Monday, October 14, 2002

Fat Tax
Only half-heard this report on the Today programme this morning, but apparently Forest (a pressure group representing smoker's rights) have launched an offshoot, called The Free Society, to campaign about government intervention in what we eat. What we eat that's bad, obviously.

Proposals to tax fat and dairy food in the UK don't seem to have come to anything, but apparently in the USA, "they" monitor your lunch, and if you have too much "bad food" you get a call from the company doctor and a lecture. Free Society are apparently fine with education, but not-fine with social engineering (tax).

Can't help wondering if it's a slow newsday: the hook was tenuous; Demos, the left-of-centre Think Tank recommended the Fat Tax in Julyish, even though it's been talked about before, so I don't know why it made the news today. Wish there was TodayMail, like Snowmail, and then I could see how the stories evolved.

Simon Clark spoke for the Free Society, and Dr Ian Campbell spoke, generically, against it. Seems that he's in the BBC golden rolodex under FAT.

All in all, it's rather strange that we have a Labour government, but it's turning into a nanny state.

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