As well as fresh snow, this week brought bucketloads of policy-related proposals for consumer and public affairs experts to ponder, with the imminence of a general election providing plenty of impetus.
The most ludicrous was a 15p tax per pack of chewing gum to pay for councils to scrape their pavements. On this cost allocation basis, the tax per free newspaper would amount to the price of a hardback book. But that's politicians for you. The kneejerk reaction to every problem is a tax, or a fine, or both. In the meantime, we report on a new brand of gum that includes its own disposable papers.
This week also saw the government pressing ahead with a plan to impose a minimum price for alcohol. Aiming to cut binge drinking, it would double the price of those 3-for-£18 deals on packs of Stella, Carlsberg, Foster's etc, on which the supermarkets have come to rely. With booze taxes already set to soar, it doesn't sound like a vote winner to me.
The Tories are at it too, though. A new public health policy document issued this week contained some interesting ideas, including devolution of responsibility for obesity to a local level, but promises to introduce mandatory calorie information on alcoholic drinks, and to make GDAs mandatory on food, will not be in the Conservative Party's powers of jurisdiction, even if it gets into power. Like its plan to scrap alcoholic units in favour of displaying the centilitres of pure alcohol, the document has not been properly thought through.
The same cannot be said of the new Mars bar. Reducing the satfat content by 15% took five years and cost £9m, as our analysis finds, and should demonstrate to regulators just how onerous reformulation is. And that's nothing to the cost if consumers don't like the taste. But it's also given Mars a neat answer to its risky sponsorship of the England football team, and I fully expect it to pay off, as it deserves to do.
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The most ludicrous was a 15p tax per pack of chewing gum to pay for councils to scrape their pavements. On this cost allocation basis, the tax per free newspaper would amount to the price of a hardback book. But that's politicians for you. The kneejerk reaction to every problem is a tax, or a fine, or both. In the meantime, we report on a new brand of gum that includes its own disposable papers.
This week also saw the government pressing ahead with a plan to impose a minimum price for alcohol. Aiming to cut binge drinking, it would double the price of those 3-for-£18 deals on packs of Stella, Carlsberg, Foster's etc, on which the supermarkets have come to rely. With booze taxes already set to soar, it doesn't sound like a vote winner to me.
The Tories are at it too, though. A new public health policy document issued this week contained some interesting ideas, including devolution of responsibility for obesity to a local level, but promises to introduce mandatory calorie information on alcoholic drinks, and to make GDAs mandatory on food, will not be in the Conservative Party's powers of jurisdiction, even if it gets into power. Like its plan to scrap alcoholic units in favour of displaying the centilitres of pure alcohol, the document has not been properly thought through.
The same cannot be said of the new Mars bar. Reducing the satfat content by 15% took five years and cost £9m, as our analysis finds, and should demonstrate to regulators just how onerous reformulation is. And that's nothing to the cost if consumers don't like the taste. But it's also given Mars a neat answer to its risky sponsorship of the England football team, and I fully expect it to pay off, as it deserves to do.
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