Why is it that every time there is any suggestion by a doctor of ways to make us healthier it involves at least one of the following things:

• Regulation
• Restriction
• Taxes

Of course, wherever possible they prefer to use more two, if not all three.

One particular doctor, a Scottish GP called David Walker, thinks that there should be a tax on chocolate – because people get fat:

Obesity is a mushrooming problem. We are heading the same way as the United States.

There is an explosion of obesity and the related medical conditions, like type two diabetes. I see chocolate as a major player in this, and I think a tax on products containing chocolate could make a real difference…

What I’m trying to get across is that chocolate is sneaking under the radar of unhealthy foods.

What a dumbass. He seems to think that people are too stupid to realise that chocolate is full of calories, and that that could be bad for them. People know that, just like they know that alcohol and cigarettes are bad for them. And he fails to realise that taxes won’t stop people from buying and eating chocolate if they so wish, just like they don’t stop smoking or drinking because they tax it.

Just like taxing alcohol, it will achieve nothing but to put a greater strain on low-income households. It won’t stop people from eating chocolate if they want to, it will achieve nothing more than slimmer wallets and slighter fuller state coffers (if they don’t spend the money on bailing out more banks, natch). And this current economic climate really isn’t a good time to start slimming down peoples wallets for no good reason.

It’s just lucky for doctors that they voted this authotiarian idiot’s proposals down – though only by two votes. Otherwise they’d all be looking like complete morons.