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What’s going to be in the King’s Speech?
Reporting from the BBC, The Guardian and The Times all indicate that the Tobacco and Vapes Bill will feature in the Kings Speech this week.
The Times reported “The first health measures are likely to be two left over from the previous government that have wide cross-party support. Sunak’s smoking ban ran out of time before the election and the bill, which bans anyone born after 2009 from ever buying cigarettes, is likely to feature in the King’s Speech”
See coverage here:
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Bring back nanny to tackle our health crisis
In an opinion piece in The Times, journalist Janice Turner, calls for the new labour government not to shy away from large scale public health interventions to improve the nations health.
Beginning with a summary of the success of the sugar tax, which has removed 45,000 tonnes of sugar from the nations diet since its introduction in 2018, Turner calls for the tax to be expanded not only to more types of sweet drinks but also beyond as an approach to public health.
Turner calls for Wes Streeting, new Labour Minister for Health, to “harness a national mood against corporate greed” and introduce tougher restrictions on industry where the Tories wouldn’t, forcing the food industry to cut sugar and improve the health of processed foods.
Making a comparison to the public smoking ban, Turner writes that this New Labour measure from 2007 was unpopular with working men’s clubs when first introduced but is now looked upon with complete positivity for bettering health and clearing the air quality in pubs.
Now Labour will reintroduce Sunak’s smoking ban, and Turner calls for a similar policy of extending minimum unit pricing for alcohol found in Scotland and Wales.
Turner concludes that people do have the agency to change and lead healthier lifestyles but they need the government on their side, paving the way with so called nanny state policies.
Source: The Times, 12 June 2024
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Avoidable deaths have increased in the UK: the damning data political parties aren’t discussing
Writing in the Conversation, Martin McKee Professor of European Public Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, University of Oxford and Lucinda Hiam, Geography PhD student in Geography at Oxford call for greater attention to paid by the political parties to what they call “alarming trends” in avoidable mortality rates in the UK.
They cite ONS data from January 2024 which show that life expectancy had returned to 2010-12 levels for females and slightly lower than over a decade ago for males.
Almost half of local authorities have experienced an increase in avoidable deaths between 2009 to 2022, with the gap between authorities with the highest and lowest rates widening. According to the authors this is being largely ignored by all parties.
Party manifestos, focussed on cutting waiting lists, have failed to grapple with the underlying causes of the deterioration in the nations health, the authors write, “While reducing NHS waiting lists is important, it misses the bigger picture. Why are more people needing the NHS?”.
The authors go on to argue that factors such as food poverty, poor education and housing must be addressed in order to create a long term strategy for improving the nations health.
Source: The Conversation, 12 July 2024
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.
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