Grokkist Press Reading Room

ImagineSoma IslesSnackables

🥔 What Is a Potato? (A Legal Inquiry)

Law — like borders — is completely imaginary but very real. If you find something delicious about self-serious, highly-paid people arguing with great precision over what a potato is, enjoy this VAT case on whether Walkers' 'Sensations Poppadoms' count as snack food (taxed) or not (exempt).

Grokkist Press

· 1 minute

Lawyers arguing over what a potato is
bailii.org

Law — like borders — is completely imaginary but very real. If you find something delicious about self-serious, highly-paid people arguing with great precision over what a potato is, enjoy this VAT case on whether Walkers' 'Sensations Poppadoms' count as snack food (taxed) or not (exempt). Highlights: whether potato granules are 'derived from' or 'within the concept of' potato, and the immortal observation that 'calling a snack food Hula Hoops does not mean one could twirl it around one's midriff.'

Written by

Grokkist Press

The house byline of Grokkist Press: Snackables, the Grokkist letter, and the things we make together.

More from Grokkist Press ↗ Everyone who writes here ↗

Filed in the Reading Room

Register

A reading of this piece

What is this? ↗

The Press's reading, not a score. Nothing here is better at one end than the other. See the whole Press mapped ↗

Writing like this grows in company

Hear when the next one is out.

Which letters
What's the difference?

The Grokkist letter is Danu's monthly letter about the whole Grokkist community: what people are making and thinking about, gatherings coming up, and a handful of Snackables, small good things worth your time.

The Press sends you new writing from this site as it's published (essays, talks, stories, books in instalments), plus a monthly letter from the editor. You can narrow it to the Realms you care about.

Choose either or both. Each email has a one-click way out.

Only send me Press pieces from (leave all off for everything)
What are the Realms?

Every piece in the Press lives in one or two Realms: regions of the Grokkist world, each asking for a different kind of attention. Pick the ones that draw you, and you'll only hear about pieces from those.

  • Unfolding Realm: identity and becoming
  • Entangled Vale: shared inquiry and making sense together
  • Maker's Forge: creative expression
  • Soma Isles: the body and embodied practice
  • Wild Margin: changemaking and possibility
  • Hearthlands: community and connection

Wander the Realms ↗

One click to leave, any time. We never share your address.

Check your inbox: there's a link to confirm. Then you're in.

That didn't go through. Try again, or write to [email protected].

In good company

Replies from signed-in readers. They open in their own space, so you can sit with the piece first.

Keep reading

Nearby on the shelf.