Way back in the 1980’s I wrote to my then local MP Sir Archie Hamilton to ask why tampons were taxed as a luxury item when it was blatantly obvious to the 11-year-old me that this was unfair and that they were not a luxury but a necessity and that this was, therefore, a tax on girls and women. I duly received my hand signed reply, on beautifully thick, House of Commons headed notepaper thanking me for taking an interest in this very important issue. No remedies were suggested and over 3 decades later we are still talking about this ‘tampon tax’. The BBC even has a handy tampon tax calculator that you can use to work out how much you have spent on sanitary products. So far, according to the calculator I have spent about £1500 with just under £150 of VAT…..For the full blog please see the Cost of Living Blogsite.
