So, the smoking ban is popular?
2/22/2015
Via the Pub Curmudgeon’s Twitter incarnation (@oldmudgie) is the news that the ?popular’ smoking ban is actually only popular with a minority of killjoy pursed-rectums and mindless sockpuppets. Most people, not just smokers, support the provision of smoking rooms in pubs.
51% support the idea. Smokers account for 20-25% of the population. We have allies, folks. Maybe they see that it’s not just smoking in the crosshairs of the Righteous.
It used to be that way, long ago. Some very old pubs still have ?smoke room’ and ?snug’ etched on the windows. Now that most are open-plan it’s not so easy to change back but hey, pubs, I used to spend a lot of time and money in you in my youth. I might still be doing that if you hadn’t decided to throw me out. Now I visit a pub maybe once or twice a year and I don’t stay long. we’ve had a Wetherspoons in town for about five years. I’ve never been inside.
The article suggests that many of the remaining pub owners do indeed recognise that banning their core custom wasn’t a smart move. Smoking and drinking go together for a lot of people and the Healthies who don’t smoke? also don’t drink. So that idea that the pubs would fill with people who hate smoking was a non-starter from the outset. Those people hate drinking too. Surely someone other than the smokers realised that? CAMRA didn’t. They just wanted their beards free of other people’s inferior smoke. Well, those beards are smokefree now. Largely pubfree too. You did that, CAMRA. Can’t blame the smokers now. You helped ban us all from pubs eight years ago.
It’s just in a local paper so far, but word is getting out. That smoking ban was only ever a business-killer. We didn’t stop smoking or drinking. We just stopped doing either of them in pubs. The ‘supermarkets are cheaper’ shit was silly. Supermarket booze was always cheaper. In pubs, you weren’t just paying for the booze. You were paying for the ambience. Destroy the ambience and there’s no point any more.
Will we come back to the smoking rooms, if it happens? I’m not sure. Those who turned 18 eight years ago have never experienced smoking in a pub. Some have never even experienced smoking indoors. They might not take to it. We oldies have Smoky-Drinky and shead-pubs now. We are also still smarting over the pub industry’s insistence on extending the ban to private clubs so they were totally screwed too. We cannot have a smoke club staffed with smokers and only smokers as members so no non-smoker can possibly be harmed. You did that to us, pub industry. We do not see you as a friend.
I don’t think I care if pubs have a smoking room now. Sod them. They haven’t wanted my business for nearly a decade and they were instrumental in making sure I could not set up a proper smoke club. I really don’t think a smoke version of apartheid will be of any interest to me now.
Repeal the smoking ban entirely, defund the antismoker groups or I am not interested. No compromise.
What’s that, antismokers? I just want it all?
Well why not? It’s only the same as what you want.
Majority of public favour smoking rooms in pubs
By Mike Berry, 20-Feb-2015
The majority of the public agree that pubs should be allowed to have private rooms for customers to smoke in if they want to, according to new research.
HMRC want to ban ALL Tobacco Leaf for everyone… except for Big Tobacco
9 January 2015
As usual it’s legitimate Joe Public that are the target. HMRC have released a consultation setting out their proposals, with the help of a certain Priti Patel MP (Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury). Priti Patel MP was featured in an article recently by the Guardian which questioned her links as a consultant/lobbyist to big tobacco. You can read it here.
The article says she was billing British American Tobacco for 126 hours a month at £165 per hour! Priti Patel MP denied any conflict of interest in the article and has since lodged a legal complaint against the article. Does the lady protest too much? 🙂
Add to that the fact that Priti Patel MP is a member of David Cameron’s influential policy advisory board and chair of the all-party parliamentary small shops group. The secretariat for Patel’s parliamentary group is provided by the Independent Retailers’ Confederation via the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and the Association of Convenience Stores.
I’d bet these shops will be more than happy to see these consultation proposals implemented … as will the big tobacco companies because, in reality, they will be virtually the only ones allowed to have raw tobacco leaf.
Conflict of interest anyone?
Of course Patel/HMRC don’t blatantly say Joe Public can’t have raw tobacco leaf … they intend to do it in a somewhat more devious way.
HMRC propose 2 schemes. One is “registration” which they prefer (you’ll see why when you read on) and the other is to “broaden the existing seizure powers” on imports.
NOTE … this is a consultation only, it is not what they are going to do. lt’s what they want to do.
We have no doubt they fully expect to have virtually no replies so they can implement whatever they wish. On their last tobacco consultation they received just 12 replies and 5 of those were from the usual suspects … Health lobby groups.
We can change that! Let them know what we think. You need send no personal details … just e-mail your objections. We’ll do a draft reply for you to copy and paste shortly if you need it.
lt’s up to you to do this … or just be a sheep and rollover and get shafted!
