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** 21 January 2021
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** UK
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** Tony Blair backs cross-party calls for new child poverty strategy (#1)
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** Bradford: Shops used 'sophisticated' hiding places to store illegal cigarettes (#2)
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** International
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** New Zealand: Record illicit tobacco seizures in 2020 (#3)
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** Mexico: Tigres boss Ferretti banned for smoking during game (#4)
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** UK
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**
Tony Blair has endorsed cross-party calls for a new national child poverty strategy amid concerns about rising social inequality as a result of COVID-19 and forecasts that a third of all UK children could be living below the poverty line by 2024.
The former Labour prime minister reiterated the aim of eradicating child poverty within a generation, calling it “huge and urgent but achievable”. “I fear the economic scarring left by the pandemic and lockdowns will further turbo-charge the reversal of the gains made between 1999 and 2010, while we can currently only guess the long-term effects on children’s education and wellbeing,” Blair stated.
Blair’s intervention follows calls by Anne Longfield, children’s commissioner for England, and figures from across the political spectrum including the Conservative MP and education committee chair, Robert Halfon, in demanding concerted action to tackle the “blight of child poverty”. Longfield said the UK had reached a ‘’tipping point’’ whilst Halfon, who this week voted with Labour on a Commons motion to retain the £20 boost for universal credit, called for a child food security programme to be drawn up.
Other supporters of the call for a new child poverty strategy include Tory peer Philippa Stroud, a former policy adviser to Sir Iain Duncan Smith when he was welfare secretary, Labour chair of the work and pensions select committee, Stephen Timms, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and the Trussell Trust food bank charity.
The government is already under increasing pressure over its refusal to commit to retaining a £20 a week top-up to universal credit beyond April and amid fresh demands from the footballer Marcus Rashford to overhaul the free school meals system. “We are committed to making sure every child gets the best start in life, and this is central to our steadfast determination to level up opportunity across the country’’, a Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said.
Source: The Guardian, 21 January 2021
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** Editorial note
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** At this time of uncertainty articles are being included in Daily News if they cover issues likely to have an impact on tobacco control or smoking cessation even if they are not specifically mentioned.
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The owner of two Bradford convenience shops has admitted using a number of secret compartments to hide counterfeit tobacco he was selling. The shop owner pleaded guilty on Tuesday 19th January to several charges related to the sale of illicit cigarettes and was ordered to pay almost £10,000 and carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.
Secret compartments included a hidden compartment beneath a light on a stairway leading to a cellar which could only be opened by a hydraulic piston, and a compartment behind a paper towel dispenser in a kitchen area.
Officers seized over 18,000 illegal cigarettes and 13 pouches of illicit tobacco. A further 9,000 cigarettes were found in a flat above the store.
Source: Telegraph & Argus, 21 January 2021
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** International
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New Zealand Customs statistics have revealed that customs officers made record seizures of illicit tobacco in 2020.
The record for the largest illegal tobacco seizure in a single shipment was broken twice over the course of the year, as Customs intercepted 2.2 million cigarettes hidden inside stacks of metal frames exported from Malaysia in July and then 2.39 million cigarettes hidden inside construction materials in August. The figures stand in stark contrast to those of even 4 years ago, with only 585,917 cigarettes and cigars intercepted at the border in 2016.
Customs investigations manager Bruce Berry said that most smuggled cigarettes originate out of countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia. In some Southeast Asian countries cigarette packets can be bought for less than $1 (50p) and then illegally sold in New Zealand for about $20 (£10.50). The seizures totalled nearly $9m (£4.7m) in street value.
Record seizures come after new importation rules were introduced in July. The rules require anyone importing tobacco products, and tobacco leaf and refuse products to have a license and allow Customs to seize all illegally imported tobacco products.
Source: Stuff, 21 January 2021
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A Brazilian football coach has been handed a one-match ban for smoking during a Mexican top-flight match. Ricardo ‘’Tuca’’ Feretti, coach of Liga MX club Tigres, was photographed smoking a cigarette on the bench during Tigres’ 2-0 loss at Santos on January 18^th. Tigres won the CONCACAF Champions League last year and could face Bayern Munich in next week’s FIFA Club World Cup.
FIFA and Liga MX regulations strictly state that smoking on the pitch, in the technical area, and tunnels and corridors is banned. Feretti faces a fine that could rise to 8000 pesos (£298) for his misdemeanor and will miss Tigres’ next league game at Atlas.
Tigres president Alejandro Rodriguez said he was surprised by Feretti’s behaviour because Feretti ’looks after himself a lot’. “I would like to believe that it’s a photoshop. He must have been very nervous to dare do that’’ said Rodriguez.
Source: ESPN, 21 January 2021
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