Budget 2016: the sociology of sugar

by Alex Pickerden, University of Lincoln As I write this blog post I am in the middle of finishing a bottle of fizzy drink. I know for many people that the consumption of fizzy drinks (Dr Pepper, Coca-Cola and Sprite etc.) have become part of a daily routine. The same however, can be said for eating chocolate bars, enjoying a tub of ice-cream and settling down for tea and biscuits in the afternoon. Currently the politics is rather different because these products have not had a new tax introduced on them. So why is the ‘sugar tax’ only on fizzy drinks? Why does it not cover other sugar laden products? What is the purpose of this tax? Most importantly, will the tax work?