Since the introduction of Tasers to the UK police force in 2003, the number of officers carrying tasers, as well as the number of incidents involving tasers, has grown dramatically. Between 2017 and 2018 alone, there were 18,000 reported incidents involving tasers, which have disproportionately affected black people and people with mental disabilities.
Unfortunately I couldn’t be at the meeting organised by the Blacklist Support Group but this is my message of support:
It’s been a privilege to be allied with the Blacklist Support Group in their exposure of the corruption within the police. There are direct links between the lives ruined by blacklisting, the spying on people labelled domestic extremists like myself, and the invasion of many women’s lives by undercover police. Political policing has been a nasty reality in this country for decades and I stand in solidarity with all those trade unionists and campaigners who have worked hard to expose the lies and deceits which state sponsored spying has inflicted on innocent people.
Continue reading “Green Party Peer Launches Bid To Scrap House of Lords”
Imagine investing thousands of pounds in a business that produces something everyone wants, but the government tells you that if you produce more than you need then you will have to give it to a big corporation free of charge, so they can sell it to their customers. This is state approved, corporate theft and it’s due to start this April, in the UK. Continue reading “The big solar rip off”
I had a meeting this week with Trade Minister Baroness Fairhead to discuss my amendment to the Trade Bill which aims to make our existing standards the foundation of all new trade agreements. Despite the number of advisors in the meeting on the government side, no one could give any reason why my amendment was bad in law or in principle. From what Ministers say in public, we are all in agreement about not using trade deals to lower standards. The main disagreement is over whether we need this principle enshrined in law. Continue reading “Meeting with Minister on Trade Bill changes”
The police now have a four-month period before they have to review the deployment of individual child spies. I want to know if this change in the rules by the government will lead to the police using child spies more frequently. As well as putting forward a series of written questions (below), I will ask this question of the Government on 18thMarch:
“Further to the Regret Motion of 16 October 2018, what assessment has Her Majesties Government made of the recruitment, use, deployment, numbers and oversight of children used as spies by the Police?” Continue reading “Further questions on child spies”
A data audit by Friends of the Earth has revealed the 1,845 sites across the UK that have breached the annual Air Quality Objective for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) levels, which is set to protect health. High levels of NO2 can cause a flare up of asthma or symptoms such as coughing and difficulty breathing. A leading cause of NO2 pollution is emissions from road traffic. Continue reading “Nearly 2000 air pollution ‘hotspots’”
Reducing the use of plastic and creating a market for products that use recycled plastic, is the way forward. This is how I answered the Minister when it was suggested that we burn plastic, rather than sending it abroad for ‘recycling’. Continue reading “Incinerating plastic is like burning oil”
“I voted with Labour and Lib Dem peers (plus a few Conservatives) for a motion that ruled out the diaster of a ‘no deal’ Brexit. As well as the obvious impacts on food supply, businesses and people’s lives, there is a huge backlog of legislation that the government is failing to get through.
It is staggering that by the 29th March we have to deal with: 6 major Bills; 9 statutes; 600 statutory instruments; 120,000 EU statutes to transfer in UK law; produce a schedule for WTO; and 5,000+ WTO product lines to be agreed by 163 WTO countries. The only sensible option is to rule out a no deal.”
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb 