00:00So there's no economic argument, in fact you could argue that smokers are the heroes of the nation
00:04in terms of the amount of taxation they pay, but they did this in, they did this in Australia,
00:09they made smoking almost impossible, they taxed cigarettes to the extent where they're now £35 a
00:14packet, so the criminal gangs now don't bother with cocaine, forget that, cocaine's boring, it's fine.
00:19Thank you for GB the show tonight. Yeah. Yeah, perfect timing. It's been going very well.
00:24It's just a Benson that one. Doesn't really matter does it? Might as well smoke cannabis,
00:38that's fine. No, it would seem that drugs are fine. Very few people drink inside it,
00:44they drink outside it. Why? Because they're allowed to smoke outside.
00:48And if the government, I've been coming here for 30 years, regular basis, every week for 30 years,
00:53if the government say that I can't have a drink and smoke outside, I won't come back.
00:58And I'm one of hundreds of regular customers of this pub that takes that view. And look,
01:03you know, I do understand people in enclosed areas didn't like smoke, but you've got the
01:08option now, you can be inside, you can be outside, you can avoid it if you want to.
01:12I don't think the government have thought through the consequences of this. Are we really going to
01:16be smoke-free by 2030? Well, let me ask another question. Are we going to be drug-free by 2030?
01:21So what the government's doing, it's attacking something that's legal, because it's given up
01:27on attacking the illegal drugs trade. But if you tax tobacco too heavily, which we're doing,
01:32you regulate, almost ban people from smoking anywhere,
01:35what you do is you drive it into the hands of the criminals.
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