Sheila, having read your post 22, I wish to inform you that 50 grammes of tobacco at £17 means at least £15 going directly into the Treasury - if not more than that.
People who consume tobacco do not live off the State on account of their consuming tobacco.
It's the State that lives off us!
My tobacco tax by far exceeds my national contributions, many-fold.
When purchasing tobacco, I am paying into many funds, wherever the tobacco tax is invested: insolvent pension funds, State pension funds, jobseekers ...
What struck me the other day was that an anti-smoking campaigner on his way to deliver a speech against tobacco drove right past me in his car in the town centre, inundating the air with chemical fumes: there were many children in prams too.
Shocking!
Now back to the original topic of food banks MINUS tobacco-bashing.
