Fight for everything good

The New Times continues to publish the diaries of the famous journalist Masha Slonim*, who went into exile for the second time

For the first time I did not listen to the message of the President of the Russian Federation. Not that I listened to them regularly in the past, but sometimes in the car, sometimes in the kitchen I listened to the radio. And now I'm not interested at all. This year, I listened to another message delivered in the British Parliament almost on the same day as Putin's. This is the annual budget message. And it concerns everyone, because it is about how much taxes and duties will jump on various things that interest me, among other things. Precisely they will jump, because the budget message rarely brings good news.

This time, too, I listened anxiously to the dry figures that Treasury Secretary Philip Hammond was saying. Well, of course, as always... Starting this week, the government is introducing a 2% tax on top of inflation on cigarettes and wine. Well, wine is not so much and I drink it a lot. Now I pay about £7 for a bottle of normal French. It’s not scary to give an extra pound for a bottle, which lasts me 4 days, or even a week. But cigarettes! Even now they cost about £10 a pack… So count it. I don’t want to count myself, I get scared, I have been ordering friends living in Russia or in the EU countries for a long time to bring me many, many blocks. Yes, and when I go somewhere, I return with supplies.

In the current budget, people like my son, who roll cigarettes themselves, have not been spared. Tobacco has traditionally been cheaper than cigarettes, and most English people roll cigarettes. But the relentless Hammond raised his ax over them: the tobacco tax will rise by 3%! There will be no noisy indignation about this, there is a struggle for the health of the nation. True, this time the pardon went to beer, cider and even whiskey - taxes on these drinks are frozen.

You can, of course, find a positive side to this whole story - the government hopes to collect 4.2 billion rubles from wine taxes alone next year (I indicate in rubles to make the scale clearer). Nothing to say about cigarettes. I am glad that this money will help patch holes in the free healthcare system. They say it's completely falling apart.

Speaking of free healthcare. I have to sign up for a free hip replacement here. The queue is not that long, 5-6 months. But the other day, within the framework of the same struggle for the health of the nation, in the depths of this very system, an idea appeared to push smokers and overweight people to the end of the line. In fairness, it must be said that for good behavior (for smokers this is a desire to take a course of help in quitting a bad habit, for fat people - to lose weight) they promise to eventually replace the joint. Let's see how this fight for all good ends for me. The choice between a new joint and cigarettes will not be easy.

By the way, about the choice. While I was writing this note, an installer of an electronic electric meter arrived. I agreed on the arrival in advance, I agreed to the proposal to change my usual meter to an electronic one - it will transmit all the readings to the automated center. Great - I'm all for progress. But after installing the meter, the nice engineer informed me that it would not work yet, because we had a very weak mobile signal. And then I don't know! To use a mobile phone, I have to drive off somewhere on a hill. Yes, I am, everyone knows about it. Why install an electronic meter if it is known that it will not work, I asked the engineer. “It will,” he answered confidently. “The government has ordered these meters because they have committed themselves to improving mobile communications throughout the UK!” You will be notified by email."

I will wait for a letter, because a call on a mobile phone from the government will definitely not work for me.

* Continuation. Beginning - NT #40 of November 30 and #42 of December 14, 2015. No. 1, 3 , 5 , , 9 , 13 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 22 , 11 , 28 , 30 , 32 36 34,   , 38 for 2016.