“Smoking Is Like Paying Someone To Kill You. They're Rich. You're Dead”
The self-serving stupidity of Nigel Farage knows no bounds.
Smokers, says Farage, are the “heroes of the nation”. Farage, of course, is a smoker so presumably he regards himself as one of these “heroes”. To be fair, Farage wasn’t talking about heroic deeds, extreme bravery or daring-do. No, smokers are “heroes of the nation in terms of the tax they pay".
He certainly has a point. For fiscal year 2022/23 tax revenue from tobacco products was £10.04bn whereas the cost to the NHS for treating smoking related diseases was only £2.4bn.
On a simple cost-benefit analysis Farage is right as smokers contribute far more to Treasury coffers (no pun intended) than they take out when needing medical treatment for their smoking related illnesses. But life isn’t as simple as Farage would have us believe.
Smoking related diseases are self-inflicted. No one is forced to smoke, and every smoker knows the health risks associated with their habit. The year 2022-23 saw smoking related hospital admissions rise by 5% on the previous year, making up an estimated 408,700 hospital emissions. That’s over 400,000 hospital beds being occupied by those with a self-inflicted illness. That’s over 400,000 beds that are unavailable to non-smokers with serious illnesses and conditions.
That, unfortunately, is not the full story. An economic analysis of the true cost of smoking by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) agrees that the NHS only spent £2.4bn on treating smoking related diseases but argues that another £1.2bn should be added in the form of social care costs.
ASH also revealed the hidden costs of smoking to the economy.
“Smokers are more likely than non-smokers to become ill while of working age increasing the likelihood of being out of work and reducing the average wages of smokers. Smokers are also more likely to die while they are still of working age creating a further loss to the economy. Together this adds up to £13.2bn.” (ASH: Smoking costs society £17bn - £5bn more than previously estimated": 14/01/22)
The report goes on to state that friends and family meet many of smokers care needs informally. If the state had to pay for these services it would cost a further £14bn. This figure is NOT included in overall £17bn that ASH claims smoking costs the nation.
Farage sees the proposed smoking ban in pub gardens as an easy target by which to attack the government and as usual reduces the argument to simplistic terms – in this instance one of simple arithmetic. Unfortunately for Farage, he has his sums wrong and he really must try harder.
