Thursday, July 14, 2011

Taxed to death

Sad news from Boston, Lincs that five men have been killed in an explosion on an industrial estate. Police are investigating claims that they were engaged in distilling illegal alcohol.

It’s a fact of life that, the more you increase taxes, the more incentive it creates to evade them. Obviously someone has judged that it is worthwhile taking the risk to produce illegal vodka, and these five men have paid with their lives. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were Eastern European migrant workers who would not have stood to gain significantly from the scheme.

If the anti-drink lobby have their way and push through further swingeing increases in alcohol taxes, then stories like this – and people being poisoned by moonshine – are going to become increasingly common.