THE tobacco tax debate is even more unwinable for the Government than the fuel tax debate.

At least with fuel tax, the Government could reduce it to European levels, so giving Britain's hauliers and farmers a chance against their nearest competitors. There would, of course, be huge knock-on effects from this, most noticeably in the form of more damage to the environment, more overcrowded roads and less revenue to spend on public services.

It would, though, mollify the Government's sternest critics in the countryside.

But with tobacco tax, there is no average European level that could be adopted to wipe out smuggling because smuggling is a truly global concern - one of the largest consignments discovered in the North-East last year was from China.

And, whereas some of the knock-on effects from a reduction in fuel tax are debatable - no one really knows how "elastic" the demand for petrol is so the increase in car journeys caused by cheaper prices is difficult to quantify - there is no doubt that cheaper cigarettes would lead to more smoking and more deaths.

So, if reducing the tax is not an option, what other steps can be taken in the fight against smuggling?

Already, strides have been made by customs and excise in encouraging the public to report smugglers. However, more could be done to promote the hotline number (0800-595000) which people should ring to shop a smuggler.

Already, the Government has toughened up sentences for smugglers by introducing the confiscation of any vehicle involved in the trade. However, yesterday there appeared to be confusion in the way the law operates as a County Durham smuggler, who evaded - or rather stole from schools and hospitals - more than £600,000 of duty had his sentence reduced on appeal from four to three years. This confusion has to be cleared up.

And finally, of course, smuggling could be halted if smoking itself were to be halted. Yet, despite having made a song and dance about its desire to ban cigarette advertising, probably the most glaring omission from last week's Queen's Speech was a Bill to ban cigarette advertising.

Advertising may only make a minor contribution to the number of cigarettes smoked, but if the Government is to be consistent it should be doing everything within its power to reduce the demand for tobacco.