May 3, 2023 Newsletter

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Photo of Natalie Bennett and Jenny Jones outside Parliament with text that reads:   Greens in the House.   With Green Party House of Lords logo in top right.

A special photo rich update from your Green Party representatives in the House of Lords check down to see if there’s anyone you recognise!

In this issue we focus on the local campaigning work that Natalie and Jenny do

 

– Sewage

– The Big One

– Picket lines 

– HS2 and Chalk Streams

– Voter ID and local elections

– Local visits

Jenny and Natalie make numerous outings to meet people and discuss local issues that are also part of the national picture. This can lead to the Green Party peers raising the issues in Westminster through questions and debates

Graphic that reads: 'Other Work'. With photo of Palace of Westminster in background.
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Sewage

Jenny held a public meeting with Feargal Sharkey to discuss sewage and water quality with Thanet Green Party. The main topic of this, and other local party events, has been the failure of the government’s plan to be either urgent enough or tough enough. Jenny believes that the only way forward is to take the water companies back into public ownership. Some of the money from the fines on failing water companies could be used to buy back shares. Jenny has visited many other local parties to discuss sewage dumping including Lyme Regis and Hertfordshire

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The Big One

Both peers attended the Big One, a protest and series of talks about the climate crisis, held in in Central London and organized by Extinction Rebellion.

 

Jenny spoke at the anti-incineration event – with the campaign to oppose incinerators now having the support of Greenpeace, who recognizes that they are bad for climate change, air pollution and recycling – and at the anti-HS2 event.

 

Natalie spoke at the Home Office, where there was a powerful, moving “die-in” reflecting the tragic results of the “Hostile Environment”; at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, where she focused on the need for creative education to prepare for a healthy, fruitful life; and at the Department of Health and Social Care, where she focused on how caring for the environment is GREAT for public health

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Picket Lines

Both Jenny and Natalie have visited numerous picket lines and spoke to the striking workers about their situation and concerns for the future of their service. Jenny appeared on ITV News explaining her support for BBC journalists who were striking against the largescale cuts in budgets for regional news rooms and Natalie spoke at the Save Our Schools Demo in Trafalgar Square

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HS2 and Chalk Streams

Jenny has asked a series of questions in the Lords about whether HS2 construction has led to the poisoning of chalk streams and the aquifer that supplies much of London’s water. She’s also been visiting the important habitat of chalk streams around the country

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Voter ID

Jenny used her one hour debate in the Lords to explore the state of our failing UK democracy. This included a section on how Voter ID is being used as part of a policy of discouraging non Tory voters (such as students) from making their mark in the local elections. The concern is that Voter ID may raise questions about the validity of some results. If that happens, then it must be abandoned before the general election. Jenny was part of a delegation earlier this month which handed in a petition signed by over 100,000 people to Downing street, calling for the disastrous changes to be scrapped. In the meantime don’t forget your ID!

 
Graphic that reads: 'Other Work'. With photo of Palace of Westminster in background.

Natalie has made visiting local Greens a big priority and used them to generate parliamentary questions and other campaigning work. This includes the issue of home insulation in Stowbridge; bus fares in Norwich; food inflation in Manchester/Liverpool. The sprawling government legislation promoting Levelling up and Regeneration has been a big hook for lots of the ideas that Natalie has gathered in her local trips. Her emphasis is on making sure that we design, build and deliver buildings, infrastructure and communities that are actually fit for the next century.

 

Community energy has been a big theme of campaigns run by local Green Parties and Natalie has played a leading role in trying to convince the government to accept a Lords amendment making it part of the Energy Bill. She worked with independent peer, Baroness Boycott, to move the amendment that was successfully passed by the Lords. The Bill, which started in the Lords, will now go  to the Commons with the amendment included, the fight for it to remain – led by Power for People – goes on

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Graphic that reads: 'Other Work'. With photo of Palace of Westminster in background.

Ella’s Law

Caroline Lucas MP tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) calling for the Bill to be considered in the Commons, 63 signatures to date

  • Please check if your MP has signed here and write to them if they haven’t signed
 

Natalie is writing a book, Change Everything: Political Common Sense for the Age of Shocks. She’s publishing with Unbound, which operates on a crowdfunding model. She now has enough subscribers to get the book into print but you can still jump in and pre-order your copy (from £10 for the eBook to £500 to be a “super-patron”, should you be feeling flush.). That means your name will be recorded inside as a supporter and you’ll be helping spread the Green message

 

To find out more about their work:

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Please consider supporting this work. Our regular donor page is here

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In hope and solidarity,

 

Jenny, Natalie and the team

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