I had always thought that the argument “the government does not want us to stop smoking because it collects so much revenue in tax” was only the tittle-tattle of saloon bar conversation (at least until the government banned smoking in the saloon bar). But now there is evidence that it was once a serious component of official thinking. Notes of a 1956 UK cabinet meeting have been released from the national archive.

They reveal that the health minister was overruled when he proposed a campaign to emphasise the damaging effects of smoking on health. Harold Macmillan, chancellor of the exchequer, vetoed it because the Treasury believed the revenue from cigarette taxation was too important to be put at risk. The argument is not just immoral, but wrong in its own terms. So is the contrary argument that smokers ought to pay more because their ill-health imposes a burden on medical services. Everyone dies of something sooner or later, and lung cancer is not that expensive because victims mostly die quickly.