Patricia Hewitt on tax and booze

The Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, has come up with one of the daftest tax ideas a Cabinet minister under this Government has ever put forward, that in itself no mean feat. She wants alcopops and other such drinks to be even more highly taxed, so as to deter teenagers from drinking. This is her answer to the binge-drinking problem.

What Mrs Hewitt seems not to have taken into account is that there is nothing intrinsic in these drinks that makes the youngsters drink them. They are attractive simply because of their price. If the price shoots up because of higher taxes, the teenagers will just drink something cheaper. In her ideal scenario, a hooded teenage youth, on seeing the price of alcopops is now beyond his reach, will just settle for a Fanta instead. The woman is deluded.

No chance of such a tax being introduced, though. Even Greedy Gordon realises that there are limits. The Treasury has since slapped down the plans.