Sugar tax attacks

SIR – Forty-eight years ago, your newspaper kindly published a letter from me suggesting a tax on confectionery and carbonated drinks.

My suggestion was followed up on your women’s page, where I was criticised for seeking to deprive children of the pleasure of eating and drinking sugary products.

I also wrote to every Chancellor of the Exchequer, from Iain Macleod to Gordon Brown, only to receive a letter saying that the then government had no plans to introduce a sugar tax. So I gave up.

Now that this Government has taken the first step towards this tax, it, too, is being criticised, for penalising poor children (report, April 6).

Hew Goldingham

St Leonards-on-sea, East Sussex