I do not endorse people taking up smoking
I understand the possible risks to others through passive smoking
I understand the possible risks to my own health
I understand that smokers are more likely to use the NHS
I understand smokers are more likely to die younger
Now that's out the way let me tell you what's really pissed me off lately.
I read yesterday, about a student union pub in Bangor that is charging everybody 50p to come back in every time they go for a cigarette. The grounds for this being to cover the costs of the outdoor heaters as well as maintaining the whole outdoor area in general due to what they call "excessive use". Before I really... and I mean REALLY get on a rant about this I'll also paste 2 comments from students interviewed.
-"Making them pay to go outside gives them another reason to think about giving up. The less people who actually smoke the better, because it helps the health service etc."
David Farnsworth, psychology student
-"I think it is actually good, it makes people stop smoking in there - they've got to come out."
Niyi Adebowale, business student
Right... Here it goes...
THIS IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS AND GOES TO SHOW WHAT AN IGNORANT FUCKING COUNTRY WE LIVE IN. IT PROVES YOU DON'T NEED TO BE INTELLIGENT AT ALL TO GO TO UNIVERSITY AND THAT PEOPLE ARE HAPPY TO SPOUT COMPLETE AND UTTER BULLSHIT WHEN IT SUITS THEM OR THEIR IMAGE.
Let's set a few things straight here...
First of all I can't really comment on the pub charging aspect. It's private property and they are entitled to do as they wish within reason. That's not to say I think it's right from a moral point of view or business point of view for that matter. Smokers already have to go outside to smoke, which I completely agree with, but this is demonising them, making them more of the outcasts and I'm sorry but without them everyone else would suffer greatly, but I'll come back to that later. With regards to it as a business, if just under a 3rd of the UK legal drinking age population smoke (31.6% for those interested Source: World Health Organisation Website) then you run the risk of putting them off going to your pub entirely, and possibly slashing your profit by the same percentage. In the current climate there's no business that could weather that much of a cut.
Right, back to what's pissed me off.
OK, Mr Farnsworth let me ask you a question if I may, where did you hear that nugget of wisdom and fact that the NHS is suffering due to smokers? Mmm? Ohh I agree it gives us a another reason to quit, but let's be honest, when we know all of the other negatives to smoking that I've detailed above, charging us 50p is kind of like pissing on a forest fire to put it out. But back to your comment about us costing the NHS, in the words of the Virgin Mary, "You are talking out of your fucking Arse".
What I'm about to do may scare a lot of you, a lot people tend to be frightened by what follows, but I'm about to give you some.... FACTS!
Yes ladies and gentleman, actual fucking facts. Not the 'red top newspaper' facts that people have been so keen to absorb into their tiny minds alongside character names from Hollyoaks and who's shagging who from OK Magazine.
In 2008 a survey of income was done on the NHS. Yes pretty much all the money given to the NHS is from the government but they get it from somewhere and that somewhere is what this survey was conceived and executed to discover. What follows is the contribution to the NHS from sources relevant to this argument.
Smoking Tax (England only)-
9.2 Billion Pounds per year
(Additional 3.4 Billion pounds lost due to cigarette imports)
Source - FOREST (Smoking Alliance) & Confirmed as accurate by the W.H.O.
..... That's a lot of money isn't it? £9,200,000,000 given to the NHS from smokers. What a considerate lot we are ey? And if we stopped buying cigarettes from the frogs during Calais to Dover trips then we'd be contributing a further 3.4 billion.
OK now for the important part. My whole argument hinges on this..... Ready?
"Treating smokers costs the NHS in England £2.7bn a year, compared with £1.7bn a decade ago, a report claims. Anti-smoking group Ash says the cost would have raised to over £3bn had action to curb smoking not seen numbers fall from 12 million to nine million."
Source - BBC Website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi
Hang on a second; let me get this right...
We give you 9.2 billion pounds and you use 2.7 to treat us? I'm sorry but if any non-smokers think they aren't getting the treatment they should due to cost cuts treating smokers, they are fucking delusional. If it wasn't for us you'd have 6.5 billion pounds LESS treatment. And if we're covering the costs of our own treatment plus about 3 others why are we being made out to be the bad guy. We're the good guys, contributing to the NHS like money was water, the rest of you are tight ass bastards.
The next time a loved one is having a life saving operation; it could well have been paid for by me.
Ohh and another thing, did you know treating alcohol related illness, dealing with crime caused by alcohol and it's repurcussions and the loss of productivity in the workplace costs 20 billion a year?! (When did you ever hear of someone going on a fag fuelled rampage? Actually, don't answer that)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi
That's nearly 10 times MORE than smokers. Stick that on your fucking high and mighty soap box next time you look down on smokers while you’re in the pub!
What annoys me the most is that people generally listen to whoever shouts the loudest and for the longest, ignoring the quiet guy at the back who knows what he's talking about. And unfortunately for anybody with an ounce of common sense the loudest people around are the media. Even the most dense around should know, good news doesn't sell newspapers. It's an example in bad taste but it best proves my point, Jade Goody. The girl gets cancer, and you can't walk 5 feet in Swansea without seeing or hearing one thing or another about it. If she did charity work, you'd be lucky to hear about it at all.
In summary smokers save lives and 90% of the general public are ignorant.
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