More Starmer Sin Taxes on the Way
The British Heart Foundation is crowing today over “a lost decade of progress” when it comes to heart conditions. They decry “inequalities” and claim it is “unacceptable that too many people see worse outcomes from heart disease linked to their economic status, gender or ethnicity.” And right on cue they suggest the usual socialist solutions:
- A new tax on salt and sugar. Thanks to the Tories’ soft drink sugar tax the BHF now says making food more expensive is required…
- Immediate implementation on TV and online advertising ban for “less healthy products.“
- The expansion of the proposed advertising ban to “outdoor and radio advertising, sports sponsorship.“
- Cigarette-style packaging on less healthy food. Cheery…
- An extra tax on tobacco producers the BHF calls a “Smokefree Fund.”
- Making air targets set by the 2022 Environment Act even stricter.
The DHSC isn’t commenting on the BHF’s proposals but rest assured the government is interested. Campaigners have met with Treasury officials to directly discuss a salt and sugar tax. Wes Streeting is a big fan:
“From my point of view, I think we can see the soft drinks industry levy as a successful intervention and a model to follow. And if industry doesn’t like that, well, they’d better pull their finger out and come forward with a very persuasive argument about what they will do without the heavy hand of state regulation.”
More on Starmer’s “politics that treads lightly on people’s lives” as Guido gets it…
