Sugar added tax
Sir: Julia Pickles (Letters, 14 June) suggests a sugar tax to combat the obesity epidemic and discourage food manufacturers from adding sugar to everything from bread to baked beans. A more realistic alternative might be to simply adjust the VAT rules: currently, VAT is levied on essentials such as loo paper, toothpaste and washing powder, presumably because they’re considered luxuries. Items such as breakfast cereals, however, are VAT-exempt, even though many are more than 30 per cent sugar and should really be in the confectionery aisles. Levying VAT on products with, say, more than 20 per cent added sugar and removing it from others could form a revenue-neutral policy for better health.
Richard Paterson
North Chailey, Sussex
Lord Spencer’s ringer
Sir: Charles Moore is right to draw attention to Boris Johnson’s appalling behaviour in bringing on Kevin Pietersen as a ringer for a friendly against Lord Spencer’s XI at Althorp (Notes, 21 June). But to be fair, there is history there. I once played for Boris’s ramshackle team in this fixture and was appalled to see who the cad Spencer had persuaded to open the batting for the home side: Jimmy Adams, the former West Indies captain.
Nigel Farndale
Liss, Hampshire
Casting the first stone
Sir: If any Christian church or sect ever did advocate, or practise, stoning to death for adultery, as Jerry Emery suggests (Letters, 21 June), then they were in grave doctrinal error. The New Testament tells us that Jesus Christ halted just such a hideous event, and made it plain that it should never reoccur.
Mary Kenny
Deal, Kent
Sir: Joshua Fox (Letters, 14 June) confuses the teachings of Jesus Christ of love, forgiveness and equality for all and the abuse of power of the early Roman Catholic Church, which Christ would have condemned.
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