by Jonathan on April 29, 2008
I signed a petition to Downing Street a few months ago to get the rate of VAT (Tax) on smoothies reduced, so that it matches that on other foodstuffs (including crisps and Hot Dogs).
Here’s the question:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to encourage people to get their five a day by cutting taxation on healthy fruit smoothies and juices to 5%.”
At the moment, all food (including things like hotdogs and crisps) is subject to a zero rate of tax. But people who want to make a healthy choice and buy smoothies and juices get taxed 17.5% VAT. It’s a simple step, and, as more and more people get their fruit in liquid form, it could make a big difference. Our research shows that at least 500 million more portions of fruit would be consumed each year if this happened. Since we all know that eating more fruit and veg is essential to being healthier, it makes sense to help people make positive choices.
And here’s the response from the Prime Ministers’ office:
To date the Government has been sparing in its use of VAT reduced rates and has only applied these where they are affordable, and provide the most effective and best-targeted support for the Government’s social objectives when compared with other policy instruments.
Dietary based taxes were considered by Derek Wanless in ‘Securing Good Health for the Whole Population’ -published in 2004. The report highlights a number of difficulties of principle and practice in any attempt to use the tax system to influence diet. Furthermore, European VAT rules require that in most cases, the same VAT rate is applied to all competing products. This limits the extent to which any new reduced rate could be targeted on the most healthy fruit drink. [Read More]
In other words: No.
by Jonathan on April 27, 2008
Over the past few days we’ve been finishing off the teaching phase of our training and setting our sights on the outreach phase. Many of us who have been working in Red Hill since the fires are moving on - some to Zanzibar, some to Transkai, others to Mozambique.
Thursday night we had a small farewell party at Red Hill - handed out chicken and cold drinks, opened the peace garden which one of the residents has built, and made known those who were staying on. It was emotional for many of us as we said our goodbyes and pondered the impact of our presence in the community.
For many of us Red Hill has been our first experience of working in a development situation, building from the bottom up and managing the various needs of the parties involved. It’s been stretching, but has really opened my eyes to a holistic approach to being a follower of Jesus.
I hope to visit Red Hill once a week, play pool with some of my friends at the Shabeen and visit Nick, Paula and Liana, who are going to be living in a shack there during the outreach phase.
by Jonathan on March 8, 2008
“If your start-up can only succeed by being a sweatshop, your idea is simply not good enough. Go back to the drawing board and come up with something better that can be implemented by whole people, not cogs.”
~A great post on the 37signals Blog.
by Jonathan on February 28, 2008
I’d like to introduce a site I just finished. It’s a magazine website that used to be called South of Sweden, but has just been renamed The Scandinavian Insider. It’s a Business and Lifestyle magazine focussed on Southern Scandinavia.
One of the biggest challenges was working with Expression Engine, a CMS that I’ve never used before. I’ve been very impressed with its ability to handle data, but there have been a few minor issues that took forever to solve.
by Jonathan on February 10, 2008
We spent today in Red Hill, a small township not far from where I’m living (in Cape Town) which has been devastated by fires over the weekend. 60 homes were completely destroyed. Our task for today was to clear away the rubble to make space for the new houses.
The task of rebuilding will be £400 per house. If you’d like to contribute, please let me know.
by Jonathan on January 20, 2008
At the moment I’m working on how to gather the content of this blog, my Flickr feed, Twitter, and any other places I post things on the web into one place. This would mean that you, dear reader, would be able to keep up to date by visiting just one site, or by subscribing to just one feed.
That will mean that you will be able to see my South African photos without checking Flickr.
The technology is called Tumble Logging, though you don’t really need to worry about that.
I think I’ll also make subscribing via email possible, so that those who don’t have a clue what RSS is don’t have to miss out.
Just saying, so you know why things are quiet here…
by Jonathan on January 12, 2008
Here’s a clock that not only tells the time, but also shows stats on population, diseases and deaths (etc.) click here. (via Floyd)
by Jonathan on December 21, 2007
“But at the moment we make money principally from touring. Which is hard for me to reconcile because I don’t like all the energy consumption, the travel. It’s an ecological disaster, traveling, touring…We did one of those carbon footprint things recently where they assessed the last period of touring we did and tried to work out where the biggest problems were. And it was obviously everybody traveling to the shows.” read more
~ Wired via Jason
by Jonathan on December 20, 2007
I ended up getting interviewed briefly by a Swedish Newspaper yesterday lunchtime. This morning, when Christopher’s paper came through the door, there I was.
Here’s a sketchy translation for you non-swedish speakers:
How much would you pay to download a song off the internet?
About 3 kronor (just over 30p)
Do you download music?
Yes, I recently downloaded the new Radiohead album for £2
For those of you who think I’m a skinflint for paying so little, I assure you that they received more from me this way than they would if they were signed to a big record label.
Check out downhillbattle.org for more on this.
Click here for the original article.
