I really think you need to do a little research before deriding me with the inane "where have you been" comment. Tax revenue from tobacco is approximately £9bn a year, estimated cost to the NHS is £2bn a year. You do the maths

You've missed a few costs out there.

Oh and tax revenue from alcohol £12bn a year and cost to the NHS is approximately £3.5 billion. I know there are other costs such as policing, absenteeism etc but I think £8.5bn ought to more than cover it. So yes if everybody stopped smoking and drinking the UK would have a large revenue gap to fill

Even at the lower end of Public Health England's 2016 estimate, £8.5bn nowhere near covers it.

No argument there. However my initial post was in response to how much drinking and smoking cost the NHS (not the entire economy) versus illegal drug use. We get nothing back from junkies and there seems to be nothing but sympathy for them. Why are drinkers and smokers seen as pariahs but habitual drug users seen as people deserving of our pity. We get nada,zilch,zero back from them and how much do they cost the NHS/economy?

chuck policing, court and prison costs in too.

but as you say, sticking powder up your nose every weekend is acceptable, apparently.

Odd how desperately in some situations you Tories want to insert the government into every aspect of people's private lives.

You tories? On another thread you said you have voted for them. You weren't fibbing were you?

I see we had another Donald Trump play by Johnson in trying to divert attention from his NHS views to suddenly suggesting that the BBC license fee could be scrapped. It had not been mentioned before nor in his manifesto.

I bet the Health Minister was overjoyed about having to shoot up to Leeds double pronto to mop up after his leader.
I wonder how long it took Boris to get potty trained or whether his nanny was still having to wipe his @rse when he was attending Eton?

I voted for them in 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2010. My parents were Conservative members in Leeds North West back when it was a safe Tory seat so I spent a bit of time as a kid waiting around party events. That constituency is a no-go area for Conservatives nowadays but where I live now is rather more marginal.

But under Major, and even Hague and Howard it was a different party to what we've seen the past six months. Our one time MP Keith Hampson would have been drummed out of the party like Ken Clarke and the rest.

You mean the married Keith Hampson that was caught in a gay strip joint in Soho manhandling the merchandise - he deserved drumming out of the party.

That's his job - shame Labour have to resort to this kind of action - anybody who has ever taken a child that is seriously ill into A&E knows they will get priority. There was a perfectly usable trolley the boy could have been laid on not 2 metres away. This was done for effect, which parent in their right mind would put their child on the floor, take a picture and sell it to a newspaper? What does it say to the hard working staff on the day who have given the illness the priority their professional training/experience suggests when compared to other cases? No wonder the family don't want to any further news coverage - disgusting and they should be ashamed of the what they are suggesting are the competences of the hard working staff at LGI.

Bloody hell Sal, you're very quick to defend ANYTHING that happens on the Tory watch and yet, you back a party that has created fake twitter accounts to back up Tory lies - get a grip man
Although it wasn't in a hospital, you will no doubt have seen the Tory MP, who inadvertently left his mike switched on as he was "grooming" a regular punter into saying what was required.
The hospital haven't said that this story was faked, the denials have all come from "someone" who has a "friend" that works there.
The lies appear to have come from friends of the Tory's, desperate to rubbish the story - maybe someone like you ?
Also worth noting that, the family have been full of praise for the hospital staff and this doesnt reflect on them in any way.

[urlhttps://www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/leeds-news/lgi-bosses-apologise-after-four-17385357[/url

NEVER MIND THE BOY ON THE FLOOR - A LABOUR THUG PUNCHED MATT HANCOCK'S LARYNX OUT!*

















*this is a dead cat

Which "users" are you referring to that "stick powder up their nose "every weekend" ?
Celebrities, pop stars, the very well off or maybe it's just the "street users", most of whom are probably using different substances, altogether.

There has been a very definite change.

The Tory party, like Labour, has always been a broad church in terms of Thatcherite radicals v One Nation types, but they all shared certain principles. First a belief in defending British institutions: the rule of law, the courts, the civil service, Parliament. Second, a belief in individual freedom and prosperity and limiting the power of the Government: prioritising the small business owner, lower-middle income family with aspiration etc.

