drinking and tax

Because of the unique way that the NHS is funded through taxation as a free at the point of need service it provides the perfect excuse for people to bansturbate over their favorite moral hobby horses. I would expect that drinking as a recurring example will be coming up again soon as it does every year along with the early spring flowers as something over which "something must be done". As pointed out by Tim Worstall drinking costs the NHS £32 million a year. Unfortunately for the moralists there are £10.86 billion of total duty and VAT receipts collected on alcohol, so any tax needed to offset the cost needed to make up for the lack of incentives not to damage yourself through alcohol because of the NHS is more than made up for through duty.