The BBC does investigative journalism

From the BBC:

The government has promised to push for an end to tariffs on UK-made ice cream vans during trade negotiations with the US, Australia and Japan...

The vans, many of whose owners also sell coffee, tea and frozen yogurt, are a familiar sight on UK roads.

During summer, they alert potential customers when they approach a park or suburban street by playing bursts of classic tunes, such as Greensleeves or Giovanni Capurro's O Sole Mio - known to many in the UK as the theme once used in Wall's Cornetto adverts...

[the UK] remains one of the world's leading exporters of the vehicles, which can sell for tens of thousands of pounds.

Ice Cream Shrinkage

From the BBC

Unilever, the multinational firm behind brands including Magnum and Cornetto, is to make all its ice creams aimed at adults smaller.
Ben & Jerry's tubs and Feast ice creams are among those whose portion size will shrink, according to a report in trade journal The Grocer.
Unilever said the move was to help consumers "make healthier choices."

Hahaha. I hope whoever thought that up gets a promotion. You won't hear a peep out of the government or MSM about them ripping people off.

Location, Location, Location

From the Telegraph

Roger Bannister, his brother Steven and their wives Wendy and Joyce were astounded to be charged 16 euros (£13.50) each on Sunday after ordering four ice creams at the Antica Roma bar and gelateria close to the Spanish Steps.

Well, yes. "close to the Spanish steps". Buy a small coffee on the Champs-Elysee in Paris and you pay €13 to sit outside. Walk off the Champs-Elysee and into a local cafe and you pay €4 at worst.

"And when we paid up, they didn't even say thank you," Mr Bannister, of Birmingham, told Corriere della Sera newspaper on Monday, holding up the receipt to prove the amount he had been charged.

Well, they don't really have to care. You're buying maybe one ice cream, per year from them. If they're polite or otherwise with you, they still don't get repeat business. There's plenty of other people who will do likewise.

Officials in Rome said it was shameful that the tourists had been charged so much and that such practises harmed the image of Italy.
"It's a scandal and it should be treated as such," said Matteo Costantini, a city councillor. "It's not the first time that things like this have happened." In 2009 a restaurant near Piazza Navona, one of the city's most popular with tourists, massively overcharged a Japanese couple for dinner, handing them a bill for 695 euros.

Imagine if Rome applied a bit of tax to these places? "Right, we spend a load of money keeping the Trevi fountains looking nice, the main beneficiaries of these locally are your businesses, so we're going to charge a £1m tax on your ice cream parlour, take it or leave it". Think they'd be complaining then?

It's what towns and cities do with street food licenses. The public wants a hot dog from a van, they can buy a hot dog. To avoid the street getting cluttered with vendors, they have limited numbers of licenses, but because they know that you make money hand over fist from doing it, the licenses aren't cheap, and licenses vary according to locations. Councils extract the rent for monopoly rights to locations that are enhanced by the state. It's a form of LVT that already exists in the UK and it works very well.