going to say it anyway. I make several trips abroad in the year, and keep my tobacco stocked up. It costs me about £20 a month to roll my own, if I bought the tobacco here, it would cost me over £100 a month!

Mandyv (Tue Apr 22, 08:14 PM)

Superb article Mr Butler, also the comments, which sound similiar to my own thoughts and actions.

Joyce (Tue Apr 22, 09:29 PM)

I share other posters’ anger and frustration. I often comment partly just to get it all off my chest because every day there seems to be some new outrage.

The hunting ban was successful in that it was huge and widely reported. It wasn’t, though, just about the hunting ban which was only the last straw for a communtiy that felt that its way of life had been under attack for years by a “liberal”, metropolitan elite. I imagine that it was relatively easy to organise – there was an infrastructure in which the majority believed they had just cause for protest. Compare that with trying to mobilise smokers who have nothing else in common, have been brainwashed for years with many susceptible to the passive smoking scam

So, why didn’t all smokers on 2nd July just ignore the ban as if it hadn’t happened? For many reasons known to us all..

Where do we go from here? I can’t see how a mass protest could actually be organised – we can’t even gauge the support for one. Perhaps we can only carry on with low level resistance: “spreading the word”, writing to our MPs, boycotting the hospitality industry until, one day, the ashtrays quietly start coming out again or we have forged alliances with other groups and have a joint protest.

I’ve seen some unfamiliar names posting comments on this site recently. I wish that more people would so that we can see that active opposition is growing.

Joyce (Tue Apr 22, 11:08 PM)

oops! 2nd para should have included the word “protest”!

Joyce (Wed Apr 23, 10:35 AM)

May I also just make a comment on the disgraceful story about the bin fine.

We’re not all smokers, or huntsmen or motorists but we are all wheelie bin users who are forced to use the service that the LA provides. The experience of the man in Cumbria could have happened to any UK resident. If ever there was a cause for protest this is it: a fine and a criminal record for leaving a bin lid open – who would ever have imagined that this could happen in the UK Will outraged citizens be causing a storm throughout the land? No. Everyone will be shocked but they’ll make sure that their bin lid shuts properly and keep their fingers crossed that things will change after the next election.

Margot Johnson (Wed Apr 23, 11:08 AM)

Yes, Joyce, the newcomers are welcome and hopefully they too will spread the word and contribute more themselves.. I particularly liked the chap who said, “Dear Folks & Folkesses”. A phrase used within my family and not heard often these days.

Smokers do pay the same taxes as everyone else and do not have representation. In fact, they pay more due to the heavy excise duty on tobacco products. In addition, the scheme is being openly used as a licence to print money by local councils and the courts and legal profession. As indeed are the ever increasing by-laws seemingly imposed at will by local councils.

As to the eternal question of “What can we do about it?” Well, change the government, of course and watch carefully what the opposing political parties are offering to alleviate this victimisation. Wm. Hill are predicting that Labour will be defeated, and they are not usually wrong. But what can we do in the meantime?

I’ve had a new thought. We have only two things available to us. The first is our vote, including council elections. The second is our U.K. legal system, while we still have it and before the E.U. override it with their draconian laws which will have no right of appeal and no jury system.

So let’s see if there is anything to help us within our present legal system. I noted today on the FOREST site that a flamboyant restauranter has been fined over £5,000 for allowing smoking on his premises, for smoking on them himself, and for not displaying the required No Smoking signs. His regular clientelle are wealthy and hopefully they will “chip in”. However, he can’t keep on doing this, can he?

Now supposing such a person, while he still has the means, uses his establishment and its supportive customers to experiment with a test case. Within our legal system, it is only necessary to establish a precedent by winning one single case.

Here is what I think he could do:-

1] Cease to become a licensed premises and return to being a private home.

2] Post a detailed notice outside his door to state that this is so.

