The Green Baroness welcomed Client Earth’s latest legal victory over the government regarding its inadequate plans to protect human health by reducing air pollution. Continue reading “‘Brilliant’ Client Earth victory on air pollution”
Author: jonesjb
Save our pubs
“This is pub week and that’s where I’m headed this afternoon. Along with other Parliamentarians, I am paying a visit to the ancient Red Lion pub. My favourite pub, out of the dozens I really like, is The Royal Oak in Cerne Abbas, Dorset. It combines cosiness with good food and good beer. Continue reading “Save our pubs”
Jenny protests at the Lords acceptance of the Investigatory Powers Bill
This is a quote from Edward Snowden that Jenny yesterday read out in the Lords as the Labour Party allowed the Government to pass the third reading of Investigatory Powers Bill:
Edward Snowden is a former NSA contractor and whistleblower
There were boos when she declared the source of the speech and she finished by saying she believed the House would regret it’s failure to stop the Bill.
Jenny speaks out against the detention of pregnant women
Jenny initiated an hours debate (Question for Short Debate) on the detention of pregnant women. The debate takes place today in Grand Committee. The government is failing to tell support groups how many pregnant women are currently being detained. Jenny believes that NO pregnant women should be detained. The terrible stress, anxiety and hardship associated with detainment can only injure mothers and unborn children and should not be tolerated by a civilised society. Here she explains her views
Police officers, like the rest of us, deserve more legal protection from drivers
The severe injuries inflicted on a woman police officer and her colleague on Sunday night, by someone driving a car are terrible and awful, but not exceptional. In the last seventeen years, seven police officers on foot have been killed while doing their duty and the drivers jailed. A further two officers died horribly when their car was deliberately rammed by a drunk driver. I am excluding all the deaths in road traffic incidents that come from misjudgments and have been classed as so-called ‘accidents’. The nine deaths were the result of officers trying to stop criminals who used half a ton of metal as a weapon.
Continue reading “Police officers, like the rest of us, deserve more legal protection from drivers”
702 bus deaths and serious injuries prompt legislative amendment from Green Peer
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb has tabled an amendment to the Bus Services Bill aiming to improve the safety record of bus operators [1]. New figures show that in 2015 there were 5,381 collisions with buses and coaches, of which 64 resulted in deaths and 638 resulted in serious injuries. Buses are three times more likely than cars to be involved in a collision resulting in a death or serious injury [2]. Continue reading “702 bus deaths and serious injuries prompt legislative amendment from Green Peer”
Trident and the nuclear future that the next generation will pay for
I find it staggering that this government has signed us up for billions of pounds of spending on technology that belongs to the cold war era. Continue reading “Trident and the nuclear future that the next generation will pay for”
Investigatory Powers Bill incredibly repressive – the end of privacy in the UK?
Jenny blogs outside the House of Lords in this YouTube link
Blacklisting question
I’m asking the \Government this question in the Lords today:
“…what plans do they have to strengthen provisions in the Investigatory Powers Bill to increase the protection of data relating to trade union and political activities?”
Blacklisting destroys lives because employers can use it to punish people who stand up to them. Major employers can plunge families into poverty by stopping people working their chosen trade in the mainstream of a particular industry. In the construction industry, it was used to destroy the ability of working people to organise in defence of a safe working environment, which for several decades has been a matter of life and death.
I’m very concerned that the police and the state colluded in this horrible practice by sharing information with blacklisting companies. We know that undercover officers spied on trade unionists and the Pitchford Inquiry into undercover policing must assess whether this information was used by blacklisting companies. The Investigatory Powers Bill gives the police expanded powers to potentially do much worse damage to people’s lives in the future, but I don’t see the strong safeguards in place to stop systematic information sharing people’s personal information with private companies.
John McDonnell MP has been very involved in helping to expose the links between blacklisting companies and the state. The ex-director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti, has become a Labour peer. I hope that this will translate into the Labour Party doing everything it can to amend and oppose the appalling IP Bill in the Lords.
My letter in support of Hate Crime Awareness Week
“We live in difficult times and it’s ever more important that every person, no matter their background, age, gender, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, beliefs or ethnicity, should be allowed to live their lives free of the fear of being abused or attacked because of who they are. It’s not only a human right, it also makes our society function better. Our towns, cities, and countryside are happier, more secure places when we accept and enjoy diversity. Continue reading “My letter in support of Hate Crime Awareness Week”
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb 