2 July 2019

 Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, will tonight join representatives from many other parties and civil society groups at Westminster to sign the party up to the Good Systems Agreement (1) prepared by Make Votes Matter.

Jonathan will say: 

“In 1867, the Representation of the People Act saw a massive expansion of the male franchise. That came about after an unusual parliamentary event: opposition amendments to a Tory government bill were not resisted. This was a cross-party effort that led to a shifting of the tectonic plates under British politics.

“People in the future might well look back to this event and see in it the seeds of the same scale of transformation, with a similar approach.”

He added:

“It is very tempting to blame individuals for the disastrous state of Britain today, the Brexit chaos, the poverty and inequality, the insecurity and mental health crisis, the dreadful state of our natural world and the climate chaos.  But it is clear that the failure is systemic. 

“That the people are desperate to “take back control” of their communities, their lives, their futures, is no surprise at all. Our antique, undemocratic system has shut so many out of politics for so long.”

Note:

(1)https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/good-systems-agreement

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29 June 2019

Marking Armed Forces Day, Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party said:

“Today’s focus very much should be on the people who make up our armed forces, both those now serving and those who have contributed in the past.

“My father served on D-Day. My uncle was a Spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain.

“I think they’d both be horrified by yesterday’s report from the Public Accounts Committee saying that still a third of service personnel are not happy with the quality of their housing, and by the statistics showing that at least 50,000 former servicepeople are coping with mental health conditions and 6,000 have no permanent address.

“It is also disappointing that in provision of accommodation there is still discrimination between those who are married or in civil partnerships and those in long-term relationships.

“People serving their country deserve better treatment.”

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25 June 2019

Responding to the announcement from the UK Plastics Pact that its members will remove eight unnecessary plastic items from stores by the end of 2020 and “actively investigate” a second list of 19 items for sustainable alternatives by six years’ time (1),

Amelia Womack, deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, said:

“Companies produce and sell about 76 kilogrammes of plastic that goes to waste each year in the UK for every women, man and child in the country.

“Today’s response from industry and retailers is wholly, ridiculously, inadequate and doesn’t address public concern on plastics or effectively protect the environment.”

“Again and again the model of self-regulation has failed. This is one more area in which the government needs to step in with strong action.”

“The Green Party is calling for a ban on all unnecessary single-use plastics. That would address almost all of the throwaway plastics on our high streets.

“It is up to the companies who sell products, and profit from them, to find alternative forms of distribution and packaging and take responsibility for the impact of their actions in our oceans, food chains and landscapes.”

(1) https://www.itv.com/news/2019-06-25/eight-plastic-items-marked-for-elimination-from-shelves-by-end-of-2020/

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22 June 2019

With tomorrow marking the third anniversary of the Brexit referendum, the co-leaders of the Green Party have reflected on two key aspects of the last three years.

Sian Berry said: “Our politics has become entangled in what has been rightly described as Brexit chaos over the past three years.

“We could, and should, have been dealing with the fast-rising issues of poverty and homelessness, with the collapse of bus services and the causes of the filthy air we breathe, with the state of our nature-deprived countryside and the struggles of our small farmers to survive.

“Instead we have been bogged down in party infighting, in fact-free debates about non-existent Brexit options and arcane struggles over parliamentary procedures.”

Jonathan Bartley added: “I’m thinking particularly about our young people.

“It should be a basic aim of politics that young people shouldn’t have fewer freedoms and opportunities than their parents, but if we do Brexit, and lose the treasure of free movement, our young will see their choice circumscribed, their options narrowed.

“More than two million young people have become voters since the 2016 referendum. Well over another million are aged 16 and 17, seeing society wrestling with issues that will have a huge impact on their futures.

“That’s more than 3 million people who deserve a say on their own future through the democratic option of the People’s Vote.

“Parliament has shown itself to be unable to find a way forward. The answer is democracy, and giving those young people the option to have their say.”

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22 June 2019

Alexandra Phillips, Green MEP for the South East and a champion of the Green New Deal has reacted to today’s release by Community Energy England of its annual report on the state of the sector (1).

Alexandra said: “The report describes 2018 as “a year of uncertainty and challenge”.

“There’s only one source of that uncertainty, the total failure of government policy to engage with the needs of this crucial part of the renewables sector that is also an essential part of strong, resilient local economies right across the country.

“Community energy should be at the heart of the government’s policy, but like the whole renewables and energy efficiency sector it has been trapped in an uncertain policy environment, given limited encouragement then all too often had the rug pulled out from under its feet, as with the sudden ending of the feed-in tariff.”

“The report says ‘very few new community energy projects were developed’ last year, despite the fact that this was the year the urgency of our climate emergency became clear.

“Eighty two per cent of people think the government should do more to help communities generate their own energy.

“The government should listen to the people, and the call for the restoration of tax relief on investments in community energy projects made today at the conference.

“Community energy is a crucial part of the Green New Deal – it contributes to tackling the climate crisis, taking people out of fuel poverty and creates secure, local jobs, keeping money circulating in local economies, rather than being swished off into the coffers of giant multinational companies.”

Notes

(1)   https://communityenergyengland.org/pages/state-of-the-sector-report-2019/

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