3] Within that notice, state that his home will welcome invited guests but that members of the public who enter will be regarded as trespassers and will be prosecuted.

4] State that he runs his home in the way that he personally wishes to do, and that invited guests must accept that this is so.

5] State that he is always happy to make new friends but that they must apply in writing so that he can meet them personally and decide whether he wishes to invite them into his home.

The rest would follow without an external notice being posted, i.e. food and drink is available and guests may wish to make voluntary contributions towards it. A suggested list of voluntary contributions they might consider appropriate would be provided inside.

Can anyone see any flaws in that?

Joyce (Wed Apr 23, 11:40 AM)

If he employs staff, Margot, then he might still breaking the law because his “home” is their workplace. He couldn’t get round that by having them sign an agreement which would be worthless because it would violate their statutory rights. I say “might” because it could be a grey area, after all, if someone throws a party and uses outside caterers and waiters are the guests banned from smoking? It will probably depend on who is the legal employer is: in the case of the party the hosts are the clients and not the employer whereas in Mr Stonhill’s case he would be the employer. He might be able to get around it by having the staff work on a self-employed basis so that he becomes the client rather than the employer.

He would also lose passing trade (although the pub sounds the kind of place that might not depend too heavily on that). If I were in his position and felt as strongly as he obviously does, I’d certainly look into it.

There was some mention a while back on the F2C site of a small hotel owner who intended to designate a bedroom as a bar, as it were, but I don’t know how the story followed through.

Joyce (Wed Apr 23, 01:43 PM)

AND NOW FOR SOME GOOD NEWS

There is a very heartening report on the home page of the UKIP website.

Jo (Wed Apr 23, 02:39 PM)

Hi Peter Thurgood
This is just a warning to all. You mentioned about the chap with his wheelie bin being fined. Well firstly the fine was alot lower but, he refused to pay and consequentley got fined for court costs etc.I believe this is running on a pilot scheme within that particular council and so could potentionally go country wide as councils are constantly being bullied to meet recycling targets.I wonder if it had been a recycling bin if he still would have the same fine.It’s no wonder that fly tipping is on an all time high which in my opinion is more harmful than smoking in public places.

Peter Thurgood (Wed Apr 23, 02:58 PM)

Thank you Jo, I did see that item on BBC news last night. What angered me even more was the council official who they interviewed afterwards.

The interviewer asked him how much the lid would have to be open for it to become an offence, would it be an inch, maybe two inches, exactly how much is allowed?. The smirking little council creep replied “open…when we say open, we mean exactly that”

What an awful little jerk, I hope someone stuffs him in one of his wheelie bins and has it crushed at the local depot.

Margot Johnson (Wed Apr 23, 03:30 PM)

Yes, Joyce. I went a bit damp eyed with delight yesterday. Tried to publish the whole thing here but p.c. Simon wouldn’t let me. He’s right, of course, he always is. Trust you to find the diplomatic way of doing it.

Peter Thurgood (Wed Apr 23, 04:07 PM)

What on earth is the heartening report on the UKIP site?

I just had a look, and couldn’t fins anything new, or anything at all uplifting.

Surely it couldn’t be about Bob Spink, who was recently thrown out of the Conservative Party and has somehow mysteriously found himself in Narnia, disguised as a UKIP MP?

Apparently when he went into that wardrobe, he thought he was going to end up as an “independent Conservative”

I wonder what the Lion and the Witch think about it all? You can read it here” Http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7292642.stm

SCOTTY (Wed Apr 23, 04:31 PM)

I do not have a UKIP candidate in my area. How can I make a protest in the local elections? How can this be a democracy,we have to do something.

Peter Thurgood (Wed Apr 23, 04:39 PM)

All you have to do Scotty, is log onto their site, here: http://www.ukip.org/ukip/index.php

and send them an email saying that you don’t have a UKIP candidate in your area, and they will send you an application form, so that you can be one. Problem solved.

