Ashtonian
Banned on request
Except you could always choose NOT to smoke, and thereby no longer subject yourself to the "tax". Same goes for the "sausage roll tax" (which IIRC is only levied on goods actually heated in the shop and served hot) and the alcohol tax. Another way to describe them would be "strange tax", as in "you're strange if you pay an entirely voluntary tax and then complain that you're being deliberately targeted." - particularly if your income was low as you describe in your first paragraph.
Easy for me to say this i suppose, because I don't smoke and you'll never catch me in a branch of Greggs.
Not going to respond to your pint about "bedroom tax" because it's been done in other threads and quickly descends into political bickering. All I will say is it's NOT a tax, and it is a good policy.
Political diagreement? Lets leave it there then eh? lol