indeed this is (yet) another post on the subject of cigarettes. as would be the standard, or perhaps expected, for such a disclaimer that smoking (cigarettes) is, on balance, quite bad for you and you should either not start the habit or otherwise seek assistance in quitting. well, that or cut down. so no, this is not an endorsement of smoking, no matter how much i enjoy it, look you see. rather, or if you prefer instead, this is some "filling in the blanks" on a recent news article.
them over at the BBC have gone done an article they claim is "in depth" on the problem, or if you will "scourge", of illicit (or bootleg, counterfeit, illegal, what have you) cigarettes being sold in the UK. yes, indeed i do have the link, you are most welcome to click here to go and read it. being fair they do feature a lot of precise information, yet they fail to join the dots. that or they are too afraid, or are simply not allowed, to state the obvious issue.
above is an image to illustrate what they neglect to point out, no matter how obvious it is. that's three standard cartons (or sleeves) of 10 (ten) packs of cigarettes. each pack has twenty in it, so that 20 x 10 x 3 which comes in at 600 cigarettes. i procured these off of what i would like to call an independent retailer, one who(m) i consider myself to have a good working relationship with. had i walked into a so called "proper" shop and used the same money to purchase government approved (as in taxed) ones then i would only have been able to purchase 1 (one) of these cartons.
yes, i get it. a "sin tax" is applied on cigarettes, under the pretence of "encouraging people to quit for economic reasons" but done because they can get away with it. most impressive has been their campaign to have people believe that "the world is only evil or bad because of cigarettes". over the last ten or so years, though, this "sin tax" has spiralled out of control. which is exactly why the more independent sale of cigarettes are soaring.
quite a bit of maths (or "math" if American) is going to feature here to illustrate some points. let's look at this tax business first. going off of memory a packet of 20 cigarettes back in 1990 cost you around £2. think it was a bit less, but no matter. by 2015 this was up to £5.50. this £3.50 increase over 25 years works out at more or less a 14p per year (or per annum) increase, so a packet in the shops here in 2025 should, with that admittedly gung ho economies of scale applied, cost around £6.90. round that up to £7 if you like, or even £8. doesn't matter, for the actual cost here and now is well north of £15.
every year i purchase but one (1) packet of "legal" cigarettes. this is a pack of Marlboro Red, and done so on my birthday so as to honour Gran, who would get me such each year. yes, probably silly, but i am certain your family has something that would seem just as odd. anyway, on this instance a packet of Marlboro Red cost me £16.45. illustrated above is that i can with ease get two packets and have some change for the precise same money.
with a warning that the next picture you shall see (unless you scroll fast) is a selfie, here's a breakdown of the cost of a packet of Marlboro in the UK right now. surprisingly the actual taxes and what have you were well hidden, but i found the information. some "reverse engineering" was required and i did indeed make use of a calculator. so, if you go to a "regular" shop and buy a pack, here's that breakdown.
actual retail price £5.40
16.5% sin tax on retail price £1.07
SUB TOTAL £6.47
another sin tax added £6.69
VAT £3.29
Sale Price £16.45
but yet they seem "surprised" that smokers are seeking alternative cigarettes, with prices on the independent market usually being around £5. if you get lucky you can find slightly cheaper, and as you may have worked out these Eastern European Marlboro cost a bit more. that someone can get them smuggled in here and still make a profit at that price is most impressive.
from what i can ascertain our succession of beloved governments spectacularly failed to factor in the idea that people might turn to the "black market" (if it still gets called that) rather than simply quit smoking or, as they would have preferred, paid the ever higher prices. apparently, going on that article, they are going to throw £100 million at "tackling" this "illegal" cigarette market. good luck with that.
bit more mathematics for you above. a very good friend kindly purchased a packet of Benson & Hedges for me, which was a lovely gift. the cost of them is £18. why they cost more than Marlboro i know not, but anyway. above is the three (3) packets of Manchester i can get for that, plus change.
certainly i am aware that my purchase of these independently distributed cigarettes is likely "funding terrorism" or crime syndicates. up to now i have heard that the money off of these goes to institutions such as Chinese Triads (a new addition to the list), Hamas (or whatever), Al Qaeda (if they exist), the IRA (provisional or real, same difference) and funding the Russian war effort. does this bother me? yes, but not enough to stop. i am not preventing more acceptable "rivals", such as Ukraine or who(m)ever it is Hamas is angry with, flooding the market with their own cheap cigarettes. also i am not stopping our government from, you know, reducing the taxes which have inspired the proliferation of the more independently sold ones.
mild humour exists in the warning that these "independent" cigarettes might or could have harmful things in them like asbestos, rat droppings, human waste, unspecified chemicals and what have you. oh right. so does that mean the heavily taxed cigarettes are in some what healthier and more better for you?if so, why is there such a significant sin tax on them?
no government, of course, is going to reduce tax on cigarettes. back in the Brexit vote thing if they could have got away with it all they needed do was say "we shall reduce the price of cigarettes to that of other EU countries like Spain and Greece" and they would easily have bought enough votes to get what they wanted. so far as i am aware not even that Farage bloke has suggested he would stop either victimising or exploiting smokers. hey ho, so long as the criminal or underground network somehow manages to evade whatever the government wastes money on trying to stop them i should be all right.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