Margot Johnson (Wed Apr 23, 06:02 PM)

SCOTTY.
In spite of snide comments you may read either here or in the hostile media, UKIP vet their candidate applications very thoroughly. It is true that anyone can apply – as with all parties. Details of how to apply can be accessed via their website. Their intention is that they be represented by people of the highest integrity. This takes time. They will not yet have been able to place candidates in all council elections. If you would have prefered to vote UKIP, my advice to you is to vote for the Independent candidate. This will show that you do not support any of the main parties. UKIP are working very hard to place approved candidates in all areas for the general election.

Margot Johnson (Fri Apr 25, 09:45 AM)

Peter T: It seems that Dr Bob Spink did find the right wardrobe. His first speech on behalf of UKIP can be read in Hansard of 22nd April 2008, Column 1285.

I don’t mind being the Witch. Perhaps 25 year old Col Dee would consider becoming the Lion. Recent prospective candidates they have adopted are within his age group.

Peter Thurgood (Fri Apr 25, 03:47 PM)

Just as I suspected Margot, remember a while ago, when I said, send in the Girl Guides????

Thanks for putting me right about Col Dee though, every time I have resonded to anything from Col, I imagined a 79 year old Colonel.

So tell me, is the Colonel really a woman?

Disgusting behaviour, changing sex right in front of me eyes…I can’t believe it.

Peter Thurgood (Fri Apr 25, 03:52 PM)

P.S. I have only just noticed. Welcome to the Smoker Magazine, Margot.

Hope you let us have some of your wit on there???

http://www.thesmokermagazine.co.uk/

Margot Johnson (Fri Apr 25, 04:34 PM)

No, Peter, that was not my intention. Just wanted to see what you were up to in your own domain. Loved your article re the Jews and would have liked to say so. Couldn’t find a way to do it. I’ve sent you an email.
Regards, MARGOT

joyce (Fri Apr 25, 05:41 PM)

Peter, the heartening report is now on the front page of F2C. Enjoy.

joyce (Fri Apr 25, 08:38 PM)

Another Government must see

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/24/nogc124.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox

Jo (Fri Apr 25, 09:01 PM)

I write this with a little besmusement that a trans sexual who was a woman and pregnant and now a man? Which appeared in the Mirror paper used to pose for gay mags and posters for anti smoking campaign. what a joke ! I have voted for them for equal rights as well, quite honestley i’m flabberghasted,
for a minorty I thought, would be the first to back up smokers and their rights.But,I own up to being a life long Labour electorate,we all make mistakes.Although saying that I didnt vote for them last time around. Iraq was their own Country and should have Been left well alone only they know how to deal with their own people.As pretty much our own with the EU situation,not just our rights but,us as Great Britain. I know for one I dont want to be a state (as the goverment have planned it) this is England( Great Britain) Sorry for going a little deep but, I do feel very depressed and scared over this situation .I do have the option to leg it to another country (Australia) with my qulifications. I dont want to quit the fight,I dont want to leave my family behind or my Country Why should I? Margot,Joyce,Valerie and Peter keep me so positive i want to keep fighting thankyou you guys you talk so eloquentley and with convinction and truth.Well done Margot for putting Mark Harris in his place,after all he’s living in Germany not England (so i’m alright jack) . Thankyou Peter Thurgood for answering me but,it does look like it will be going ahead for rubbish collections in this fashion I will keep you all updated as soon as I find out.

joyce (Fri Apr 25, 10:15 PM)

Jo, you sound like you need cheering up. “Clicking” on the link on my post above your own might raise a smile.

Margot Johnson (Sat Apr 26, 12:26 AM)

Jo, don’t be depressed. It is good that we have this opportunity to learn as much as we can about what is really going on. Then we can try to do something about it. Don’t leave the old country yet – I feel there are better times ahead. Thanks for your kind words.

