How things have changed thanks to the nanny state

I can only hope they have more success than their predecessors of the 1980s.

As a small local cigarette vending company owner in Derby Street and dealing with many well known pubs and clubs in the Bolton area, it became apparent that cigarette and hand rolling tobacco smuggling was becoming an increasing problem to the Revenue.

The VAT and Revenue furnished many legitimate tobacco and alcohol wholesalers and retails with an information telephone number to report any suspicions of any pubs or clubs selling such products under the counter.

I requested my staff to bring any such knowledge of illegal activities to my notice. They passed on suspicions and these were passed to the authorities.

Result: 'Sod all' So we gave up.

I used to think that we were all in the EU where everything was supposed to be equal so why not equalise the prices of alcohol and tobacco throughout the EU. It would have eliminated smuggling at a stroke.

I may be wrong but taxes from alcohol and tobacco in the 70s virtually paid for the NHS. How things have changed thanks to the nanny state.

If only successive governments had recompensed and looked after those who the public regard as the mainstays of the NHS — doctors, nurses, porters, cleaners, cooks, medical staff. I remember my sister-in-law being offered a nursing post with an agency at double the NHS rate.

With the NHS needing to employ more agency nurses there can only be trouble ahead.

Roger Brown

Gambleside Close,

Worsley