'Chocolate tax' to tackle obesity

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/...st/7938282.stm

Oh yes this is bound to work because of course it worked so well with tobacco and alcohol.

A Scottish GP has called for chocolate to be taxed in the same way as alcohol and cigarettes to tackle increasing levels of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

[DocDutch]

woohooo what a wonderful idea this is going to be... I think this is a way for the gov to get more income.

whats next tax on the air we breathe?

Doc if they could think of a way to do it they would tax us to breath such is the mentality of some people these days. I am not surprised by this and i am becoming more and more aware of how gp's are getting into the political arena with their "health" suggestions. I suppose they have to come up with ways for the government to keep raking in the cash to make such nice salary agreements for these gp's some of whom obviously have time enough to worry about such things on their 100k a year earnings. Such a shame despite them being so well paid i can never get to see mine very often as he is either on a course or on holiday a good 60% of the year .

[Bonglet]

I dont know about scotland but in england chocolate and sweets got taxed a good few years back, thats why you pay as much as you do for them now, did you not notice one day you were paying 20p for a mars bar then it suddenly went up to 35p.

I remember the uproar well as it was called taxing the kids.

[Angua]

Would rather give up chocolate than cheese & friends I have who are similarly overweight generally eat more savoury stuff anyway.

[Stephen]

I think chocolate is already expensive enough!!

Most places are 40-50p for Wispas, Mars bars and everything else!

[LondonRoad]

You would have thought by now someone would have came up with a better proposal than to continually tax those things that make the nation less healthy.

The tax is raised for people who can indulge in moderation too, so why should they be punished.

If tax on top of tax with added tax is really such a viable solution to all things that are perceived to be bad for you, why don't the authorites legalise all drugs and then tax them to the hilt. The present approach certainly isn't working.

Instead of taxing what is bad how about subsidising what is good i find that the bad stuff is cheaper then the good lol. We really have to get out of this mentality in this country that by taxing something you solve a problem it has never worked and never will. If you really want things to change then education and the incentives to change are far more effective but of course they don't bring as much revenue in do they .

Nice to see the lunatics are still alive and coming up with fresh stupidity.

We in the UK are equal oppurtunities and lunatics have rights you know .

This doctor must come from MARS, for suggesting TAX ( I ) on our bars, I suggest the idea to bolster the governments BOUNTY be buried under a big ROWN-TREE !

[Osem]

I reckon we could do a lot worse than taxing crappy ideas...

[LondonRoad]

Originally Posted by arcamalpha2004

This doctor must come from MARS, for suggesting TAX ( I ) on our bars, I suggest the idea to bolster the governments BOUNTY be buried under a big ROWN-TREE !

This is off TOPIC.

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

Instead of taxing what is bad how about subsidising what is good i find that the bad stuff is cheaper then the good lol. We really have to get out of this mentality in this country that by taxing something you solve a problem it has never worked and never will. If you really want things to change then education and the incentives to change are far more effective but of course they don't bring as much revenue in do they .

Got to say I agree there, lets have 5p apples, 5p bananas, 5p pears, all fruit and veg 5p.
These fatcat superstores can subsidise cheap alcohol why cant they do the same on fruit and veg?
They would pay the suppliers what they pay now but would subsidise the cost themselves, lets see how serious the big companies are about looking after its customers.

---------- Post added at 10:55 ---------- Previous post was at 10:54 ----------

Originally Posted by harmitage

This is off TOPIC.

Right, sorry, I will get off to good OLD JAMAICA

Originally Posted by harmitage

This is off TOPIC.

<snicker, snicker>