The Budget is a bit, but not very, wank.
In a proper budget, rich pensioners would be soaked for every penny they’ve stolen from the younger generation via insane asset price rises, rather than rewarded. Meanwhile, the last thing the younger generation would be encouraged to do is buy houses. Petrol duty would be doubled, since car use causes clear and significant damage to the environment and to non-consenting third-parties’ health; booze and fag taxes would be halved, since said comestibles don’t.
However, as an exercise in window dressing and not-fucking-things-up-very-much, it’s reasonably adequate. One cheer, one boo, and one diffident stare.
Um… surely cigarrettes do damage to the environment (fag ends, indoor air quality), and to non-consenting third-parties’ health (mine, having to breathe the crap)?
Indoor air quality != the environment. And unless the government forced you to take a job as a bar person or forgo benefit (does anyone know whether this happens? I’m strongly opposed to it if so), you don’t have to breathe the crap.
I’ll give you that. To be fair, though, when in a position of economic hardship one may not be ‘forced’ to work in a bar, but it may be the only kind of work available. Surely in cases like these, exposure to smoke is hardly voluntary? (wasn’t that what the New York authorities decided when they banned smoking in bars?)
Now, alcohol – it’s damaging to my wallet to pay for all the hospitalizations caused by people drinking themselves sick! Drunk young men also make town centres very unpleasant places to be at night on the weekends (or indeed every night of the week in places like Doncaster). They probably smash bus shelters and leave litter everywhere, and get into fights with people that require more hospitalization. Does the alcohol duty pay for all these things? It probably doesn’t (directly, at least). But it should, imho.