From the great whale to seagrass, the ocean is our greatest natural asset and carbon sink. It is vital that the UK Government secures success for our blue planet at the upcoming COP15 conference.
Category: Other issues
Jenny 100% attendance
Times Radio have obtained figures that show more than a hundred members of the House of Lords attended parliament fewer than ten times in the most recent parliamentary session.
“Only two peers attended parliament on all 156 days it was sitting: Lord Moylan, a Tory peer, and the Green Party peer Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb.
Smoke, gas and mirrors
Rishi Sunak is cutting £400 off average energy bills which have risen by £1,500. It will help, but it’s not enough. The real solution would be to double the investment in renewables which have been putting a brake on energy prices over the last year, but there is nothing in the government’s announcement that encourages that. In fact, they appear to have focused exclusively on a huge tax break for oil and gas companies that invest in UK fossil fuels – we will be asking questions on this.
Double renewables to give consumers a big payback
Green Party peer, Jenny Jones, has welcomed the big payback from renewables that will be helping to reduce energy bills in the autumn and called on the government to double the size of the investment allowed in the next round of renewable energy licenses.
The contract for difference scheme previously acted as a subsidy for renewable energy by offering investors a guaranteed price, but with rising gas prices forcing up energy bills, that guaranteed price is now well below what consumers are paying. A report by the right of centre think tank, Onward, worked out that renewables already save consumers £221 a year because they had displaced gas consumption.
Continue reading “Double renewables to give consumers a big payback”
The CPRE’s Environmental Land Management recommendations
This morning I spoke at the parliamentary launch of CPRE‘s Countryside Next Door report, I said:
The Green Party welcomes moves to improve the stewardship of green belt land and protect access to the countryside for all. These green spaces are vital for the health and wellbeing of those who live in urban areas. Recreation and access to land, which we know are so crucial to human health and well-being, need to be considered alongside what crops we grow on that land. We need to re-localise our food supply, restore the ring of market gardens and orchards that not that long ago surrounded our cities and towns. Instead of vast tracts of monoculture the Green Party wants to see the growing of fruit and vegetables, ideally in a mixed system and managed in ways that are excellent for biodiversity and nature. Continue reading “The CPRE’s Environmental Land Management recommendations”
Second Reading of Schools Bill – Home Education
This bill, if enacted, will see the destruction of the privacy rights of a minority group. The question is why? Given the intrusive nature of the proposals I would, at least, have expected some form of independently reviewed study showing that there is some kind of systemic problem with the freedoms of families who home educate which the Government has been unable to address by other means. Where is that study?
It is a very serious step to compel law abiding families who are educating their children at home, to be subject to statutory enquiries about their children, completely in the absence of any presenting problem. This approach to families crosses a line in the involvement of the state in family life. The state is going to be able to single out a discrete group of law-abiding families from their peer group and then subject them to special monitoring. Continue reading “Second Reading of Schools Bill – Home Education”
Action to ban fur and foie gras imports
I recently joined organisations campaigning to save the promised Animals Abroad Bill – which would ban imports of hunting “trophies”, fur, and foie gras as well as the promotion of elephant tourist rides overseas. I joined representatives from the “Don’t Betray Animals” Coalition who launched two enormous balloons, shaped like an elephant and a lion, above Parliament to send a clear message to Boris Johnson that animals need action, not hot air.
Clean Air comes top
My Clean Air Act is top of the Lords’ ballot for private members bills which means that it stands a good chance of getting through all three stages in the Lords, before moving into the Commons. The bill aims to protect the public against air pollution which is one of the biggest public health hazards of our time and responsible for tens of thousands of premature deaths in the UK. I’ve been working on this issue for over twenty years, but this is my best chance to get the government to take decisive action.
A draconian government tries again
The Lords deleted nearly 18 pages of the most draconian restrictions on the right to peaceful protest from the Policing Bill, but the government are now trying to bring them back. This must be opposed.
The government want to stop any protest that might get noticed and be effective. They have already got the right to ban noisy protests, now they want to clamp down on all the other forms of peaceful, non violent protest that people use to get attention. And that’s the crucial point – protestors are just people. People who work, pay taxes, study, or collect the pensions they have earned. People who see something wrong and want it to stop. People like you and me.
Blue Wall going green
The Conservatives are starting to lose their grip on rural England and Wales. Family farmers feel betrayed, country dwellers can’t let their dogs swim in the local badly polluted river and whole regions feel a post Brexit neglect.
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb 