Customs and Excise Commissioners v. Viva Gas Appliances Ltd., [1983] BTC 5064, [1983] 1 WLR 1445, [1984] 1 All E.R. 112 (HL)

The replacement of coal-burning fireplaces in old houses by gas furnaces was found to be the supply of services "in the course of the construction, alteration or demolition of any building". An argument that the alteration was not sufficiently substantial in relation to the building as a whole to fall within the meaning of the quoted phrase was rejected. (Finance Act 1972)

"In the case of a word which is capable of bearing various shades of meaning, the fact that it is included in a list of words of greater precision in which some common characteristic can be discerned may enable one to say that the chameleon word takes its colour from those other words and of its possible meanings bears that which shares the characteristic that is common to the others." However, respecting the phrase "construction, alteration or demolition of any building", the words "'construction' and 'demolition', have no common colour for 'alteration', which is sandwiched between them, to take. 'Demolition' so far from sharing a common characteristic with 'construction' is its antithesis."