HC Deb 18 December 1975 vol 902 cc1634-5
11. Mr. Raphael Tuck

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will seek to introduce a substantial tax on pornography.

Mr. Denzil Davies

No, Sir.

Mr. Tuck

Why does my right hon. Friend the Chancellor impose crippling taxes on Beethoven, Mozart, Bernard Shaw and Shakespeare while many people who are making fabulous profits out of pornographic literature get off scot-free? Why does he tax virtue and not vice? Although I am no Mary Whitehouse, may I ask my hon. Friend whether, as pornography is apparently here to stay, it would not net him a tidy sum if he made those who want their sexual appetites titillated pay for it through the nose?

Mr. Davies

I was not aware that people who made vast profits out of pornographic literature and films were getting away scot-free. If one wants to take action, the right and possibly courageous way is to do it through social legislation, not fiscal. I do not think that the Chairman of the Board of Inland Revenue would take kindly to having to watch films such as "Last Tango in Paris" to decide whether they were pornographic.

Mr. McCrindle

Would this be a tax on men only?