Pasty Tax revolt

LONDON -The British government's intention to tax the humble Cornish pasty, a cheap pastry savory snack much beloved by workers and students, has opened a new front in the country's never-ending class war.

In his U.K. budget last week, Finance Minister George Osborne announced he would close a loophole which allowed some fresh-baked takeaway items — including pies, sausage rolls and pasties (PASS-tees) — to escape a 20 percent sales tax.

The move, however, has caused a media storm, with tabloid headlines portraying the new tax as an attack by the Conservative-led government on working class life.

This Tuesday, Osborne faced questions from a parliamentary committee on aspects of his budget — which included such macroeconomic measures as a cut in the top rate of income tax, a lowering in the personal tax allowance for retired people and reduction in corporation tax. But is was the levy on the lowly pasty — a mixture of meat and vegetables encased in pastry that was first baked for tin miners of 17th century southwest England — that generated all the headlines.

"I can't remember the last time I bought a pasty in Greggs," Osborne told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, referring to a low-price snack shop chain.

"That kind of sums it up," responded Labour Party lawmaker John Mann, a former union official.

The storm rolled into Wednesday when, at a press conference to discuss London's readiness for the Olympics with International Olympic Committee chairman Jacques Rogge, Prime Minister David Cameron was compelled to pledge allegiance to the pasty.

"I am a pasty eater myself," he declared to reporters.

Cameron said he last ate one in Leeds, though not at a Greggs. "I have a feeling I opted for the large one, and very good it was, too," the Oxford-educated prime minister sai