Fat Tax? Fat Chance

I love to see kids smoking and I'm not too bothered if they get legless on booze, but I don't like watching them stuff themselves with burgers or chocolate. Well, okay, perhaps that's not true in detail, but the economic effects are what I don't like.

In the UK, rightly or wrongly, we have the NHS. Now, I am broadly supportive of the institution, having had largely good experiences therefrom, both for myself and my family, but I am not dogmatically opposed to alternatives. On the assumption that the NHS is here to stay, however, I do find as a taxpayer that certain things follow. The main one being that I do not want to pay for other people's preventable illnesses.

I don't smoke, but I don't begrudge smokers getting NHS treatment for lung cancer, cardiovascular disease etc., because studies show that they effectively subsidise the costs of their healthcare (and that of non-smokers too) through the tobacco tax. Similarly with the diseases caused by alcohol, although I think there may be a case for raising alcohol duties in the UK to help cover the cost of wider problems. As a moderate drinker myself, I'm prepared to take a small extra hit on that one. However, there is no tax on fat and sugar, which is a glaring omission.

The lady below is the Venus of Willendorf and she's 22,000 years old. The woman (probably) who carved her as a lucky charm (possibly) could only dream of being that shape.

In the cold forests of prehistoric Germany, she was probably painfully thin and hungry at times and wondering where her next meal was coming from. Yet, today, this physique is only too common.

As it stands, the obese will require increasing medical interventions to help them cope with type 2 diabetes and other conditions brought on by their dietary habits. I don't care in the least if some people become blown up like ballons, but I do care when I have to pay for their treatment. The BBC Panorama programme this week covered the topic of a "fat tax" but got the emphasis wrong. It would be nice, but not likely, if making junk food more expensive reduced its consumption and thereby improved the health of the nation, but that is not the point.

The issue to my mind is that people who voluntarily make themselves ill in a society whose health service is taxpayer funded should pay something towards their treatment through prepaid taxes, so that those of us who do not so indulge in their particular habit can effectively obtain due and proportionate remission on our own taxation.

Sadly, the government does not appear to think so. This may be because, as Tories, they would like to abolish the NHS anyway, because then the issue goes away. In any case, not many of them use it. However, for political reasons, I don't think it's likely that the NHS will disappear, in which case the prospect of the obese being denied or given qualified treatment at some point in the future becomes a distinct possibility. How much more civilised it would be if they could be treated equally and with no questions asked because, like smokers and drinkers, they had already paid their dues.

Of course, a fat tax will put up food prices. This means that the Left will be against it. Moreover, the Right will be against it too as the food industry will lobby them furiously. With most of the political spectrum opposed, it has to be a good idea. Too bad it will never come to pass.