This article was first published on the Institute of Economic Affairs Substack. Official figures recently published by HMRC indicate a huge … Continue reading “The black market for tobacco is out of control”

Dr Allison Tedstone, Public Health England’s “Head of Diet and Obesity”, has recently proposed a new ‘Pudding Tax’ which would … Continue reading “Don’t trifle with our freedom – the case against the “Pudding Tax””

The morning I turned eight, I woke up and told my father that I was “halfway there”. This, in my … Continue reading “Will 2019 be the year we halt the march of the Nanny State? I won’t hold my breath”

Are “sin” taxes on food, soft drinks, tobacco and alcohol regressive? As my colleague Christopher Snowdon has outlined in his … Continue reading ““Sin Taxes” are aggressively regressive”

After a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages was introduced in Britain last month, campaigners wasted no time in calling for it … Continue reading “WHO proposals for new taxes on food and drinks would cost a typical UK household up to £458 per year”

‘You can’t just point at things and tax them,’ said the singer Myleene Klass to Ed Miliband in a TV … Continue reading “Sugar taxes have never worked anywhere”

Coca-Cola’s decision to shrink its bottles and raise its prices has raised eyebrows, but the economics of it are straightforward. In … Continue reading “Colour me surprised: effects of Sugar Tax exactly as predicted”

Rumours abound that the government is secretly quite keen on imposing a new tax on sugary drinks, to attempt to … Continue reading “A sugar tax would only make the UK tax system more incoherent”

A tax on sugar – and on sugary drinks in particular – has become a cornerstone of the campaign for … Continue reading “Taxing sugary drinks invariably hurts the poor”