Look to your pensions folks. If ASH in conjunction with FairPensions have their way, they will devalue your pension by disallowing investment in tobacco companies.
In today’s austere times, the tobacco industry still provides an excellent dividend to those who invest with them. A large number of Councils in the UK depend, in part, on these dividends to pay for the pension schemes of their employees. A large number of pension companies also invest in tobacco companies, which helps pay for pensions in the private sector. Even part of the State pension comes from monies invested in tobacco companies. To refuse to invest in them is a blatant attempt to destroy a legitimate business whose product is already overtaxed by the state and whose customers are vilified by some of those who support ASH and their objectives.
In fact, it may not be legal to decline to invest in tobacco companies because investment companies have a legal obligation to get the best possible return on their clients’ money. To deny their clients the dividends paid by tobacco companies would reduce the amount of money available to pay pensions and to re-invest. Pension values could drop – leaving pensioners, who have paid for their pensions all of their working lives, financially vulnerable.
This is not good for the pensioners, investors, the tobacco industry or the nation as a whole.