Denmark introduces "fat tax"

[longfingernails]

news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16081190

We should do the same - and use the money to pay for an income tax cut.

I was distracted by the state of that persons nails in the picture. Ewww. Why would you eat with hands that dirty? Bleurgh.

Shall try and read the article if I can stop boaking at the dirty nails long enough.

use the money fo the nhs

its just another tax, just more money out of my pocket and into the govts pocket. i wont gain anything

I think it makes sense, even from the POV of a fattie like myself.

Especially as marmite has no saturated fats!

Butter is bad? . I thought pure fats were okay and it was the hydrogenated gloop that was bad? What's wrong with dairy?

It's a good idea in principle but I would worry that our government would get all silly with it and start labelling perfectly fine foods as 'bad', like they have done with school meals and packed lunches.

Dairy and meat is taxed too. So semi and skimmed milk is taxed, lean cuts of meat are also taxed?
This makes very little sense to me.

I completely agree with taxing fast food from outlets, chocolate and crisps and foods such as biscuits, pizzas and cake. However, I doubt it will make very much difference at all.

DooinMeCleanin, I totally agree with you. The rubbish that is spouted about so called "healthy eating" in schools is dangerous.

(dd is 12 - her class had an assignment to record their personal food diary for a week. Those that recorded the lowest number of calories, fat and carbohydrates got the most points and highest grades. Dd is an athlete and trains several times a week. She eats a very healthy balanced diet. She failed her assignment because she had eaten pasta, rice and some red meat. I kid you not.)

That said - it makes sense to tax really unhealthy foods.

I don't know that it would work though - after all, people buy cigarettes.

Considering that no teachers I know are nutritionists I am very concerned about the crap spouted at kids. I once managed to follow a school around Sainsbury's who were doing healthy eating and the teacher told the kids that things with artificial sweeteners in were good for you.

Fat tax? Load of boollocks.

longfingernails, I am surprised you support the nanny state, their social engineers and their stealth taxes. Let people choose what they like. It's like privileged MPs in their subsidised bars telling working people not to drink and imposing "binge-drinking" taxes on them.

Agree, SecretNutellaFix, the nanny state's 5-a-day evangelists won't talk about real dangers such as GM foods, aspartame et al. It's just a way of increasing the tax burden on the public, just as they have done with energy prices under a global warming figleaf.

claig I don't like any tax whatsoever - but given that some tax is inevitable, I strongly prefer consumption taxes to income taxes or property taxes. VAT is better than income tax. Alcohol duty is better than council tax. Fat tax is better than national insurance.

It hits the poor and the working class. They tend to eat more take-away meals and more fast food. The salad munching Guardianistas won't be hit in the pocket. It's a slippery slope, the social engineers won't stop there, they will impose lots more "health taxes" on ordinary people.

They will keep making 3littlefrogs' athlete DD feel guilty about eating healthy food like pasta, rice and red meat, and tehy'll even start taxing her for feeding herself.

Isn't nanny state socialist Kinnock's daughter-in-law the PM in Denamrk?

I give ds2 more butter than we have as he's so thin. Am hoping it'll put a bit of meat on his bones as he's so aware of it.

When I read thread title I thought you meant taxing people for being fat!

Would Sarah Palin institute such nanny state policies to tax ordinary people? I don't think so.

Norway has similar taxation on tobacco and alcohol.

Impossible to buy a bottle of wine for under £9. And a pack of sigarettes is around £12.

I will follow this with interest, I am sure Norway will follow suit shortly. A bar of chocolate is already nearly £2, equally an ice lolly....

actually as someone who has a problem with certain foods which is damaging my health, i would like them to do this. and with sugar too. like the minimum pricing for alcohol. it would probably help me (although i am a tight wad!)

It's an odd one to introduce for a country that gets a lot of its income from the dairy industry. Will enterprising Danes set up butter smuggling routes from Germany and Sweden, I wonder?

'It's an odd one to introduce for a country that gets a lot of its income from the dairy industry'

A similar campaign against dairy and meat is run in most countries. They even link meat eating and cows to "global warming". The social engineers know what they are doing.

Well, this way they will get more income, as all the extra tax will obviously look good in the budget! People NEED dairy products.

Denmark was also thinking of a tax on cows' flatulence.

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,509021,00.html

They want to discourage meat eating and dairy. That's why 3littlefrogs' DD failed her assignment.

"A similar campaign against dairy and meat is run in most countries"

Where's the UK campaign then? Lobby groups like PETA are not exactly in a position to start charging taxes ... largely ignoried if anything.

Richard Simpson MSP tried to bring in a bill banning trans fats in Scotland during the last parliament but it did not attract the necessary cross party support. Pure politicking - not wanting to support a bill introduced by a Labour MSP. Grrrr politics

--www.holyrood.com/articles/2010/04/13/trans-fats-bill-falls/--

Sorry, sorry www.holyrood.com/articles/2010/04/13/trans-fats-bill-falls/