Ben Ellis (Sat Apr 26, 12:26 PM)

But we smokers have never had any representation since the demonisation began. Quite the contary, no open and even debate has ever taken place anywhere on prime time TV, no newspaper has ever shown both sides of the argument, no radio broadcast has ever given time to pro-smokers. Simon Clark (a non-smoker) has been shouted down time and again and he represents millions of our citizens. If the truth about smoking had been made public at the outset, there would not be any ban at all, which is precisely why it wasn’t. This is horrific! The implications are frightening. We have already seen the control of liquor coming in, the control of motoring becoming more and more oppresive, chidrens sweets being regulated, food being devided into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, the list goes on and will become longer and longer – there is now nothing to stop it.
Try writing to a national newspaper extolling the virtues of smoking – pleasure, relaxing, harmless to others, sociable. You will NEVER be published. (I’ve tried time and again). Didn’t we fight terrible wars against such horror? Even while doing so we had our freedoms. Where can we voice our opinions? Where can we tell the truth? Where can we demand that our accusers produce proof of what they accuse us of ? The Law Courts are closed to us, the media is closed to us, all we have is the internet. This may help, but it’s no cure.
We are our own worst enemy, of course, if each and every smoker took the trouble to write to their MP, condeming the ban and voted for their UKIP candidate things would happen but there are too many of us who keep our heads down or can’t be bothered.

Margot Johnson (Sat Apr 26, 01:10 PM)

No, Ben, there are too many of us who don’t have access to the internet and don’t have the knowledge that we people here now have. There are too many smokers still going around in a miserable brainwashed state believing they are killing themselves and others.

You are right – each of us must do our bit to spread the word and not only support UKIP but become a member and be kept armed with all the knowledge that can come from them. Don’t expect instant support for smokers from them. When I went to the first meeting of my local branch in a hotel bar, I found they were all non-smokers and had never heard of FOREST. They weren’t anti-smoking, however, and agreed that social life had suffered since the smoking ban.

As you say, each of us must do our bit to spread the word – not just about smoking but everything else.

Terry Garrington (Sun May 4, 01:22 PM)

I stayed up most of the night (Thursday) for the local election results,KNOWING that Labour would be humiliated..after.hearing the people inside and outside pubs throughout my City of Swansea. stating..I WILL NEVER VOTE FOR LABOUR AGAIN..FOR CHUCKING ME OUTSIDE IN THE RAIN,COLD AND EVEN SNOW….What I dont quite understand,is ,when the reasons for Labours defeat were given by one and all,on th BBC,through the night,not once ,was the smoking ban given as a reason…This also goes for the resulting tabloids,nor any news channels…They must be UNDER ORDERS …but from whom?....Terry Garrington…

Mark Smith (Wed May 28, 04:18 PM)

Regarding getting your tobacco overseas – I go to Barcelona every few months and buy 3200 silk cut. Easyjet fly from Gatwick at about 2pm, I get to the center of Barcelona by about 4.30 local time, buy my cigarettes, have a nice bit of cafe cortado and tapas in a pleasant (smoking) bar, go for a stroll, get on the 10.30 return flight, and get home by about 1am.

Trip cost: approx. 130 pounds
3200 silk cut: approx. 370 pounds

Saving: approx. 350 pounds.

I’d buy more than 3200, but the customs ‘guideline’ is that any more than that is unlikely to be accepted as being for personal use, and so subject to seizure, even though the law places no limit at all.

colin pughe (Wed May 28, 06:51 PM)

mark have you ever been stoped by customs? we went one day and came back the next, we were interviewed by customs for two hours

dee (Wed Jun 11, 07:04 PM)

I would just like to say how happy I am that I have stumbled across this site, for quite some time now I have been feeling that I was a the only one in the country that was getting more and more angry, with all the silly rules and regulations that have been introduced,and am so pleased that others do feel the same anger at the way this government is treating the law abiding citizens but at the same time giving the real law breakers such a easy time.

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