Author: jonesjb

Domestic Abuse Bill

Published on by jonesjb

The Green Party recognises that, in the majority of cases, the limited use of drugs for recreational purposes is not harmful; it actually has the potential to improve well-being and even enhance human relationships and creativity. However, most harmful drug use is underpinned by poverty, isolation, mental or physical illness and psychological trauma—in these cases, harmful drug use can cause a vicious circle. This Bill will have a gaping hole if it does not properly address the complex relationships between domestic abuse and harmful drug use... Continue reading “Domestic Abuse Bill” →

The Trade Bill Report Stage – My Amendment

Published on by jonesjb

20: After Clause 2, insert the following new Clause –

“Ratification of international trade agreements

(1) An international trade agreement may not be ratified unless it enables the United Kingdom to require imports to meet standards that are equivalent to the principal standards laid down by primary and subordinate legislation in the United Kingdom regarding food safety, the environment and animal welfare.

Continue reading “The Trade Bill Report Stage – My Amendment” →

Reform of leasehold and Community Land Trusts

Published on by jonesjb

Can the Minister confirm two things: first, that reform of leasehold means moving towards commonhold, and secondly, that the reforms will exempt community land trusts, which use this system in a very productive way?

Answering for HMG, Lord Greenhalgh said: I will not make such a statement today in the House but a statement will be made very shortly. Community land trusts are a separate policy matter. I agree with the noble Baroness that community land trusts are a way forward—not always the right way but one way to use land for the benefit of a particular community.

Read the whole debate on Hansard

Today I wrote to Cressida Dick regarding unlawful sexual relations between undercover police officers and their targets

Published on by jonesjb

Dear Commissioner

During the Policing and Security APPG on 14th Dec 2020 I asked you what investigations were happening within the Met on the issue of the historic unlawful sexual relations between undercover police officers and their targets.

You told me that there were no ongoing investigations, yet the HoL Minister has made it clear in the debate on the CHIS Bill that such interactions are now and always have been unlawful. It seems remiss not to examine previous instructions to establish wrongdoing by senior officers.                       

Can you please therefore outline, in full, the Met’s position on whether these sexual relations were lawful. Could you also please explain when and why the Met decided to take no further action on the issue?

The Trade Bill: Report Stage – ISDS

Published on by jonesjb

If you wanted to convince the public that international trade agreements are a way to let multinational companies get rich at the expense of ordinary people, this is what you would do: give foreign firms a special right to apply to a secretive tribunal of highly paid corporate lawyers for compensation whenever a government passes a law to, say, discourage smoking, protect the environment or prevent a nuclear catastrophe… a process known as ‘investor-state dispute settlement‘, or ISDS.
(The Economist, October 2014)

This Trade Bill the government has written includes ISDS…

Continue reading “The Trade Bill: Report Stage – ISDS” →