A Green Budget would be the beginning of the end for a system of privatised utilities fleecing bill payers and the ultra-rich getting away with not paying their fair share. Where is Labour? Where is its vision? Continue reading “Autumn Budget 2025 – Where is Labour?”
If the Bill’s aim is to reduce the crisis in prison capacity, we must avoid funnelling people into suspended sentences where a community order would be more effective and safely promote rehabilitation Continue reading “Sentencing Bill Committee Stage Day 1”
Following my intervention in this debate last week the RAC supported campaign Lock out Drink Driving have written to the Minister asking for a meeting
This Bill creates two new offences in Clause 56: child criminal exploitation and cuckooing. These are important steps. They recognise forms of exploitation that front-line workers, police officers and charities have been grappling with for years. However, the Bill currently does only half the job. It recognises the exploitation, but not the victim. When vulnerable children or exploited adults are used as tools by criminal networks, the criminal justice system should not compound their suffering by treating them as willing participants. These amendments I have tabled would complete the logic of the Bill and ensure that the law protects those who need protection most. Continue reading “Crime and Policing Bill Cmttee Stage Day 3”
This is obviously a Bill with good aims: to reduce the prison population and put more resources into probation and rehabilitation. However, the problem is that the prison population is going up in the long term because Governments keep coming up with new reasons to lock people up. Continue reading “Sentencing Bill Second Reading”
Amendment 55A would require the Home Office to publish quarterly data on the issuing of anti-social behaviour orders and related injunctions. Specifically, it would ensure that these reports include the number of occasions when stop and search has been used by the police prior to the issuing of such orders, and the protected characteristics of those who have been issued with them. These powers can have serious and lasting consequences for those subject to them, particularly young people and those from marginalised communities. Yet at present, the public and Parliament have very limited visibility of how these tools are being applied. This would ensure transparency and accountability about how anti-social behaviour powers are being used across England and Wales. Continue reading “Crime and Policing Bill Committee Stage Day 1”
If you are in opposition, why do you not oppose? What the Conservatives have done is playing politics. This is why politicians have such a bad reputation. Continue reading “Planning & Infrastructure Bill Report Stage Day 4”
I refute the concept of a grey belt. A grey belt is green belt that has been left to rot, and we should be recovering that grey belt and making it green belt again Continue reading “Planning & Infrastructure Bill Report Stage Day 3”
Back in 2001 I was a Green Party member of the London Assembly and we initiated the setting up of the Living Wage Commission. It has helped hundreds of thousands of Londoners get paid a bit more each week as employers have voluntarily adopted it’s calculations. Now, I’m suggesting we do the same for renters across the country with Living Rent Commissions that can calculate rents in their area. Continue reading “Renters Rights Bill Report Stage Day 3 – a Living Rent Commission”
This amendment, which I feel strongly about, is designed to help renters and the Government. It aims to improve upon a good policy that creates warmer homes and cheaper bills. The climate benefits from the warmer home grant, as do landlords, so why not guarantee that tenants get cheaper bills without a rent rise for a couple of years? Continue reading “My amendment to Renters’ Rights Bill Report Stage Day 1”
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb 