re: Conservative government in UK announces sugar tax on soft drinks industry

Conservative and Liberal are basically swapped in Britian.

Just don't let folks getting free food, get high sugar based foods and drinks.

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More nanny state bullshite. Anyone supporting this tax thinks people should be penalized by the government for not living their life as you see fit. This is basically a sin tax.

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being fat is a sin

Good I'm fricking sick of seeing fat little 2 and 3 year olds being handed bottles of full fat Cole

Anything to help put off parents buying this shite is good

And I'm not some health nut or anything but fizzy drinks is something I've pretty easily put behind me over the last 2 or 3 years

"Let's tax the things we want to reduce, not the things we want to encourage."

So what happens if these sin taxes do their job and reduce consumption? This is a flawed and dangerous argument for the conservatives in GB.

Here is the dirty secret: they don't want us to stop buying cigs, drinking alcohol and, in GB, consuming sugary drinks. It is an easy target to tax without getting (too) much pushback from the public.

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They have it so right and we don't. Sugar is why we're an obese nation. Sweet tea in the Siuth, for example.

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It will not stop consumption. If they truly wanted to "make a difference for our children's generation," they would ban sugary drinks altogether. This is a means to raise taxes, plain and simple.

The companies who produce these products (Coke/Pepsi) will simply pass the tax on to the consumer - who will gladly pay.

i read the whole first page and not one mention of a parent, mother or father.

how about kids parents take some responsibility and dont let their kids get fat. lay down some rules limiting the amount of sugary drinks they can have. growing up i could only have a coke like every 3-4 days. the parents should be the one forcing them to go play outside for a while.

government isnt the answer to everything

This has nothing to so with combating "obesity". Sugary drinks are one of the most high volume products sold and the government sees an opportunity to take more money from the population. Sugary drinks are just the vehicle to do that.

Obesity is what is going to cripple the NHS.

There is a pretty easy arguement that curving obesity can keep the NHS alive for longer

Plus the money saved is going to schools for PE etc not paying for other cuts

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Healthcare is a privilege, not a right.

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One could argue that healthcare provided for catastrophic acute issues borders on a right.

Maintenance of health/ avoidance of chronic disease is healthcare that is the responsibility of the individual (lifestyle,nutrition, exercise). The current model to deliver "healthcare" via acute services is very poorly suited to address the chronic issues acquired through decades of bad decisions.

The conundrum is that acute life threatening issues can and often come from chronic disease states convoluting my initial statement above.