Category: Other issues

No fracking Mondays

Published on by iwin1961

 

The fight for local democracy and basic ecological common sense continues its frontline on an A-Road in Preston, Lancashire. It is where locals and protectors from across the country have been standing up against the fracking firm, Cuadrilla, and the Government’s dash for dirty gas. Throughout August and September, Green Party members are joining the protests en masse each Monday at Preston New Road. These “Green Mondays” have seen hundreds of Greens taking direct action while promoting the ecological alternatives to fracking. Continue reading “No fracking Mondays” →

Going vegan for a week

Published on by iwin1961

After hearing about the film ‘Cowspiracy’ which outlines the major impacts of industrialised dairy production on both the environment and the animals themselves, I thought I would rise to the challenge and join in with the Vegan Society’s ‘plate up for the planet’ week. I have to admit to being a bit wary.  Continue reading “Going vegan for a week” →

Best way to reduce congestion is to reduce traffic

Published on by iwin1961

Yesterday, the Lords debated congestion and being the only green in the room, I said what the experts say – we need ‘pay as you go’ driving. I was pleased that I got a bit of support from some of the Labour and Lib Dem peers. The government don’t deny it will work, they just think it will be unpopular with motorists. Continue reading “Best way to reduce congestion is to reduce traffic” →

Human Rights in Balochistan

Published on by iwin1961
I am hosting an event called “Wall of Silence: Human Rights in Balochistan“, that will be taking place in Committee Room 2 on 19 July 2017 18:30 – 20:00. Human Rights Watch described the violations in Balochistan as reaching ‘epidemic proportions’ Despite being Pakistan’s largest province and rich in resources, Balochistan is one of its least developed.

Continue reading “Human Rights in Balochistan” →

Resist this executive power grab

Published on by iwin1961
Labour must toughen up and be prepared to fight for all existing EU protections, in both Houses of Parliament. As Liberty has said today “If the Repeal Bill passes in this state, people in the UK will lose rights after Brexit. It’s that simple and the stakes are that high.”
I really hope that Labour will not only ‘oppose’ the Government dropping things like the Charter of Fundamental Rights, or the Precautionary Principle, but will join with other parties in putting forward some positive proposals for new institutions to replace the EU ones we are leaving behind.
The Government is trying to create regulatory systems in a way that by-passes Parliament, using Henry the 8th powers. This executive power grab must be resisted. The Grenfell fire has shown us the dangers of leaving regulation and enforcement to Ministers who have an ideological aversion to red tape. Given the government’s appalling failure to reduce air pollution and defend public health, it would be ridiculous to put them in charge of creating an enforcement body for the post-Brexit UK. Both MPs and peers need to assert themselves and work across party boundaries to come up with smart proposals for replacing EU institutions. We could start with a new Clean Air Act and an independent enforcement body along the lines of the Environmental Protection Agency in the US. A UK agency that can set standards, enforce them and be accountable in the courts if it fails to protect either human health and/or our environment.

Brexit, a Clean Air Act and cycle lanes

Published on by iwin1961

Brexit will impact on every aspect of our lives, creating endless trauma but also the chance to improve things. We will need our own laws and our own enforcement agencies, and it’s an opportunity to create a body like the Environmental Protection Agency in the US, with its own staff, legal powers and a culture of independence from Government.
Continue reading “Brexit, a Clean Air Act and cycle lanes” →

People die and this government sits on its hands

Published on by iwin1961

The Mayor of London issued a high pollution alert on Tuesday evening, but not the government, not the NHS, nor Public Health England, nor the Met Office and I didn’t notice anything on the BBC. Sadiq Khan has broken the silence which DEFRA managed to maintain for over a decade when Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson were Mayors. He has quite rightly decided that the public’s health comes first and efforts should be made to warn them when we have a bad pollution episode. Unfortunately, the Met Office, the NHS and the BBC outside of London, all wait for DEFRA to act before telling the public and that is why the system of alerts has failed so badly.

The government have deliberately played down the health impacts of air pollution for twenty years, because they want to do the minimum they can get away with. If they regularly issued press releases telling people to avoid exercise, or busy roads, or even not to drive in pollution hotspots, then the public would want to know when the problem was going to be fixed. The solutions are well known and have been put in place in cities around the world: cleaner vehicles, used less.

The EU have taken the lead in the drive for cleaner vehicles and while they did a good job with regulating diesel lorries and larger vehicles, they had a light touch approach to the car manufacturers. That approach failed miserably. Many car makers put profit before people and cheated on the tests. The differences between performance in the test and the reality on the roads can be measured in human lives cut short.

Meanwhile, Labour, Conservative and coalition governments have all failed to reduce traffic. In fact, they have acted to encourage traffic growth with new roads and cuts to public transport. The cost of driving has declined while the cost of fares has risen. Measures like pay as you go driving have been promoted by the experts, but rejected by politicians running scared of the motoring lobby. A few years go the Greens on the London Assembly even commissioned a report on how it would work in London and we shared that with Transport for London.

I’m glad that Sadiq Khan is now putting this forward as part of a London strategy to reduce traffic by 3m journeys. Such policies need our support if we are to end the public health scandal of air pollution

Four reasons to vote Green

Published on by iwin1961

Climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity and it has been largely being ignored or sidelined by the bigger political parties. Yet last year was the hottest on record and those records are being beaten at an increasing rate. Huge cracks are emerging in the polar ice at the same time as Trump has tried to sink the Paris climate change deal. Labour has refused to oppose Heathrow expansion, which is the single most damaging policy/project for climate change and air pollution. Continue reading “Four reasons to vote Green” →

Labour manifesto: still lots of reasons to vote Green

Published on by iwin1961

Just like Caroline Lucas, I welcome the fact that so many of the Green Party ideas from our 2015 manifesto have become Labour Party policy under Corbyn. I spent 16 years on the London Assembly encouraging Ken Livingstone and even Boris Johnson, to ‘steal’ the Green Party’s ideas and put them into practice. The Living Wage Unit, Same Sex Partnerships, hire bikes and a lengthy list of other green proposals were implemented as we changed the world via proxy. That only happened because of the large numbers of Londoners who regularly voted green.

JJ and Ken at City hall

A Corbyn led Labour government would start to address inequality, reduce the queues for food banks and stop the NHS from collapsing, but it would still be wasting billions of taxpayer pounds on Trident. Labour would also condemn the next generation to decades of paying huge energy bills for a new set of outdated and redundant nukes.

Climate change is given a mention towards the back of the manifesto and we would get a new Clean Air Act. However, there is no stated opposition to Heathrow expansion which is the single most environmentally damaging project in the country. I have no doubt that most of Labour’s current MPs (outside of London) would back Heathrow expansion in a free vote and that is what Corbyn has promised them.

Another good reason to vote Green is that I don’t want to reward Labour tribalism. We Greens have done our generous best in standing down in 30 constituencies where there is a close contest, but Labour doesn’t even support PR. Labour has even expelled activists who supported a progressive alliance attempt to unseat Jeremy Hunt by swinging behind a doctor standing as an NHS candidate. I admire the local Green parties who have made the sacrifice, but Corbyn’s Labour Party have failed to respond and engage.

If the polls are right and we end up with a Conservative landslide, then it will be even more essential that we have clear Green Party voices in Parliament to help protect existing environment regulations from Theresa May’s Great Repeal Bill. We need more Green Party MPs like Caroline Lucas to push a positive agenda on renewable energy, civil liberties and reducing pollution. There’s no substitute for real Greens.