March 1, 2023 Newsletter

The latest news about what your Green Party representatives have been doing in the House of Lords

In this issue:

· Ella’s Law progress

· Public Order Bill successes

· Genetic Technology Bill

· Retained EU Law Bill

· Strikes Bill

· Anti-Microbial Resistance work

Ella’s Law in the Commons

Jenny went with Caroline Lucas MP and Ella’s mother, Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, to 10 Downing Street to deliver a letter to the PM – urging him to take up #EllasLaw and make clean air a human right for all. The longer it takes him and his Government to clean up our dirty, toxic air, the more lives will be put at risk: they *must* support this Bill.

The 2nd reading of Ella’s Law (Clean Air Bill) in the Commons is scheduled for 24th March. Caroline has an Early Day Motion (EDM) in support of the right to breathe clean air:

• Has your MP signed in support of the EDM yet? Please email your MP and ask them to sign Caroline’s Clean Air EDM

Lords successes on Public Order Bill 

Proposed legislation aimed at curbing tactics used by protest groups has suffered eight defeats in the House of Lords. The bill still includes a draconian list of bad laws, but the Lords completely removed the crack down on disruption caused by protesters’ slow marching and the ability of the police to ban some peaceful protests ahead of time in a form of “pre-crime”.

• The Lords also rejected government amendments that would have removed the reasonable excuse (e.g. a topical debate or issue) defence from the offences of wilful obstruction of the highway and public nuisance. As these measures were only introduced when the bill reached the Lords, they cannot return as it was not in the original legislation passed by MPs. 
• In addition the Lords ditched a measure to let police exercise stop and search without suspicion to tackle disruptive demonstrations; restricted the use of protest banning orders and removed a provision that would have allowed the sanction to be imposed against people who had not been convicted of any offence. However, these laws could well return in the next few weeks as we enter the ping pong stage of voting.

Your Green Peers pushed Labour to have more votes to reject key measures of the controversial public order bill, but with only two peers we can only achieve so much

Genetic Technology Bill Final Stages

Natalie was a central figure in the debate on the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding – oh no it is not) Bill, with strong support from Labour’s Lord Winston (the IVF pioneer). Sadly, however, except for one technical but important change (here’s Beyond GM’s explanation), the Bill went through largely unamended (final day before Royal Assent next Monday) – including allowing gene editing of all plants and animals (not just ones used for food). Natalie’s first Report Stage speech covered some of the debate around the Bill, which got far more examination in the Lords than it had in the Commons

Retained EU Law Bill Committee Stage

• The government are placing a sunset clause on over 4,000 EU related laws that comes into effect at the end of next year which will mean rules covering workers rights, environmental protections and the details needed to run companies that trade with continental Europe will all be automatically deleted if they have not been reviewed and accepted by the Ministers within the next year!
• Natalie spoke this week about the environmental concerns.

As this far right government manages to be both corrupt and incompetent, this is a frightening prospect. Jenny used the opportunity of Second Reading to make a speech about rejoining the EU which has been viewed over 750,000 on twitter alone

Strikes Bill Committee Stage

Jenny’s hard hitting speech during the Strike Bill’s 2nd reading has been viewed around 180,000 times on social media. She made clear that this law to ban strikes in 6 sectors of the economy is part of a package of authoritarian measures to suppress protest, voting and parliamentary democracy in this country. The Strike Bill is now at committee stage where the Lords try to amend and improve the legislation

Natalie’s Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) work

Natalie held a fruitful roundtable discussion with her British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy senior interns, academics and officials on how to go forward on the regulation of the effects of human medicines on the environment, including AMR. She first engaged with this issue on the Medicines and Medical Devices Bill in 2020, when she wrote about it for The Ecologist. Little progress has been made since then, but with the review of the Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy coming up, now is a great time to engage with this issue

Natalie has a project aiming to spread understanding of Green political philosophy far beyond the House, with a book titled Change Everything: Political Common Sense for the Age of Shocks. She’s publishing with Unbound, which operates on a crowdfunding model. Editing can’t start until she’s got enough subscribers, so from £10 you can help get the book into print, get your name inside its covers, and help spread the Green message

Natalie Bennett and Jenny Jones continue to support local parties, campaigns, NGOs and academics by asking questions, initiating debates, tabling amendments and hosting guests and events. To see more of Jenny and Natalie’s work please visit their websites

THANK YOU

very much to all those of you who have signed up to give a regular amount to support our work. You can find our regular donor page here

In hope and solidarity,

Jenny, Natalie and the team