21 MARCH 1952, Page 5

Mr. Oliver Lyttelton, who spoke for the Government before Mr.

Butler in the same debate, made what is, superficially at any rate, a good point, in mentioning that the taxes paid on tobacco and intoxicants—the taxes alone—amounted to £986 million, more than twice the whole cost of the subsidies, last year, so that the increased cost of living due to the cut in the subsidies could be compensated for at once if members of a family between them smoked a dozen or so fewer cigarettes, and drank three or four fewer pints of beer a week. But there seems to be one snag here (apart from the case of families which neither smoke nor drink). How would the Chancellor make up the substantial sum lost to revenue through this abstention from alcohol and nicotine ? No doubt he would find a way. * * * *