REGARDING your article about the smuggling of alcohol and tobacco (LET, November 22), no wonder it is such big business in the UK! Anyone who has visited other EU countries will have seen just how cheap these are without the outrageous levels of UK taxation.

My wife and I have been to Spain and Gran Canaria this year where the prices of alcohol and tobacco are so low as to be scarcely believable.

How do they do it? You can buy a litre of gin for as little as £2.90, a litre of top quality Scotch for £4 and even "exotic" drinks such as Southern Comfort for as little as £6 a litre.

A pack of 200 cigarettes costing nearly £40 at Asda in Blackburn can be had for as little as £8.

Not only that, petrol and diesel are only about £2 a gallon and if you eat at a restaurant, the VAT is only 4.5 per cent, not 17.5 per cent, as in this country.

So how do the governments of these countries raise revenue for public services? All the roads we travelled on were well maintained and very smoothly surfaced -- none of the potholes so beloved of councils like Blackburn with Darwen. There are plenty of 24-hours-a-day "drop-in" medical centres -- although with such cheap alcohol and tobacco the locals must need 24-hour medical cover!

Mr Geoff Sutcliffe, of the Licensed Victuallers' Association, blames organised crime for the growth in smuggling -- and he's right. And the organised criminals who are to blame are the biggest bunch of rogues and thieves in the history of organised crime -- the British government.

PAUL ATHERTON, Wythburn Avenue, Blackburn.