Cigarette Prices

Well that's how a lot of people look at it now, drinking is so frowned upon but apparently being a judgmental sausage buffer is very "in" this season. Concerned parents are also very "now"

I go down the pub to socialise, I go down to get drunk, sometimes I go down just because I fancy a pint and a read of my book.

The pub is the king of any proper community.

Tbh I don't drink much, but I do drink... I'll alternate soft drinks with a pint. The point still stands though, someone drinking alcohol beside you is not going to cause you to get drunk from their drink. Smoking on the other hand has that annoying habit of not staying in the glass!
 
If you complained near me captain id blow it in your face.
And that is why I'm glad government intervention brought smoking in cafés and pubs to an end to stop childish, entitled people who couldn't care less if their habit is antisocial.

I'm sure most here can remember the days you'd get on a bus or go into a café for a bite to eat and there'd be at least one of these ***** indulging their trashy habit, might as well have been starting a rubbish fire.
 
Who in their right mind would smoke regular cigarettes at today's prices seriously!?, I'm in shock when I see people buying straight cigarettes that obviously don't earn a lot, 2 grand a year if your a 20 a day smoker! At the very least smoke roll ups and use the money you save to go on an amazing holiday at the end of the year or towards your kids future.
 
it stopped me!

my partner and i were spending £350 a month on cigs it's been 5 months since we gave up now and CHA CHING :D

if they were cheap i'd still be smoking as we do miss it, we just hated spending all the cash

health benefits are nil i actually still feel terrible for giving up :confused:

That's very commendable. :) Keep telling my wife about all the benefits of stopping but she just wont. :(
 
I gave up 13 months ago and i'm glad i'm free from it now.

I had a revelation a few months back,

It was making me ill, not just physically but more so mentally.

The constant worry of getting cancer, the guilt of smoking was overbearing. Everything I did for 20 years was planned around smoking, the anxiety of when my next fix would be was distracting, the annoyance of not being able to smoke at certain times was stressful, it affected everything and everyone in my life.

Since giving up smoking I am now free of depression and anxiety.

I am no longer a slave.
 
:D

Gone are the days when the pub was the centre of the community where people went to socialise. Now it's just for the hard drinkers to destroy their livers apparently. ;)

Well that's how a lot of people look at it now, drinking is so frowned upon but apparently being a judgmental sausage buffer is very "in" this season. Concerned parents are also very "now"

I go down the pub to socialise, I go down to get drunk, sometimes I go down just because I fancy a pint and a read of my book.

The pub is the king of any proper community.

Agree, I love village pubs for this reason, all sorts of people in there enjoying it in their own way.
 
I'm all about personal choice (obviously, I'm a clubber), but the only things that annoy me about smoking is getting caught walking behind someone and getting lung-fulls of the stuff (first thing in the morning is the worst), and the general stench that most smokers have after smoking (packed trains/tubes can be terrible for it).

All for E-cigs as they eliminate both of the above issues.
 
I don't care about the price, or if you choose to or not.
The thing that bothers me is the smell; to me it's literally like doggy poopy.

If smoking was still allowed in pubs ect, it would probably be enough to deter me from going out. It's bad enough when someone talks to you freshly from the beer garden.
I guess people just tolerate things more than others.

Also, I don't care if the person next to me chooses to damage his/her liver and health by drinking excessive amounts, because what he/she is doing doesn't stink, and effect me.
So nobody has to defend themselves if a smoker points out how much you drink, it has nothing to do with smoking.
If drinking involved splash damage from half of your pint ending up on the people around you, then it would be a valid argument.
 
Last edited:
I think whether vaping is any danger or not, I can see the future being a case of them having to be produced under licence and a product for which the government can take a lot of tax from.

