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Two political campaigners hired by the Conservatives to run their digital campaign at the next general election previously helped run an enormous Facebook propaganda network. Sean Topham and Ben Guerin have been employed to improve the party’s online operations, following a disastrous 2017 election when the Tories were outgunned by Labour in internet campaigning.
This summer, it was revealed how Sir Lynton Crosby’s CTF Partners used Facebook to run a large-scale professional disinformation network on behalf of paying clients including major polluters, the Saudi Arabian government, anti-cycling groups and various foreign political campaigns. CTF Partners have also previously lobbied for tobacco companies and have been linked to a high-sugar drinks brand.
Documents seen by The Guardian show that Topham and Guerin, while working as contractors for CTF Partners, had oversight of dozens of these pages which sidestepped Facebook’s rules on transparent political campaigning, reaching tens of millions of people on behalf of paying clients while appearing to be grassroots independent news sources. All parties have previously pointed out that they operated entirely within the law.
The hiring of the two New Zealanders comes as transparency campaigners warned that the UK was still not prepared to regulate online campaigning during the next general election, despite lengthy investigations into the use of Facebook advertising during the 2016 EU referendum. All political parties expect the social network to be a major battleground during the next general election, with one senior No 10 source saying “this will be Carole’s worst nightmare” – a reference to the Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr, who has worked to expose the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Source: The Guardian, 23 October 2019
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US health regulators have judged a type of smokeless tobacco to be less harmful than cigarettes. The announcement, made on Tuesday 22nd October, makes Swedish Match tobacco pouches the first 'reduced-risk' tobacco product ever sanctioned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
FDA regulators stressed that their decision does not mean the pouches are safe, just less harmful, and that all tobacco products pose risks. The pouches will still bear mandatory government warnings that they can cause mouth cancer, gum disease and tooth loss.
The announcement means Swedish Match will be able to advertise its tobacco pouches as posing a lower risk of lung cancer, bronchitis, heart disease and other diseases than cigarettes. The pouches of ground tobacco, called snus have been popular in Scandinavian countries for decades but are a tiny part of the US tobacco market. Users stick the teabag-like pouches between their cheek and gum to absorb nicotine. Unlike regular chewing tobacco, the liquid from snus is generally swallowed, rather than spit out. Chewing tobacco is fermented; snus goes through a steamed pasteurization process.
FDA acting commissioner Ned Sharpless said the agency based its decision on long-term, population-level data showing lower levels of lung cancer, emphysema and other smoking-related disease with the use of snus. Sharpless added that the agency will closely monitor Swedish Match's marketing efforts to ensure they target adult tobacco users, saying: "anyone who does not currently use tobacco products, especially youth, should refrain from doing so."
Source: Time, 22 October 2019
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The South Korean government has advised people to stop using e-cigarettes citing health concerns and vowed to speed up an investigation into whether e-cigarette sales should be banned.
“The current situation is considered as a serious risk to public health,” South Korea’s health minister Park Neung-hoo said, citing cases of lung injuries associated with e-cigarette use in the United States.
Source: Reuters, 23 October 2019
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PQ1 - 5 Tobacco smuggling:
Asked by Charlie Elphicke, Dover:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what powers he has to sanction tobacco manufacturers for failing to control their supply chain and prevent contraband tobacco entering the UK.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of tobacco manufacturers’ ability to control their supply chain to prevent contraband tobacco coming into the UK.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with tobacco manufacturers on the adequacy of controls in their supply chains.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with tobacco manufacturers on preventing the smuggling of their product into the UK.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with tobacco manufacturers on the control of their supply chain.
Answered by Simon Clarke, the Exchequer Secretary
In 2006, Parliament introduced stringent rules requiring all UK tobacco manufacturers to control their supply chains. These rules required them to take steps to avoid supplying cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco to persons who are likely to smuggle them into the UK or resupply them to other persons who are likely to do the same.
Tobacco manufacturers can face penalties of up to £5m for failing to comply with the rules.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) robustly challenge tobacco manufacturers’ supply chain policies and procedures to ensure their continued compliance with the rules. This has involved ongoing contact and regular meetings between HMRC’s Large Business Team and manufacturers since the legislation was introduced.
One aspect of this ongoing contact is the requirement that manufacturers inspect seizures of over 100,000 cigarettes or 50kg of hand rolling tobacco and provide a summary of how those goods, if confirmed genuine, got in to the hands of smugglers. Large Business review and challenge these summaries to ensure manufacturers have taken appropriate action, in line with their own published supply chain policies.
Due to taxpayer confidentiality it is not possible to provide comment on the progress of HMRC’s discussions with individual businesses about their supply chain controls.
Source: Hansard, HC Deb, 22 October 2019
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The House of Lords debated items relating to health and social care set out in the Queen's speech on October 22nd 2019.
Notable points relating to smoking included the following from Lord Young (referencing an article in the Telegraph during the Conservative leadership contest):
"It [the article] went on to say: “The former foreign secretary wants to reverse the interventionist policies pursued by Theresa May and David Cameron in favour of a more liberal agenda”. I assume that he has subsequently relented, as he now refers to himself as a one-nation Tory leading a one-nation Government. As a former chairman of One Nation in another place, I am delighted that he is now one of us. However, one-nation Conservatism embraces a benign paternalism that is prepared to take public health measures in the national interest.
"We are suspicious of neoliberalism, with its overreliance on the free market with minimum state intervention, as implied in the quotation to which I referred. Noble Lords may recall the cries of “nanny state” whenever people make this speech. I remember hearing it when we debated the compulsory wearing of seat belts—which was introduced by a Conservative Government—with crash helmets for motorcyclists, with health warnings on cigarettes and with the banning of smoking in public places. No one would now go back on those reforms, which have saved countless lives and reduced demands on the NHS.
"However, we need to build on them, giving adequate resources to Public Health England and to local authorities for their public health responsibilities. Making England smoke free by 2030, which is the objective of the prevention Green Paper, will require introducing measures so far turned down, some of them based on the polluter pays principle."
From Lord Rennard:
"A second threat to the NHS plan is the Government’s lack of commitment to funding public health initiatives to address issues such as obesity, overconsumption of alcohol and tobacco smoking [...] Government funding is also being denied for cost-effective advertising campaigns which promote ways in which people are helped to quit tobacco. The amount spent on these campaigns in 2018-19 is less than half of that spent in 2015-16 and just 10% of the amount spent 10 years ago. Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable, premature death in the UK, killing around 100,000 people every year, which is around 300 people per day. The Government have committed to considering a “polluter pays” approach for the tobacco companies. Although there is no reference to this in the gracious Speech, I hope that they will now act on this principle to help deliver the additional national and local tobacco control activity needed to achieve their own target of a smoke-free England by 2030."
Source: Hansard, 22 October 2019
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For more information call 020 7404 0242, email [email protected] or visit www.ash.org.uk
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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