Government, the police and intelligence services are too easily given sweeping powers that they too often abuse.
Jenny works with campaigners to defend our civil liberties. She has worked on legislation like the Investigatory Powers Bill, raised the cases of victims of state power such as detained pregnant women, and defended the right to protest.
There is the emerging scandal of sexual and domestic abuse being systematically ignored within the police service when the accusations are directed at police officers by women who are their partners or even fellow officers. These are not one-offs or rotten apples; this is a systemic failure to protect women and ensure that they get justice. The victims’ code would help to redress that. Continue reading “Victims Code”
The Green Party remains utterly opposed to the entire Bill. I greatly regret that we gave it a Second Reading, it is nasty and inhumane. Clause 1(2)(b) says that “this Act gives effect to the judgement of Parliament that the Republic of Rwanda is a safe country”. Acts of Parliament are not vehicles for Parliament to express its opinion about issues, so this clause ought to be removed on that basis alone, or else we will start legislating opinions instead of laws. We have not been presented with any evidence to prove that Rwanda is safe, and we have no process to make such determinations.
The Government have created this problem by not putting in better, safe, legal routes.
They have thrown together something they call a solution that is not a solution at all.
They have dishonoured both Houses by tabling the Bill. It was wrong to bring this Bill to us; it was wrong to develop it at all. Continue reading “Rwanda Bill – Second Reading in the Lords”
The Green Party peers are supporting the Lib Dems’ Fatal Motion on Monday 29th January. The motion would stop this appalling Bill from becoming law by delaying it for more than a year, but we need the Labour Peers’ support to make it happen. Continue reading “Rwanda Bill Update”
Rishi Sunak’s government aims to enact a law – the “Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill” – that threatens our most fundamental rights. Continue reading “Rwanda Bill – sign our petition”
Continue reading “Our right to strike and the Lords right to block”
After 13 years of Tory Britain, you can spend three years in prison for erecting a climate crisis banner while sexual predators are quietly fast-tracked for release to help with prison overcrowding.
We all know who is not facing jail time: the water company CEOs who fleeced customers for billions of pounds, filled our rivers with sewage and are now asking for our bills to go up so they can take even more of our money; the Conservative Party members who benefited from the billions handed out via the PPE fast-track scheme and numerous other scams; the Tory donors from the oil and gas industry who have had their payback through tax breaks, new licences and delays in the net-zero policy. Those are climate criminals who are costing us a fortune now and costing future taxpayers billions to clean up the mess and mitigate the damage caused by flooding, wildfires, food shortages and other climate catastrophes. Continue reading “The start of a new Parliamentary session”
Baroness Jenny Jones was on the Met Police database for domestic extremists, while serving as an elected politician on the Metropolitan Police Authority, voting on their budget and holding them to account. The Observer story relates how “Government officials have drawn up deeply controversial proposals to broaden the definition of extremism to include anyone who “undermines” the country’s institutions and its values,”
Continue reading “Government plan to brand anyone ‘undermining’ UK as extremist”
The unelected House of Lords is an outdated institution and recent decisions by Labour Party Lords are pushing its constitutional role to breaking point. Continue reading “Parliamentary convention”
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb 