IMPORTANT NOTE: You do NOT have to register to read, post, listen or contribute. If you simply wish to remain fully anonymous, you can still contribute.
If the government lowered the taxes on cigarettes, the smugglers wouldn't have a gap in the market. I am sure the average Joe is on the shopkeeper's side. If you arrest one shopkeeper, another person takes over the enterprise. The media need to stop the "counterfeit/illegal cigarettes" narrative...the cigarettes are duty-free. It's no different getting from the airport shops and selling them on to friends and co-workers.
Oddly, the BBC admit many suppliers are from the asylum seeker hotels; are the MSM now fed up with the illegal migrants?