1. Registration Scheme
They say that you, Joe Public, can legitimately purchase your 1kg of leaf BUT you have to register with HMRC. Except you can’t just register with HMRC … they have to approve your registration … along with certain criteria you have to adhere to. lt will come as no surprise then that these criteria are impossible to fulfil.
Worth noting is that they state categorically that there is very few legitimate end-users!!! They do this with no evidence whatsoever but condemn you anyway.
What are these criteria in order to register? Well firstly, HMRC completely ignore the Hoverspeed ruling that says it is not up to Joe Public to prove their innocence and it is up to HMRC to prove their guilt.
The HMRC proposals state that you have to satisfy HMRC that there is no risk of duty evasion.
“NO RISK”? … well that’s clearly totally impossible!!!
HMRC go further.
In order to register:-
1. You must not have any unspent convictions. (any???)
2. You must not have any proven links with known non-compliant or fraudulent businesses. (proven links??? … what the hell does that mean?)
3. You must satisfy HMRC your business is genuine. (yeah, right)
4. You can’t have outstanding HMRC debts. (does that include being wrongly assessed?)
5. You have not been involved in any significant revenue non-compliance. (define significant)
6. You must have an approved accountancy system. ( for purchasing 1kg of raw tobacco???)
7. You have to keep records of purchase orders, invoices, delivery notes, stock records, production records and payment records. (for purchasing 1kg of raw tobacco???)
8. If you are using the raw tobacco leaf other than turning it into a host of non duty products such as snuff, e-cig oil, pesticide, medicine, animal bedding etc then HMRC want you to register as a tobacco factory along with all the regs associated with doing so!!! (tobacco factory???)
(HMRC then add that the above list is not exhaustive, meaning they may add more!
Some of you may be thinking that the above is just for businesses. Well, that’s what they want you to be if you purchase leaf no matter how small the amount.)
2. Broadening Seizure Powers
Not much different to the above really. The importer would have to prove it is for a legitimate end-user. This again is impossible, how can you foresee the future and how the end-user will use the raw tobacco?
Perhaps we should have some department or other that can check where these imports are going to? Oh, we have … HMRC and Border Force. Why aren’t they doing it?
3. Conclusion
In our honest opinion this HMRC consultation and the proposals therein are to the benefit of big tobacco and HMRC. Big tobacco becomes the virtual sole importer of raw tobacco and HMRC can claim to have done something whilst actually doing nothing.
This is all at the expense of Joe Public because he is an easy target. No way does any of HMRC’s proposals have any impact on organised crime. The container loads will still flow in as they do with cigarettes and HRT. Indeed once again, organised crime benefits from the actions of HMRC/BF or perhaps we should say inactions?
Example 1. HMRC were contacted on their hotline in regards to a Chinese gang trying to purchase 500kg of raw tobacco a week for cash. HMRC never responded!
Example 2. Despite trying for months by their telephone helpline, online request and snail mail requests for information regarding raw leaf. HMRC never responded!
Example 3. Some customers tried to contact HMRC on paying duty on raw tobacco they turned into smoking tobacco. HMRC never responded!
Most of our readers here have had similar experiences with Border Force (or whatever they were previously called). They, like HMRC have at best what we call the “coffee machine” response. The with-holding of information from the public is a seemingly standard policy now.
Take the redacting out of information that states the public cross border shoppers can record all civil interviews on mobile phones etc when stopped by Border Force. HMRC did this and say they do it because it’s not in the public interest to give out this information. Really? … more like to stop Border Force officers been caught out abusing their powers! This is not hearsay, it’s documented that this happens.
It’s widely know that Border Force have been labelled “not fit for purpose” and we honestly believe that can be applied to this consultation.
There are only a handful of established raw tobacco leaf suppliers in the UK and between them all, none of them have shipments of tonnes coming in. Even if they did, all have registered offices etc where the leaf is delivered and all is traceable. The Chinese Gang afore mentioned are by their own demands bringing in a minimum of 26 tonnes per annum … far more than the established UK raw leaf suppliers put together.
Another very valid point is that to import raw tobacco within the EU you have to be VAT registered. All these imports are easily traceable by any Customs in any country within the EU. It’s online for god’s sake. Not forgetting that anyone VAT registered has to do VAT returns. Shipments from outside the EU have to pass through Customs where import duty is applied. How difficult can it be for HMRC/BF to see where it is going? 10 tonnes to a Chinese Takeaway?? Yeah, right.
When consultations like this label virtually everyone criminals but with no evidence to support it, then you can see why HMRC/BF lose the most important source of information they could wish for. That is information from the public. Experience has taught us not to trust Border Force and now we feel we are going to have to add to that list.
So, voice your objections to this consultation. As we said earlier we’ll do a copy and paste for those who are a little daunted by the questions. We don’t say we’ll win but at least we can give them something to thing about.
STAYING SILENT IS NOT AN OPTION!
UNLESS YOU ARE A SHEEP OF COURSE 🙂
COMMENTS AND DISCUSSION WELCOME!
