UK sausage roll tax hard to digest
2012-03-28 19:04
London - The British government's intention to tax the humble sausage roll when served hot has opened a new front in the country's never-ending class war.
Finance Minister George Osborne announced on Wednesday he intended to close a loophole which allowed some fresh-baked takeaway items - including pies, Cornish pasties, a regional speciality, and sausage rolls - to escape sales tax.
The new tax has been criticised by some as an attack by the Conservative-led government on working class life.
The announcement caused the shares in Greggs bakeries, a fast-food purveyor of 140 million sausage rolls per year, to fall by 5.5% the next day.
Feeling the heat, Prime Minister David Cameron declared on Wednesday: "I am a pasty eater myself."
- AP