It's inevitable, there's no way the government will let it go on forever without wanting their slice of the pie when they realise the tax income from cigarettes is dropping. I know of at least 7 people in my building that vape now, there was probably 2 when I started 8 months ago.
 
just for the sake of interest, as i said earlier in the thread that i had heard smoking revenue covered the cost of the nhs, although i had no reference to back it up, this is just me working it out so don't shoot me plz.

population of the uk:
63,181,775
reference

percentage of smokers in the uk:
19.3% by 2013
reference

tax rate on tobacco: note this is an import price, wether it is higher or lower than the equivalent you'd pay in a shop without importing it i dont know.
16.5% of retail price plus £184.10 per 1,000 cigarettes
reference

cost of 20 stirling in my local shop:
£8.40

and for the purposes of this we'll assume that the average rate of smoking is 20/day, and that the price shown of 20 stirling sounds about right for the average cost of 20 cigarettes [ie that being raised or lowered by smokers using rollies or buying more expensive cigarettes cancels out on average and that this is also average for the uk as a whole so not factoring for example london prices or cheaper areas]

tax from cigarettes=16.5%*8.40+(184.10*20/1000)=£5.07 per box

tax from smoking 20 a day for 1 year=5.07*365=£1849.82

number of smokers in the uk=19.3%*63181775=12194082.58

therefore total revenue from those smokers=12194082.58*£1849.82=£22,556,857,830

department of health budget in 2013-14:
£110 billion
reference

going off the reference that wiki will be quoting 1 billion as 1*10^9 [or one thousand million, yep i did indeed get stuck on which one they were quoting] this means:

revenue from smoking=£22.56 Billion
Revenue from NHS =110 Billion

so it seems i have just proved my original statement [which i said i had no figures for] wrong.

although even still smoking revenue theoretically constitutes 20% of the health budget. i cant seem to find anything reliable on just how much the nhs spends on cancer treatment/research each year [one source suggests £750 million, others less for cancer drugs which sounds low to me]

*disclaimer, i take no responsibility for the accuracy of any of the quoted figures or calculations due to their reliance on external sources although i have endeavoured to use the most current and reputable data 30 seconds of googling could provide. i also provide no solid conclusion because:
a. i couldnt be bothered
b. it'll be hilarious to see what gd makes of this post

the only thing i will say with certainty is that my earlier statement that smoking revenue funds the nhs entirely is a statement i now consider to be incorrect.



tl:dr smoking revenue=20% of the nhs, how much smokers cost the nhs remains unknown.
 
I look forward to the day that fat people are treated with the same distain as smokers. They should be ostracised for their looming destruction of the health service.
 

£110 billion is not the revenue of the nhs, it is the cost. Minor mistake i think you probably meant cost even though you said revenue.

£22 billion is revenue (well stolen tax but all the same right) ;0

Last i heard smokers cost the nhs £4-5 billion a year. Which is probably over stated as they try and make out as if its cost more than it does.

So that means 22-5 = £17 billion. Which is a £17 billion net profit smokers offer the NHS and government.
 
I don't smoke anymore and certainly notice the money saving

Guessing no one on their high horse spends big money on premium coffee? Or alcohol?

The first time you try all three you don't like it... Then you get addicted. I can't stand coffee but obviously some people enjoy it the same way I enjoyed smoking. It always seems like those people can't see it the the other way though
 
20 years ago at the age of 16, buying 20 Bensons cost me £1.85. I remember because a pack of matches was 15p so it came to £2 in total.

I think the average wage then was around £15,000, now it's about £25,000?
To think that cig's are now nearly £9 a packet is almost unreal :confused:
 
Yes because coffee is going to cause almost inevitable lung cancer or other terminal illness..

You're not safe from terminal illness simply because you do not smoke. A third of the population will have some form of cancer during their lives. In the future it will be half the population. Live and let live.
 
Who in their right mind would smoke regular cigarettes at today's prices seriously!?, I'm in shock when I see people buying straight cigarettes that obviously don't earn a lot, 2 grand a year if your a 20 a day smoker! At the very least smoke roll ups and use the money you save to go on an amazing holiday at the end of the year or towards your kids future.

their lack of ability to make the obvious sensible choices is often the reason they don't earn much....
 
Back
Top Bottom