Author: iwin1961

Writer. Communications professional. Policy wonk. Problem solver. Father. Cyclist. I like the music I like and playing football.

Protecting human rights post Brexit

Published on by iwin1961

The Government promised that the EU Withdrawal Bill would bring across all the EU laws and turn them into British laws, so why aren’t they doing that? By exempting the Charter of Fundamental Rights they are significantly weakening the current system of human rights protection in the UK. If that is their intention, then let the Government have a proper discussion about it, rather than sneaking it through as an exemption in part of the much broader debate about the EU Bill. Continue reading “Protecting human rights post Brexit” →

The voices of refugee women must be heard!

Published on by iwin1961

A debate in the Lords gave us the chance to discuss how the Government could give a voice to the thousands of women in Britain who’ve fled violence, conflict and persecution. Refugees come to Britain seeking protection and safety, having escaped unimaginable horrors – but all too often, as a nation, we neglect to give sufficient attention to what happens to people after they’ve arrived, and fail to provide them with the basic tools to rebuild their lives here. Language, and being able to communicate with others, is perhaps the most fundamental of these tools; which is why I was appalled to read research from the charity Refugee Action which shows that refugees are having to wait for up to three years to start English classes, as a result of Government funding cuts of over 50% since 2010 to classes for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). Continue reading “The voices of refugee women must be heard!” →

Replacing the Lords would be a fitting step for the centenary of women’s suffrage

Published on by iwin1961

1918 was a triumph for democracy that came out of the tragedy of war, as three times more people were entitled to vote in the general election than in pre-war times. Unfortunately, that democratic revolution stopped at the doors of the Commons.  A hundred year later and the Lords remains an old fashioned male bastion: only a quarter of the peers are women. To this day the galleries overlooking the Lords Chamber are called “Peeresses Galleries” – the place where Lords wives are supposed to sit to watch the men debate. The simplest way to accelerate change would be to have an elected second chamber using a system of fair votes. Continue reading “Replacing the Lords would be a fitting step for the centenary of women’s suffrage” →

I still want to leave the EU, but I absolutely cannot support the [Government’s] Bill as it stands.

Published on by iwin1961

My speech to the Lords yesterday here and below

My Lords, I did something very controversial during the EU referendum campaign: I went against my own party’s remain position. I campaigned to leave the EU because the EU is a top-down project designed to promote endless industrial development and economic growth. It remains my strongly held belief that we can have a greener, fairer, healthier country by leaving the European Union. In taking this view, I feel a strong personal responsibility to Greens everywhere and to the country to do what I can to ensure that Brexit is a success for the environment. I still want to leave the EU, but I absolutely cannot support the Bill as it stands. Continue reading “I still want to leave the EU, but I absolutely cannot support the [Government’s] Bill as it stands.” →

A 25 Year Environment Strategy that won’t last five minutes

Published on by iwin1961

The Government’s long awaited 25 year strategy for saving the environment will make very little impact on decisions made in the Treasury or other Ministries, unless there is hard law to make sure it all happens. 

With the UK government already in breach of many of its environmental commitments, environmental campaigners are increasingly reaching for the law in order to make change happen. Client Earth have taken the Government to court over air pollution, and won three times. It’s taken repeated legal threats from the EU for the Government to do anything about cleaning up our polluted rivers. Continue reading “A 25 Year Environment Strategy that won’t last five minutes” →

25 years before we stop putting ‘avoidable’ plastic waste into our Oceans?

Published on by iwin1961
The Government made a ban on plastics the centrepiece of its 25 year Environment Plan, but leaked documents have since shown it is lobbying against the 65% recycling target for urban waste by 2035 which the EU is proposing. The 25 year plan aims for “zero avoidable plastic waste by the end of 2042″, which is just too little, too late.
If plastic is avoidable, then we should be avoiding it as soon as feasibly possible. Our seas are already choking on plastic – we can’t keep going on like this for another 24 years.

Continue reading “25 years before we stop putting ‘avoidable’ plastic waste into our Oceans?” →

Imagine clean air being a legal right

Published on by iwin1961

Imagine if clean air were a legal right, even if you are working in a busy city, or living under an airport flight path. Imagine being the parents of a child whose lungs are underdeveloped because of local traffic and being able to use this legal right to take the local council or the Government to court because of their failure to act. Imagine a Citizen Commission whose job it is to help people with the legal enforcement of their right to healthy air.

This legal right to clean air and a Citizen Commission to enforce it are the core proposals of the draft Clean Air Bill which I intend to put forward in the Lords. It has been drawn up by a legal expert commissioned by the Clean Air London campaign and I hope to gain support from a range of green NGOs in the coming weeks. Continue reading “Imagine clean air being a legal right” →

New year will start with a recycling crisis

Published on by iwin1961
Here in the UK we have an emerging problem with plastic. Huge amounts of plastic waste, supposedly due for recycling, could end up in UK incinerators in 2018 as China imposes restrictions on the type of recyclable materials it is willing to import. Greenpeace estimates that 2.7m tonnes of plastic waste has been shipped from the UK to China between 2012 and 2016. Yet despite warnings from the industry, our government has done nothing to build up the capacity to recycle plastics in this country.

Continue reading “New year will start with a recycling crisis” →