I have made no secret of the fact that I think that this is an appalling Bill. When I started looking at the amendments, I had to struggle not to sign up to all of them, because they all made sense.
Author: jonesjb
Death with dignity
Natalie and Jenny wrote for Green World
Yesterday outside parliament there was a large, silent, dignified crowd. Among the placards were those reading “choice, compassion, dignity”, some bearing the pictures of loved ones who’d inspired its members to campaign.
They were sending a message to 126 peers debating the second reading of the Assisted Dying Bill, a private member’s bill put forward by crossbench peer Baroness Meacher, who put her case for the Bill on the Today programme yesterday morning. The Bill would enable adults of sound mind, with six months or less to live, to be provided with life-ending medication with the approval of two doctors and a High Court judge. A public consultation on a similar Bill began in Scotland last month. Continue reading “Death with dignity”
Police Bill – First Day of Committee Stage in the Lords
The Lords have tabled 327 amendments to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and the Government has only tabled 7 days for Committee Stage. The first day’s debate included amendments on the Police Complaints System and Child Spies
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This is an emergency and a crisis, and the Government are not stepping up
Most of us here in this Chamber will die of old age. By contrast, many of the young people at school today will die from the consequences of climate change: flash floods, droughts, and conflicts brought about by shifting climatic conditions. It is going to be an unstable world—more than it is already.
This is an emergency and a crisis, and the Government are not stepping up. For all their fine words, they do not measure up to the task.
Continue reading “This is an emergency and a crisis, and the Government are not stepping up”
Grenfell
The manufacturers of the cladding and insulation also knew they had problems with materials but carried on marketing them anyway. Are the Government going to let them get away with murder?
Environment Bill Report Stage final day
Although old train engines and boats do contribute to air pollution, they will be fairly localised and minimal compared with other emissions being pumped out by, for example, the Government building new roads or opening new coal mines—or indeed allowing the growth of incinerators all over the country that operate without proper regulations.
Sign our petition to strengthen the Environment Bill here
Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill arrives in Lords
Every time I have worked on a Bill since I arrived in the House of Lords nearly eight years ago, I have thought, “This is the worst Bill I have ever seen”, and every one is, but this is a stinker and it is quite obviously not going to help the police. If you produce a policing Bill and you cannot get former police chiefs, UN special rapporteurs, the Joint Committee on Human Rights and the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law on your side, something is wrong with it.
Continue reading “Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill arrives in Lords”
Water pollution – Environment Bill Report Stage Day 3
This is, again, clearly an issue that the Government should have put in the original Environment Bill. This is an old Bill in the sense that it was originally written in 2019. It was pathetic then and it is pathetic still.
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My Air Pollution Amendment – Environment Bill Report Stage Day 3
The City of London Corporation, London Councils, Clean Air London, a Lib Dem Peer and a Green Peer: these are people you might not think would naturally link together—but on this issue we are speaking with one voice. There is a problem and we have to fix it, and this is how you can fix it.
Continue reading “My Air Pollution Amendment – Environment Bill Report Stage Day 3”
Second Reading of the Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill
Our Government’s “hostile environment” can take most of the blame for the fact that we have left people behind in Afghanistan. I do not understand why we have an asylum regime that deliberately erects barriers and unnecessary bureaucracy every step of the way. Even before the fall of Kabul, the number of refugees who had been waiting more than a year had grown to more than 50,000.
I do not understand why we have not had the time or resources to answer the multiple cries for help from people stranded behind the Taliban roadblocks. I think it is because we have put up our own roadblocks behind the desks in Whitehall; it seems that civil servants pick through details and create blocks that are not what the majority of British people would want.
Continue reading “Second Reading of the Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill”
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb 