Time for a Sugar Tax or VAT on some foods

setmefree2

UK Obesity Crisis

Diabetes cases soar by 60% in past decade

Diabetes already costs the NHS nearly £10bn a year
Nearly £869m was spent on drugs, including insulin and metformin, marking a sharp rise from the £514m being spent a decade ago, when the drugs accounted for just 6.6% of the prescriptions budget.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33932930

Huge rise in UK diabetes cases threatens to bankrupt NHS

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/aug/17/diabetes-bring-down-nhs-charity

!!!!!! the condition leads to 135 foot amputations every week across the country.

Imho we need VAT at 20% on all foods except raw fruit , veg, meat, fish, and pure dairy products.

Sin taxes work and would lower the deficit too.

Pennywise

setmefree2 wrote: »

Imho we need VAT at 20% on all foods except raw fruit , veg, meat, fish, and pure dairy products.

This is exactly what I've been saying for a while. Very simple to impose. VAT on anything tinned, processed or packaged, no VAT on anything in it's basic natural state. A 20% difference in price would increase the attractiveness of fresh fruit & veg, wet fish and raw meats and may also help the independent greengrocers, bakers and butchers to survive. Far simpler than a sugar tax.

Not too sure it would dramatically reduce consumption of the bad stuff, but at least it would increase tax revenues. After all, there's already 20% vat on crisps, chocolates, fizzy drinks etc and sales don't seem to be falling!

Time and time again, it's a common cry that ready meals are just as cheap (or cheaper) than buying the fresh ingredients, so let's add 20% VAT to make the ready meals more expensive to encourage some people to make their own.

kabayiri

The food lobbyists would be up in arms.

It's a very powerful industry. I suspect they would put up a fight.

(It doesn't make them right though)

System

Huge rise in (name the current headline grabber here)
Resulting in a kneejerk call for

Banning/increasing tax on said item

!!!!!! the condition leads to 135 foot amputations every week across the country.

Because they fail to deal with their condition,

WE NEED TO BAN PEOPLE. They are the cause of all these problems

kabayiri

It might be harsh, but does the presence of a NHS free at the point of use remove moral hazard for the public?

"Why should I look after my health? These people are paid to fix me / treat me / wipe my derriere / keep me sane."

Watch people on holiday at the self serve buffet tables. There is very little consideration to calorie intake. Many just don't care.

chucknorris

kabayiri wrote: »

It might be harsh, but does the presence of a NHS free at the point of use remove moral hazard for the public?

"Why should I look after my health? These people are paid to fix me / treat me / wipe my derriere / keep me sane."

Watch people on holiday at the self serve buffet tables. There is very little consideration to calorie intake. Many just don't care.

We notice it at the cinema, you should see all the scoffing that goes on, sometimes I think we must be the odd ones out, because everyone else seems to be stuffing their faces with garbage.

PasturesNew

You probably can't go putting VAT on stuff without the EU getting involved.... we're not a country who can make our own rules.

ukcarper

VAT on bottled water hasn't stopped the sale of bottled water rising to 2.6b litres a year even though water is available for virtually nothingso I'm not sure putting VAT on sugar would reduce sales that much.

mayonnaise

chucknorris wrote: »

We notice it at the cinema, you should see all the scoffing that goes on, sometimes I think we must be the odd ones out, because everyone else seems to be stuffing their faces with garbage.

One of the reasons we haven't been to the cinema since um...'81 or so.
Must have been when Raging Bull came out.
I don't miss the combination of smelly popcorn, noisy crisps packets and some pleb's body odour.
Not at all.

kabayiri

I don't think there is an obesity epidemic amongst cannibal societies.

Soylent green flakes anyone?

londonTiger

NHS bill pales in comparison to the benefits the long term incapacity benefits these diabetes "suffers" receive.

The low fat thing just took over where producers would take out fat and replace with sugar.

If this was true, how the f***does Atkins work? I've been banging my head against the wall with female colleages who snack on sugary snacks all day and eat low fat ready meals and skimmed milk in the hope of losing fat. But each year they get fatter and fatter and their muffin tops and bingo wings is ever more visible.

I tell them sugar and trans fats is the enemy. Fat in moderation isnt bad! But it goes over their head