If you push the laws too far people will break them, not follow them, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

Do you remember the film Some Like It Hot, when in the high day of Al Capone, gangsters were running illegal alcohol bars dressed up as funeral parlours so that people could go in and have a cup of "coffee"?

Now, why do I talk about this?

Because anyone with any sense who knows anything about anything recognises that if you try and make something that was legal, less legal, you find that crime moves in.

And this is exactly what's been happening with cigarettes and indeed with gambling.

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So the consumption, the purchase of cigarettes illegally has gone up from about 12 per cent of the market to 23 per cent of the market in the three years from 2023 to now.

And this is partly because prices have gone up so much.

If prices go up too much, the margin for the gangsters gets bigger and therefore, of course they will sell it illegally.

Not to mention the friend who brings back a packet or two extra when he goes on his travels.

And the same is now happening with gambling. Gambling is moving offshore.

It's predicted that the amount of illegal offshore gambling will double because the regulations have got too tight.

And this is the folly of Government.

The thing all politicians ought always to remember is that Government is always by consent, and that if you push the laws too far and make them too onerous, people will not follow them, they will break them.

But as soon as that starts happening, you bring basically innocent people in to the criminal world and you remove protections.

So illegal cigarettes may have sawdust in them. They've been found in some countries to have arsenic in them.

Likewise, with illegal gambling, people lose protections they may find they pay their stake, but they don't get their winnings.

There is a level of regulation that's actually helpful to people overregulation, unduly onerous regulation makes things more dangerous and is counterproductive.

One wonders whether politicians will ever learn.

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