When I was a smoker, I recall that Budget Day always meant an increase in tax on tobacco. But I never stockpiled cigarettes to save money. Perhaps this indicates that no matter how much the price of a fix is increased, the addicted will always absorb it.

Now that the Chancellor has brought in a tax on sugary soft drinks, there are protests that such a levy discriminates against the poor – the highest consumers of sweet fizzy drinks. Those who love cola and other sorts of pop will not give up just because of a price hike, they say. But this is to assume that the anti-sugar lobby, which campaigned so hard for the sugar tax, is right about sugar being addictive – a dubious claim. Too much sugar is unhealthy, no doubt about it, but everyone with a sweet tooth knows this.