Headline writers find sweet spot with sugar tax

The Times was the only UK newspaper to offer unqualified support to George Osborne’s unveiling of a sugar tax in last week’s budget.1

Under the headline “Osborne sugars the pill,” next to the traditional shot of the chancellor holding aloft his red budget briefcase, the newspaper declared its support for the tax. The columnist Tim Montgomerie welcomed it because it will reduce spending on health in the long term. He wrote, “Just as measures to tax and restrict tobacco changed public attitudes and encouraged important innovations such as life-saving e-cigarettes, so a progressive public policy …