The Know Daily - Tuesday 11th April 2023

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A Suffolk golf club which offers free sessions for people with dementia has been named club of the year at the 2023 England Golf Awards. Seckford Golf Club, which is owned by its members, introduced its hugely successful Dementia Golf days last year. Manager Tony Pennock said the idea for the initiative came from seeing his parents live with the illness. He told the BBC that his aim is to offer “happiness and comradery”, adding that putting a golf club in the hands of people with dementia totally “transforms them”.

🚭 Swap to stop

One million cigarette smokers in England will be given a free vape starter kit as part of a wider government push to make the nation “smoke free”.

How will the scheme work?
Westminster will work with local authorities to roll out the scheme - estimated to cost around £45 million - over the next two years. This will see almost one in five smokers in England receive a vape kit, alongside behavioural support. Health minister Neil O’Brien will say in a speech later today that the “swap to stop” scheme is the first of its kind in the world, the BBC has reported.

In 2019, the government committed to getting England “smoke free by 2030” - meaning that just 5% of the population will still be smoking by then.

What other measures have been announced?
Pregnant smokers will also be offered up to £400 in shopping vouchers to quit, and a consultation will be launched focusing on whether cigarette manufacturers should be forced to put advice on quitting inside packs.

How have campaigners responded?
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) campaign, said that the plans are “welcome steps in the right direction” but “nowhere near sufficient”. Without any additional action, the government is widely expected to miss its pledge to get England smoke free by 2030.

Is there anything else I should know?
The policy announcement comes amid concerns about the rise in the number of young people choosing to vape. A survey by ASH found that vaping among 11- to 17-year-olds increased from 3.3% in 2021 to 7% last year.

Earlier this week, the government announced that it is setting up a new trading standards enforcement squad to crack down on the illegal sale of vapes to under-18s.

✈️ Should private jets be permanently grounded?

New analysis has revealed that the UK is Europe’s worst private jet polluter, with a flight taking off once every six minutes last year. Now, environmental campaigners are doubling down on their calls for a total ban on their use.

Wait - every six minutes?
Yep, that’s not a typo! The analysis by Dutch environmental consultancy CE Delft also found that the number of private jets setting off from the UK increased by 75% between 2021 and 2022, to 90,256 flights. These flights emitted 500,000 tonnes of CO2 - more than in any other European country - although the use of private jets is generally up across the continent.

Who’s using these jets?
The use of private jets by high-profile figures and organisations has hit the headlines in recent weeks. Last month, the Premier League came under fire after BBC Sport research showed that 81 short-haul domestic flights were made by teams to and from 100 matches. And in January, Downing Street was forced to defend PM Rishi Sunak’s taxpayer-funded use of a jet to visit a hospital in Leeds as “appropriate”, given his busy schedule.

Are private jets really that bad?
According to a Transport & Environment study, private jets are five to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes per passenger - and 50 times more polluting than trains. A separate study has estimated that 50% of all aviation emissions are caused by 1% of the world’s population.

So what are environmental campaigners calling for?
Greenpeace has called for a ban on private jets, describing the increase in their use as “entirely at odds with all the climate science that tells us to bring down CO2 emissions immediately”.

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has said that if the government isn’t prepared to ban private jets, then their use should at least be heavily taxed. This is a view shared by political strategist Akin Olla. This “could at least help offset the damage and put funding toward creating the kind of public infrastructure that we will need to withstand the climate crisis”, he wrote in The Guardian.

🩺 Junior doctors strike: At 7am this morning, junior doctors in England began a strike over pay which will last until Saturday. It is expected to be the most disruptive industrial action in NHS history.

🇺🇸 US election: President Joe Biden has confirmed his intention to stand for a second term in 2024 but stopped short of making an official announcement. Vice President Kamala Harris, is also planning to run again.

❌ Dalai Lama: The 87-year-old Buddhist priest has apologised after a video emerged showing him kissing a young boy on the lips and asking him to “suck my tongue”. A statement added that “his Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way”.

👑 Royal revelation: A new documentary has revealed that the Queen gave the go-ahead to send Prince Harry to fight in Afghanistan, but it was decided that the risk for William - the heir to the throne - was too great.

🥣 Bowled over: A tiny porcelain bowl from 18th century Beijing sold for more than $25 million (£20.1m) at an auction in Hong Kong over the weekend.

Trivia answer: C) Ai Weiwei’s new artwork is a 15 metre-wide reconstruction of one of Monet’s famous water lily paintings.

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