Tag Archives: Green Party

17 November 2017

Green Party councillor Gina Dowding and 11 others have been found guilty of wilful obstruction today following a lock-on at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road fracking site in July [1].

The protesters were found guilty of wilful obstruction of the highway but other charges relating to the Trade Union Act and Labour (Consolidation) Act were dismissed.

Each defendant was each given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay court costs and victim surcharge totalling £270. There were no fines issued.

Dowding sits on Lancashire County Council. The 12 protesters also included two other independent councillors, Fylde borough councillor Julie Brickles and Kirkham town councillor Miranda Cox.

Dowding said: 

“My fellow councillors and I have a mandate to represent the views of our constituents and now we’ve been criminalised for taking part in a peaceful protest against fracking, which residents are overwhelmingly opposed to. Shale gas is neither needed nor wanted in Lancashire.

“If anyone should have been on trial today it’s the Government, for trampling over local democracy and allowing the shale gas industry to impose fracking on our communities.

“In a show of staggering hypocrisy, just this week UK representatives were in Bonn promising to meet our international obligations to prevent climate change, but at the same time offering carte blanche and financial support to the shale gas industry.

“Allowing Cuadrilla to start fracking in Lancashire is opening up a whole new fossil fuel industry when we should be keeping fossil fuels where they belong – in the ground. Fracking is dirty, dangerous and unnecessary and we should never have been dragged through the courts for taking direct action against such a reckless and harmful industry.”

Notes:

1. https://reclaimthepower.org.uk/press-releases/release-lancashire-councillors-and-residents-lock-down-fracking-site/

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17 November 2017

Former Green Party leader Natalie Bennett is returning early from the United Nations COP23 climate talks in Bonn on Friday to support the Kirby Misperton protection camp as the struggle against fracking in Yorkshire continues.

She’ll be supporting others taking part in what has become known as ‘Green Friday’ at the site, after last week Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley was dragged away [1] by police while making a speech to the protectors.

Bennett said:

“The isolation of the English position when it came to fossil fuels was glaringly obvious at the Bonn summit. France, Germany, Bulgaria, and of course Wales and Scotland, have all blocked fracking, but the British pavilion at COP was actually advertising the related extreme energy underground coal gasification.

“It is being left to the people of Yorkshire, and Lancashire, where I earlier this month visited the Preston New Road Protection Camp, to deliver the will of the English people not to have fracking.Opinion polls clearly show that they don’t want it, and I know from my past visits to fracking sites just how many passing drivers indicate their support.

“The desperation of the industry to resist the will of the people has been demonstrated by the extreme injunction taken out by the firm Ineos that’s now subject to legal appeal. I recently joined a huge gathering in Woodsetts, Rotherham, where the community demonstrated its determination to resist fracking and protect democracy and the right to peaceful protect.

“The Green Party will continue to actively support communities around England who are peacefully rejecting fracking. This is an industry that threatens all of our safety and needs to be stopped.”

Notes:

1. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/green-party-joint-leader-jonathan-bartley-dragged-along-road-by-police-at-yorkshire-fracking-protest-a3688386.html

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16 November 2017

The Green Party says a new report [1] by the Women’s Budget Group and the Runnymede Trust, which shows that women and ethnic minorities will lose out financially under Universal Credit, lays bare the cruelty of the system being imposed by the Government.

The Green Party believes that instead of Universal Credit the Government should be looking at creating a Universal Basic Income.

The analysis was published today and exposes the devastating impact of changes such as the cut to the work allowance and the two-child limit.

Women will face the worst of the cuts, with 2.2 million claimants in employment expected to lose an average of £1,400 a year and 3.6 million claimants not in employment set to lose an average £600 a year. Black employed women will lose the most, an average of £1500 a year.

Amelia Womack, Green Party deputy leader, said:

“Universal Credit is nothing more than an attack on Britain’s poorest and most vulnerable and this report lays bare the cruelty of the system. Women are being punished simply for being women, with BME women suffering the most. There is nothing either universal or credit-worthy about Universal Credit.

“The Green Party is calling for the Government to scrap Universal Credit and invest in a Universal Basic Income trial instead, which would make much more of a difference to families living in poverty.”

Notes:

1.  https://wbg.org.uk/news/new-research-shows-universal-credit-failing-just-managing-women-bme-households-hardest-hit/

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14 November 2017

Green Party politicians have written to Jeremy Hunt to demand action over long wait times for patients who need to access a gender identity clinic.

All NHS gender identity clinics in the UK except one are failing to meet the 18-week referral target [1].

