5 October 2018

* New Green co-leaders to announce commitment to Free Time Index at Autumn Conference in Bristol

* Sian Berry: “True freedom will only be found when people have more control of their time”

* Jonathan Bartley: “The Government must aim for a yearly increase in the Free Time Index so time off becomes the real measure of wellbeing”

The Green Party will call for a new economic indicator which measures people’s leisure time.

New co-leaders Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley are set to announce their party’s commitment to a Free Time Index in their speech to Autumn Conference on Friday 5 October [1].

The new indicator would count the number of hours people spend outside of work and commuting, and be published once a year by the Government as part of the Autumn Budget.

Berry and Bartley will call for this new indicator to replace GDP as a measure of wellbeing. It is their first policy announcement since being elected co-leaders of the party on September 4 this year. [2]

The announcement follows Green Party policy for a four day working week which was announced at Spring Conference in 2017 [3], and will expand work to ensure people are given  a better work life balance and adapt to the changing ways of working.

Research has found links between free time and happiness. Studies have shown that focusing on free time rather than money makes people happier [4], while people who choose to spend money on things which free up leisure time are happier than those who spend it on material goods [5].

Sian Berry, co-leader of the Green Party, is expected to say (check against delivery):

“It’s time to shift away from the culture which sees us work harder and harder for longer and longer, often without reward or satisfaction. And to recognise that true freedom will only be found when people have more control of their time and how it is spent.

“That is why Greens want the next Budget, and every future Budget, to include a new economic indicator that measures people’s leisure time.”

Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party, is expected to say (check against delivery):

“The Free Time Index would count the hours people are not at work – or doing work on a long commute. The time to have a family life, relax, and pursue the things they care about.

“It should be an aim of the Government to see a yearly increase in this Free Time Index, so that the quality of time which is truly our own becomes the real measure of wellbeing.”

Notes:

1.

Diary note: Green Party Autumn Conference 2018

Green Party members will soon gather in Bristol for Autumn conference to hear from the party’s new co-leaders Jonathan Bartley and Sian Berry, vote on party policy, and debate issues from climate change to Brexit.

Green Party Autumn Conference will be held from 5 to 7 October 2018 at Bristol City Hall, College Green, Bristol, BS1 5TR.

Co-leaders’ speech by Jonathan Bartley and Sian Berry: 2pm, Friday 5 October 2018.

Press registration:https://www.greenparty.org.uk/conference/press-conference.html

2.https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2018/09/04/green-party-announces-jonathan-bartley-and-sian-berry-as-new-leaders/

3.https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2017/04/03/green-party-to-investigate-three-day-weekends/

4.http://uk.businessinsider.com/is-it-more-important-to-have-more-time-or-more-money-2016-6?r=US&IR=T

5.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40703519

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26 September 2018

Responding to the news that four environmental campaigners have been jailed for peacefully resisting fracking in Lancashire [1], Keith Taylor, Green Party MEP and a vocal critic of the policing of fracking protests, said:

“The frack free four are heroes. These people put their lives on hold to defend our environment and climate from the destruction imposed on it by a government blindly committed to fracking at any costs. The latest cost being the liberty of three peaceful protesters whose only crime is resorting to peaceful direct action to resist an industry after every democratic route of opposition was ignored and overturned by the government. The people of Lancashire and their democratically elected representatives repeatedly said no to fracking.”

“It has been almost a hundred years since Britain jailed its last environmental campaigners. Since then, the theory goes, we have developed into a mature liberal democracy that can accommodate dissent. Today’s decision blows that myth wide-open; authoritarianism has become a favourite tool of a minority government that lacks the public’s support to force through its environmentally destructive agenda by any other means. Any government that conspires with the dirty fossil fuel industry against its own people is rotten to the core.”

“Dissent is not a crime in any country with a political system fit to be called a democracy. Consequently, the sentences handed to the frack-free four are chilling.”

Notes to the editor

1. https://twitter.com/ruthhayhurst/status/1044900650998517760

2. Keith has been calling for a review of the policing of fracking and drilling operations across the UK https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/10/police-tactics-at-fracking-protests-need-urgent-review-says-mep

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25 September 2018

The Green Party has welcomed news the Environment Secretary has called for 30% of the world’s oceans to be protected by 2030 [1], and praised campaigners who have been pressing the Government to take action to safeguard seas.

Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party, called on Michael Gove to create marine conservation zones to protect marine life in British seas as a next step.

Bartley said:

“This is a victory for campaigners. It’s good to see the Government willing to take a lead in looking after the world’s oceans. The plastic crisis, climate change and over-fishing are putting our oceans in jeopardy and we need strong protections like this if we are to stand any chance of safeguarding them for the future. The Environment Secretary has shown he is willing to listen to scientists and activists, and now he must create marine conservation zones to protect marine life in British seas.” 

Notes:

1. https://news.sky.com/story/uk-to-call-for-third-of-worlds-oceans-to-be-protected-by-2030-11507876

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24 September 2018

Green Party animal rights spokesperson Keith Taylor MEP has responded to the news police in the South Weast are considering using drones to monitor anti-badger cull protesters [1] by suggesting the plans are symptomatic of a wider crackdown on the civil liberties of environmental protesters.

The senior Green politician, and Vice Chair of the European Parliament’s Animal Welfare Intergroup, said:

“It is truly astonishing that the authorities have managed to tie the government’s war on wildlife in with the continued war on our civil liberties. It is a malevolent act of authoritarian, anti-wildlife and anti-environment decision making. Not content with making badgers public enemy number one, the state is now wasting yet more taxpayers’ money targetting those who have the temerity to disagree with the Tories’ cruel, expensive and anti-science cull.”

“It is gobsmacking that this news comes in the wake of 10,000 people joining the weekend’s Walk for Wildlife [2], all of them urging the government to do more to protect our precious wildlife in the face of a terminal decline in Britain’s non-human animal inhabitants.”

The Green MEP for the South East previously condemned the government’s plans to extend the badger cull earlier this month and called for an end to the ‘scientifically illiterate and spectacularly expensive’ programme [3].

Notes:

1. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/24/police-consider-drones-to-monitor-badger-cull-protesters
2. https://theecologist.org/2018/sep/24/ive-never-seen-hedgehog-warning-after-peoples-walk-wildlife

https://www.keithtaylormep.org.uk/news/greens-call-immediate-end-scientifically-illiterate-ps30m-badger-cull-new-licences-issued

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21 September 2018

The Green Party has responded to Theresa May’s speech on Brexit following the EU summit in Salzburg [1] 

Sian Berry, co-leader of the Green Party, said:

“The only thing Theresa May’s desperate bluffing has achieved is boosting the campaign for a People’s Vote on Brexit. It is clear we have reached a Brexit deadlock and that negotiations have gone from failure to farce, with the Prime Minister seeming to now blame the EU for the chaos her government has created.

“There is no doubt a no-deal Brexit would be catastrophic for Britain and the Prime Minister’s increased threat today is an act of great recklessness. It is more important than ever the people of Britain have the final say on Brexit with a People’s Vote.”

Notes:

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45603192

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