The Johnson cabal actively want to disrupt and reshape those institutions for the purposes of giving the Government more power at the expense of individuals - political appointments to the courts, replacing the permanent civil service with a right-wing think-tank led policy service, disrespecting Parliament. Also their approach to the business community is now shocking from a Conservative party. Their main priority is to make sure business stakeholders tow the line on their Brexit policy. They are complaining that 'business needs to listen to the Government' when it should be the other way round. Their interest in small businesses has become replaced by chasing high value business donors.

Also their economic strategy has moved away from fiscal conservatism and a limited state to a right-wing economic populism: willing to throw the cash around to purchase political advantage. It is really unbelievable that they are now taking Corbyn's position on saying they want to be freed from EU State Aid rules so that they can use taxpayers' money to subsidise struggling British businesses.

Not at all - I am not suggesting for one minute the boy wasn't on the floor - the question is how did he get there and why did it enter any parent's head to take pictures and then sell them to the press? Surely any parent would want the best for their child is putting them on the floor when they have a viral condition beneficial to that child?

You only have to look at the health services in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland - non of which are run by the Tories to see funding is a huge issue - you could dump the whole GDP of the UK into the NHS and still wouldn't be enough - we come back to the externalities of decisions.

What else can the parents say - they could easily have put him on the trolley in the same room but they didn't so they are hardly in a position to criticise anyone.

Leeds is in the grip of a Norovirus outbreak which has caused issues at several schools - no doubt that had an impact on the A&E demand over the weekend. My understanding is the boy had to wait because there was a more needy child ahead of him - perhaps like any worried parent that decision caused an anger with the parent to make a decision they now regret?

The Tories are simply trying to implement the result of the referendum - you either go against that vote which everyone except the Tories want to do or you honour it. Business also has to listen to the will of the people - if business had its own way there would be no minimum wage, no CT, no H&S regulations etc. Business wants to be in the EU because the last thing business wants is any restriction to the movement in capital goods and labour. Perhaps there needs to be a shift away from big business influence?

Austerity has been a huge issue - we see will the NHS - more investment is needed the Tories have to splash some cash or they will be out of power. There is a difference between investing in NHS/Schools/Police than re-nationalising everything.

This is the type of thing the Bennite wing of the Labour party was arguing in the late 70s/early 80s when they wanted withdrawal from the EEC, and its been Jeremy Corbyn's position for most of his political career, until he became leader and underwent a reluctant conversion to being pro-EU.

Now a lot of Conservatives are shifting to this position because it's where Brexit and the realignment of politics is taking them, but I expect it is uncomfortable for them because it goes against their instincts.

Of course business doesn't want restriction to movement in capital, goods and labour, because those add costs to doing business. Costs end up being passed on somewhere, either higher prices to consumers, lost output by being less competitive when selling abroad or businesses going bust which we all pay for in terms of lost jobs.

It's a slippery slope when you start going down the line of 'business has to listen to the will of the people'. The people like to have....free stuff. They want an NHS free at the point of delivery and they want to have investment in schools and they want to have subsidised transport and subsidised social care but they don't like the idea of government taking money off them in tax or taking the inheritance away from their children. The populist view is often that 'business' isn't paying its taxes so we can slam wealth creators with more taxes and get everything paid for.

The challenge for the Conservatives, who clearly recognise the danger of the above, is their new electoral constituency is going to be asking for this and also is going to be expecting state support (more expense to the taxpayer) if industries in the north/midlands struggle after Brexit. The Conservative government will have to face a hard choice: either tell them no, like Thatcher did, let them go to the wall and suffer the electoral consequences in those regions (which could be problematic if they are relying on those seats); or give them what they want and then find a way of paying for it: either higher taxes for individuals, higher taxes for businesses or increased borrowing. All of which will be difficult for Conservatives to stomach.

He ended up on the floor because he was removed from his bed for another patient or are you one of those who despite the evidence think it is staged. I would point out that the hospital confirmed it was correct and not fictitious unlike the fake post. The same can also be said about the false report regarding an aide being assaulted by a labour supporter. It is strange how both these appeared when they did, you could say that the Conservatives must have an online fairy godmother.

Jesus Christ do you modern Tories ever do anything but distract with bull rather than actually focus on the real issues?