The letter, signed by LGBTIQA+ spokesperson Aimee Challenor and co-leaders Jonathan Bartley and Caroline Lucas, asks Jeremy Hunt to explain what the Department of Health is doing to reduce waiting times and when it expects to meet the target.

The Green Party is highlighting the delays as part of Transgender Awareness Week [2] which runs from November 13 to 17.

Bartley and Challenor will visit the Department of Health at 3.30pm today (November 14) to hand in the letter.

Challenor said:

“The extensive wait times for gender identity clinics have a devastating impact on trans people, who are already at much higher risk of mental health issues and self-harm.

“Nearly every single clinic is failing to meet the target, a year after it was introduced. One clinic has an average waiting time of 130 weeks, an enormous 112 weeks longer than the maximum referral time of 18 weeks.

“It’s unclear what the Department of Health is doing to reduce these delays and that’s why we’re here today – to demand answers from Jeremy Hunt and ensure he takes trans people’s needs seriously.”

Notes:

1. https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/nhs-fails-trans-people-gender-identity-clinics/

2. https://www.glaad.org/transweek

3. Full text of the letter:

Dear Jeremy,

We write to you regarding the extraordinarily long waits faced by patients who need to see a clinician at one of the UK’s Gender Identity Clinics (GIC).

Last December, it was confirmed that the waiting lists for GICs are subject to the NHS-wide 18 week referral target. A year on, all GICs in the UK except for one are failing to meet that target, with some patients having to wait two and a half years before getting an appointment at a GIC.

Going through the process of transitioning within the NHS should empower rather than demean trans people – yet that’s not the case. Referral delays are having devastating effects on trans people. Rates of self-harm and suicide attempts are significantly higher for trans people, especially those not receiving treatment. In September 2015, Dr John Dean, Chair of the NHS National Clinical Reference Group for Gender Identity Services told the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee that “not treating people is not a neutral act – it will do harm”. Trans people are far more likely to have contact with the mental health system, and are at much higher risk of mental health issues, self-harm and suicidal ideation, than cisgender and heterosexual people.

We would like to know what the Department of Health is doing to actively reduce waiting times and when it expects to meet the 18 week referral target.

Yours sincerely,

Aimee Challenor, Green Party LGBTIQA+ spokesperson

Jonathan Bartley, Green Party co-leader

Caroline Lucas, Green Party co-leader

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13 November 2017

Aimee Challenor, Green Party LGBTIQA+ spokesperson, has filed a complaint with press regulator IPSO over today’s coverage in the Sun of gender fluidity lessons for toddlers [1].

She has accused the Sun of breaching the Editors’ Code of Practice by discriminating against trans people.

The Sun’s story follows a number of articles targeting the trans community in the Times on Saturday (November 11) [2].

Challenor said:

“The Sun’s coverage of gender fluidity classes is a sad mix of scaremongering, discrimination and inappropriate jokes about drag queens. On the same day the Church of England issues guidelines to help prevent transphobic bullying, it’s appalling that one of our national newspapers is perpetrating such harassment. The rates of suicide and self-harm for young trans people are staggeringly high and it’s simply immoral for the Sun to feed into the prejudice towards them. We should instead be welcoming the move to improve understanding and inclusivity by talking to children about gender fluidity from an early age.”

Notes:

1. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4896260/drag-queens-nursery-schools-teach-kids-transgender-issues

2. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/children-sacrificed-to-appease-trans-lobby-bq0m2mm95

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/scout-chiefs-accused-over-transgender-self-harming-with-support-for-chest-binding-23f33sgjk

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/meet-alex-bertie-the-transgender-poster-boy-z88hgh8b8

3. Full text of the complaint:

I wish to make a complaint under the Editors’ Code of Practice relating to the Sun’s coverage on November 13, 2017.

I believe the Sun has breached clause 12 by publishing prejudicial and pejorative coverage of ‘trans lessons’ for children.

The paper’s front page headline ‘The skirt on the drag queen goes swish swish swish: Trans classes for kids aged 2’ pokes fun at the issue and ignores the very serious reasons why talking about gender fluidity from an early age are so crucial.

The article itself treats drag queens and the concept of gender fluidity lessons with contempt. The coverage is not only sensationalised but blatant scaremongering about the influence drag queens will have on toddlers.

We live in a society where eight out of 10 trans young people have self-harmed and almost half have attempted to kill themselves. When our national newspapers publish attacks on the LGBTIQA+ community they are fostering a wider climate of hostility, fear and aggression towards us.

For this story to be published on the same day as the Church of England publishes guidelines to prevent transphobic bullying – which the Sun has also reported on and is well aware of – shows just how necessary these steps to prevent bullying are.

Please will you consider if this coverage has breached the code and if so, take action against the Sun to ensure this does not happen again.

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