'£10 licence to smoke' proposed
Smokers would have to get a licence to light up under the planSmokers could be forced to pay £10 for a permit to buy tobacco if a government health advisory body gets its way.
Professor Le Grand, a former adviser to ex-PM Tony Blair, said cash raised by the proposed scheme would go to the NHS.
He said it was the inconvenience of getting a permit - as much as the cost - that would deter people from persisting with the smoking habit.
"You've got to get a form, a complex form - the government's good at complex forms; you have got to get a photograph.
"It's a little bit of a problem to actually do it, so you have got to make a conscious decision every year to opt in to being a smoker."
It seems there is a '£10 licence fee to think in England these days, but then it's '£10 cheaper to be mentally constipated. Government wide that is quite a saving.
