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”
Author: jonesjb
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”
Prevent is not fit for purpose
Responding to the comments by David Anderson QC, the outgoing chair of the Government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation,that Prevent should be reviewed and overhauled, Baroness Jenny Jones said:
“The fact that many people, especially within the Muslim community, are refusing to cooperate with Prevent is clearly damaging its effectiveness and that alone is a good reason for a review. Continue reading “Prevent is not fit for purpose”
Tougher regulation of ivory trade not as good as a ban
Along with the great, the good and the not so good, I signed a letter to the Prime Minister asking for a ban on the Ivory trade. The Government has responded to the campaign by Action for Elephants and others, by toughening up the regulations governing the trade. However, as an addendum to the letter explains, this falls short of what really needs to be done in order to help safeguard the lives of elephants and rhinos from the people who hunt them.
Green supporters who switched to Corbyn will feel let down by a Labour Party supporting an expensive, damaging, dinosaur technology like Hinkley
“Nuclear power was the future when I was growing up. My very clever Cambridge-educated late brother even worked on the house-sized new computers at a nuclear power station in the early 60’s. Back then, the talk was of free energy for the masses. Continue reading “Green supporters who switched to Corbyn will feel let down by a Labour Party supporting an expensive, damaging, dinosaur technology like Hinkley”
Jenny hosts CPRE report launch event
On Tuesday evening Jenny hosted an event for the Campaign to Protect Rural England in the House of Lords ‘River Room’.
CPRE were launching their report entitled ‘Safe under us?’ – the report is an investigation into widespread threats from house-building in the London Metropolitan Green Belt and highlights how government policies and sanctions appear to be forcing councils to release Green Belt land for development. Continue reading “Jenny hosts CPRE report launch event”
Government rejects diesel scrappage scheme to reduce air pollution and early deaths
Baroness Jenny Jones, the Green Party peer in House of Lords, said:
“The lack of Government funding is a clear message to the Mayor of London and those local authorities considering serious action on air pollution that they will have to go it alone. Continue reading “Government rejects diesel scrappage scheme to reduce air pollution and early deaths”
Jenny speaks in House debate on Fracking
On Tuesday Baroness McIntosh of Pickering, Chair of the Licensing Act 2003 Committee, asked whether HMG plan to ensure that the three tests set out by the Committee on Climate Change with regard to shale gas exploitation by fracking are met before any fracking work proceeds, and if so, how. Continue reading “Jenny speaks in House debate on Fracking”
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb 