Tampons should not be taxed. Period.
You might not expect much enlightenment from a political party which once tried to score points against a female prime minister with a menu at a fund-raising dinner satirising her “small breasts, huge thighs and…big red box”.
But that very same party, now in government in Australia, appears to rather more forward-thinking than our own prime minister on one issue which has vexed campaigners the world over: namely the tampon tax.
After a student carrying a giant tampon confronted Treasurer Joe Hockey – guest of honour at that controversial fund-raising dinner – with a petition calling for the tax to be scrapped, he promised to write to state governments asking them to consider doing so.
The giant tampon has arrived! #stoptaxingmyperiod pic.twitter.com/JvxHQtUKXi
— UTS Vertigo (@VertigoMagazine) May 26, 2015
About time too, really. Because in Australia, as in other countries around the world, the taxman considers – somewhat sadistically – that using a tampon, or indeed a sanitary towel, is a “luxury”. And therefore it’s subject to taxation.
This is quite clearly ridiculous. There’s nothing remotely luxurious about deploying either a tampon or a towel: in fact, it’s a pain in the backside (or thereabouts).
Surely now the Australians are blazing a trail, it would be an embarrassment if the UK lagged behind?
Above: Joe Hockey confronted over the ‘tampon tax’
But there’s a problem, and it’s called the European Union. Fifteen years ago, after a campaign by the Labour MP Dawn Primarolo, VAT on what the Treasury still rather prudishly calls “sanitary products” was slashed from 17.5 per cent to 5 per cent.
But, according to David Cameron himself, it’s “quite difficult” to go further “within the framework of European laws”. The Treasury insists 5 per cent is the lowest possible rate under EU VAT law.
So it’s clear to me that the prime minister now has a golden opportunity to get this tax reformed as he traipses round Europe trying to secure the concessions he needs to keep Britain in the EU. I bet Angela Merkel would be on board for starters.
If he fails, though, it’ll be another stick wielded by the Ukippers.
They’ve already proved remarkably astute on this, with possible leader-of-the-future Suzanne Evans making war on what she called an “outdated and outrageous” tax on being a woman. I’ve yet to hear leader Nigel Farage opine on the issue, but I’m sure it’ll happen after his enforced summer break.
How shameful, then, that the other parties haven’t bothered to follow suit. The Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg sounded like an embarrassed schoolboy giggling about periods when he said earlier this year that scrapping the tax was “not something which is presently going to make its way into our manifesto, no”.
No wonder there’s not a single female Lib Dem MP left standing.
A petition by student activist Laura Coryton calling on Chancellor George Osborne to do the right thing now has nearly 235,000 signatures.
Luxury vs. necessity… pic.twitter.com/FjPPprlFDo
— Laura Coryton (@LauraCoryton) March 16, 2015
She points out that even crocodile steaks, edible sugar flowers and helicopters are exempt from tax.
The same should apply to “sanitary products”. Period.
Follow @cathynewman on Twitter.