How do you split food into "luxury" and "basic" foods? A 1 pound loaf of bread is "basic", a 5 pound loaf is "luxury"? What an impossible task. Far easier to put the VAT on all food and then send a rebate check to everybody on the assumption that the average food spend is "basic" and anything above average food spend is "luxury". Same thing for home energy. Heating a 1000 square foot flat is "necessity", heating a 5000 square foot flat is "luxury"....