British lawmakers are pushing for a 20 percent tax on soft drinks
In a report published Monday, members of a British parliament health committee asked Prime Minister David Cameron to drop his opposition to imposing a 20 percent tax on sugary drinks, BBC News reports. The cross-party committee wrote:
Dr. Sarah Wollaston, the conservative legislator who chairs the committee, argued in a Guardian opinion piece Monday that taxing soft drinks would cut back on kids' consumption, which could in turn help lower obesity rates. Cameron isn't the only one who opposes the idea: Not shockingly, the British Soft Drink Association is pushing back, too.
"This was not an inquiry in the conventional meaning of the word," association director general Gavin Partington said in a statement Monday. "It was part of the PR campaign by the health lobby to persuade ministers to introduce a tax on soft drinks."
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
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