Interesting Links for 18-03-2016

[andrewducker]

Sugar tax: What is the UK's most sugary drink? (tags: sugar drinking uk tax ) Reality Check: How soon can Turkey join the EU? (tags: turkey eu ) Why Osborne’s sugar tax is half baked (tags: sugar tax uk viaPatrickHadfield ) What's going on with the UK and sin taxes? (tags: tax uk viaPatrickHadfield ) I have never wanted to be Taylor Swift more

Comments

[a_pawson]

They really ought to stop calling it the sugar tax. The list of things that are not going to be subject to tax starts with 1) sugar!

The irn-bru* tax would be more appropriate.

* other soft drinks are available

[gonzo21]

Or the 'Tax On Drinks That Poor People Like'.

[cybik]

It is yet another 'fuck the poor' tax, basically.

[gonzo21]

Aye, if it was on sugar across the board, then fair enough. But this half-assed implementation smacks of classism.

I'm also not entirely convinced about the idea of them starting to tax everything else that is unhealthy too.

[fanf]

I Think It's A Bit More Complicated Than That.

The price of soft drinks is distorted by marketing considerations. The actual price of the raw materials becomes more visible in drinks that aren't so heavily marketed, like orange squash. It's clear that sugar is more expensive than artificial sweetener (as a raw material) based on the ingredients of the cheapest squash.

It's also true that artificial sweeteners are often bitter or laxative, so there are good reasons to avoid them.

But it is fair to ask, is the current price signal (decided largely by marketing and branding strategy) an accurate reflection of the raw material cost or the health implications? If not, is it wrong for the government to stick their oar in?