UK - Government urged to consider "fat tax"Government urged

[buckthesystem]

Well wouldn't you know it, just a few days ago we were discussing the world-wide trend towards control-freakery with regard to smoking, i.e. governments telling people how to run privately owned businesses, what they can/can't do on their own property - and getting away with it.

It was exactly predicted that next a government would have a go at using peoples' fears about obesity to be able to dictate to them what they should eat - and of course raking in some more extorted funds while they're at it.

Well, here it is (just goes to prove my point that the only two reasons governments do anything are to gain money or power, and quite often both)

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http://itn.co.uk/news/494093a3d599dfc1067f8f6d653b15c6.html

Government urged to consider 'fat tax'

Updated 15.02 Thu Jul 12 2007

Calls to slap a fat tax on unhealthy foods have been made by scientists who say it could prevent more than 3,000 deaths a year from heart attacks and strokes.

In 2004, then Prime Minister Tony Blair rejected the idea for a tax on fatty foods such as cakes and biscuits, saying it would make Britain too much like a "nanny state".

"The UK is facing a crisis in diet-related illness, including obesity, caused by over-consumption of foods high in fat, sugar and salt" - Tim MarshBut a new study has found that such taxes could improve the nation's eating habits.

Around a quarter of the UK adult population is obese and the proportion of obese children rose by over 40 per cent between 1995 and 2004.

Figures released in April 2006 showed that around one in four 11 to 15-year-olds is now considered obese - rising from 14 per cent of boys in 1995 to 24 per cent in 2004, and from 15 per cent to 26 per cent of girls.

According to the British Heart Foundation, more than 216,000 people in the UK die from cardiovascular disease each year.

Around half of the deaths are from coronary heart disease and about a quarter are from a stroke.

In the UK, someone has a heart attack every two minutes, with around 230,000 people suffering one each year.

Tim Marsh, associate director of the National Heart Forum, said: "The UK is facing a crisis in diet-related illness, including obesity, caused by over-consumption of foods high in fat, sugar and salt.

"There is no single solution and we need to carefully explore the potential of all possible strategies to tackle the issue.

"We should pay special attention to any intervention, such as food taxation, which could - if carefully applied - be a proportionate response to the size of the problem and the impact of poor diet on our future health and prosperity."

Food and Drink Federation (FDF) director of communications Julian Hunt said: "This is utter nonsense.

"Aside from the fact that the researchers think it is OK to tax perfectly nutritious foods, such as cheese, which are an important part of any healthy diet, such a move would be a regressive tax on the least well-off, who already spend more of their disposable income on food and drink.

"In any case, the research doesn't prove whether taxing the foods that consumers love would lead to any changes in their buying habits. It would result only in lighter wallets, not smaller waists."