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** 24 August 2022
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** UK
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** Liz Truss vows to divert £13bn a year from NHS to councils for social care (#1)
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** International
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** Opinion: Markets are gloomy – but investors can rely on 1.1bn global smokers (#2)
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** Opinion: Smoking was costing me $1,000 a month by the end. But that’s not why I quit (#3)
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** UK
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** Liz Truss vows to divert £13bn a year from NHS to councils for social care
Liz Truss on Tuesday night vowed to divert billions of pounds for social care from the NHS to councils.
The Tory leadership frontrunner said she wanted to see the £13billion a year earmarked for the NHS from the recent National Insurance rise diverted to local authorities to pay for older people's care as soon as possible.
Truss said she was worried that too much of the money going to the NHS goes towards “diktats” and layers of bureaucracy.
The Foreign Secretary is understood by the Telegraph, to believe handing more money to social care now will benefit hospitals by transferring social care for elderly people to the community. However, her comments are expected to cause concern among some sections of the NHS due to the inevitable diversion of funds from the NHS to local councils.
Source: The Telegraph, 23 August 2022
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** International
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** Opinion: Markets are gloomy – but investors can rely on 1.1bn global smokers
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** Questor contributor Robert Stephens outlines the profitability of tobacco companies like Philip Morris International (PMI) which are less reliant upon the world economy’s performance and therefore less negatively impacted by high inflation.
Stephens states: “Smokers are likely to reduce demand for a wide range of goods and services before they cut back on cigarette consumption during an economic slowdown”, which has resulted in steady growth for PMI with “yields [of] 5pc from a dividend that has grown in every year since it became a listed company in 2008.”.
Stephens argues that the “risks” of new anti-smoking legislation and increased tobacco taxation are “outweighed by [tobacco companies] long-term growth prospects and income potential”. He points out that England’s target to reduce smoking rates to 5pc or less by 2030 has not been replicated globally. The 1.1bn people smoking cigarettes globally not “expected to materially change by 2025”.
Source: The Telegraph, 24 August 2022
Editorial note: Questor is a weekly column in the Telegraph which offers investment advice. ASH strongly discourages investment in tobacco companies which are responsible for over 8 million deaths around the world every year ([link removed]) . In addition, there are differing views as to how risky tobacco investment might be. Many experts argue that the industry faces a number of challenges which increases the risk of investment, see Tobacco Free Portfolios Toolkit ([link removed])
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** Opinion: Smoking was costing me $1,000 a month by the end. But that’s not why I quit
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** Australian journalist and author, Rick Morton, argues that the economic cost of his tobacco addiction did not provide enough motivation for him to quit, as he frequently went without food, rent and dentist appointments, and instead spent “$1000 a month - more than half the cost of [his] monthly mortgage” on cigarettes. He highlights evidence from the University of Queensland suggesting “more people now are motivated to cut down or stop smoking altogether by the cost than for health reasons ([link removed]) .”
Morton describes how the strength of his tobacco addiction controlled his life to the point of “avoid[ing] gatherings where I thought it would not be easy to smoke, or where I assumed people would prefer I didn’t”.
Morton argues his “abysmal” mental health, improper diagnosis and ineffective treatment played a crucial role in perpetuating his tobacco addiction. He cites an established link between pre-existing mental health conditions and smoking, as well as causal links between poverty or financial stress and poor mental health, which Morton states, “make the conditions for escape from addiction that much harder for those with the least”.
Morton attributes his successful quit to working from home due to the covid pandemic, which improved his mental health, his disposable income and free time to focus on self-improvement.
Source: The Guardian, 24 August 2022
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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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