Category: National insecurity

The money we are spending on weapons would be better spent on almost anything else – no civilised state should sell weapons and all civilised states should be working to avoid war, not enable it

Jenny has worked with Caroline Lucas MP, lawyers and campaigners to scrutinise political assassinations by drones, to oppose the sale of arms and to argue against the renewal of the Trident nuclear missile

Read on for her latest posts on this issue

Crowdfunder to support Jenny’s work

Published on by jonesjb

Please support our work

Unlike MPs, who receive state funding, members of the House of Lords don’t receive any financial support to employ staff or fund office costs.

As the only Green in the House of Lords, covering as many issues as I can, I need staff to help me with research and press work. I have a small, part time team (equivalent to one full time person) who are paid for from donations from people like you.

Without funding for a communications officer, I can’t promote my Clean Air Bill in Parliament which aims to establish clean air as a human right. Without staff support I can’t write the letters, or Parliamentary questions which challenge the government and police over the way they are imposing fracking on communities who don’t want it.

I fight for civil liberties

Earlier this year, I initiated the first Parliamentary debate on facial recognition technology. Alongside Big Brother Watch I am taking the Met Police and Government to court for their failure to regulate the use of facial recognition technology.

It was revealed a few years ago that the Metropolitan Police had designated me a “domestic extremist” and gathered intelligence about my political and protest activities. This has given me a personal connection to the struggles of others, such as the women whose lives were invaded by undercover officers.

I regularly ask oral questions to Ministers about civil rights and hold the police to account, but I need the staff to help me draft these questions and to liaise with the NGOs and friendly lawyers.

Stopping the hard Brexit power grab

I have worked hard during the last year to safeguard our liberties and environmental protections, as part of the EU Withdrawal Bill. My next job is to stop even worse policies going through as part of the Trade Bill, which includes an attempt to grant even more Henry 8th type powers to Ministers to by-pass Parliament when making decisions.

Staff working with me behind the scenes help comb through vast amounts of complex Bills and give me the detailed information I need to contribute to debates and propose amendments.

I am the only Green in the House of Lords, one of only two Green voices in Parliament at this critical time for our planet, please support my work by contributing to our crowdfunder

The cost risk of Trident

Published on by jonesjb

The latest report by the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) reveals that the Dreadnought programme will far outstrip the MoD’s allocated budget of £41bn. BASIC’s  report illustrates in clear detail the cost risk of Trident renewal to the UK’s Defence budget; Dreadnought’s through life costs are likely to be between £110-14bn. Continue reading “The cost risk of Trident” →

A women’s revolution under attack

Published on by iwin1961

There are so many things to celebrate and campaign about this International Women’s Day, but the immediacy of the crushing violence being inflicted on the women’s revolution in Afrin, Syria, deserves more attention.

Afrin is one of the three cantons in the north of Syria, where women have taken active leadership in all spheres of society –  a rarity in this region. The area was liberated from the grip of ISIS by Kurdish forces who received the backing of the USA, but the area has now been invaded by Turkey in a clear violation of international law. Continue reading “A women’s revolution under attack” →

Why I wear both the red and white poppy

Published on by iwin1961

I wear a red poppy, but I wear a white one too. One of the defining features of modern wars is the vast numbers of civilians who are killed as well. Over 140,000 civilians are estimated to have died in the Iraq war or its aftermath. The white poppy is one way of remembering them. From those thousands in Iraq to the Londoners who died in the blitz and the citizens of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the white poppy speaks for them. When the red wreaths are laid at the cenotaph and at numerous memorials around the country, would a wreath of white poppies be out of place? Should we remember all of the dead, or only those in uniforms? Continue reading “Why I wear both the red and white poppy” →

When the NHS catches a computer bug are security services to blame?

Published on by iwin1961
There is no doubt that the delays and disruption caused by the NHS computer virus could have been avoided. The government could have used a fraction of the multi-billion security budget to enable hospital trusts to update ageing software. However, instead of being focused on designing out crime as they promised to do, western security services are doing the opposite. The US government and our own, are pressuring companies like Microsoft and others to create ‘backdoors’ which open up our privacy and security to attack if they are leaked.

Continue reading “When the NHS catches a computer bug are security services to blame?” →