LONDON // An average of 12,500 more lives a year could be lost in England and Wales over the next 20 years because of the UK government's failure to regulate alcohol sales, doctors claimed yesterday.
Liver disease specialists writing in the medical journal The Lancet, accused the Conservative-led government of being "too close" to the drinks industry and failing to take the decisive action needed to curb alcohol-related deaths.
For several years, health groups in the UK have been expressing concerns over the sale of cheap alcohol, particularly in supermarkets.
Last month, the government introduced measures to "ban the selling of alcohol below cost price" which, in effect, set the minimum price for a standard bottle of wine at just over £2 (Dh12) and £8 for a 700ml bottle of spirits.
James Brokenshire, the Home Office minister who announced the measures, said at the time: "Banning the sale of alcohol below the rate of duty plus VAT is the best starting point for tackling the availability of cheap alcohol and will send a clear signal to retailers and the public that government take this issue seriously.
"They will effectively set a minimum level below which alcoholic products cannot be sold and will stop the worst instances of deep discounting, which result in alcohol being sold both cheaply and harmfully."
But the authors of yesterday's report, led by Sir Ian Gilmore, the past president of the Royal College of Physicians, said that the government measures would do no such thing.
Accusing ministers of pandering to the interests of the drinks industry, the medics said that, on health grounds, a minimum price of 50 pence per alcohol unit, which would make a bottle of wine cost at least £4 and a bottle of spirits £14, was needed.
Otherwise, the report says, between 160,000 and 250,000 extra lives could be lost in England and Wales alone because of alcohol-related illnesses over the next 20 years.
The experts pointed out that the liver death rate in the UK already stands at 11.4 per 100,000 people, more than double that of the other countries with similar drinking cultures and genetic backgrounds, such as Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden. A total of 15,000 people in England died in 2009 from alcohol-related illness, three per cent of all deaths,
"How many more people have to die from alcohol-related conditions, and how many more families devastated by the consequences before the government takes the situation as seriously as it took the dangers of tobacco?" Sir Ian said.
"We already know from the international evidence that the main ways to reduce alcohol consumption are to increase the price and reduce the availability of alcohol, yet the government continues to discuss implementing marginal measures while ignoring this evidence.
"Just as the government would expect us to treat our patients with effective medicines, we expect the government to take much stronger action to protect people from alcohol-related harm, when will that happen?"
The report accuses UK drinks producers and retailers of being "reliant on people risking their health to provide profits". It said that, according to research by the Department of Health, three quarters of alcohol was consumed by hazardous and harmful drinkers.
But the report says that recent steps taken by the government gave "cause for concern" about ministers' commitment to end harmful drinking habits.
"Plans to ban the sale of alcohol beverages below cost [duty plus value added tax] and to increase duty on beer over 7.5 per cent strength are inconsequential because of the tiny fraction of sales that fall into either category.
"These policies suggest that the government remains too close to industry and lacks clear aspiration to reduce the impact of cheap, readily available, and heavily marketed alcohol on individuals and society."
The authors claimed that it would be "relatively straightforward" for government to control alcohol consumption through price, place of sale and promotions.
However, David Poley, the chief executive of the Portman Group, which represents the UK drinks industry, said: "Latest government statistics show alcohol-related deaths actually fell in the UK last year and we want to see that continue.
"That's why the industry puts its energies into funding health education campaigns and working with people who are serious about reducing alcohol misuse in the UK.
"Creating doomsday scenarios is not in anyone's best interests, least of all the responsible majority of people who enjoy alcohol in moderation as part of a healthy lifestyle."
dsapsted@thenational.ae
Company profile
Company: Verity
Date started: May 2021
Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Size: four team members
Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000
Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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