Pred and breakfast

[j4]

I don't blog about the news, but this baffles me:

The Sexual Orientation Regulations have been criticised by some religious groups who say people will not be allowed to act according to faith.

I can see how (to take an example that's already becoming extremely irksome, so thanks to vinaigrettegirl for a nice variation) the anti-discrimination laws might mean that running a B&B would not allow you to guarantee being able to act according to your faith, if your faith were to dictate that, for example, you may not offer shelter even unto the least and most helpless of gay people, brown people, etc. But how do you get from that position to the idea that you have a God-given right to run a B&B in the first place, and that the state must therefore defend that right? I look forward to hearing Zoroastrian librarians insisting that the Bodleian has no right to prohibit them from kindling therein any fire or flame.

Comments

[matgb]

Tax raised from smoking per annum, approx = £7.5bn Cost to NHS of smoking related illnesses (some of which are caused by, for example, car fumes anyway) approx = £2.5bn.

Ergo, as a non-smoker, I thank smokers the country over for keeping the taxes I have to pay down, and think they can have whatever they need.

A sort of tax to cover what you mean is, I think, a Pigouvian tax, but you'd need to ask someone like chris_dillow_fd for a real answer, I just read what they say...

(blame caramel_betty for my presence...)