Politics

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Green Party reacts with anger to latest BBC breach of duty of impartiality

8 May 2017

*Co-leader Jonathan Bartley: “This is getting beyond a joke. The BBC’s love affair with UKIP is getting embarrassing” 

The Green Party has reacted with anger to an announcement today (May 8) that the BBC will feature the leader of UKIP in two dedicated election programmes but will not extend the same invitation to the Green Party. 

Today’s announcement came just days after the BBC breached its own guidelines [1] by giving disproportionate coverage to UKIP when reporting the results of local elections last Thursday. The Green Party has already lodged a formal complaint over the BBC’s failure to give the Green Party coverage “proportionate to the larger parties” and “more than those parties with less evidence of past or current electoral support or fewer candidates”.

Today the BBC announced [3] that Paul Nuttall will be interviewed by Andrew Neil in one of a series of prime time programmes each evening at 7pm throughout the week of 22 May. In addition Mr Nuttall will also be the subject of an ‘Election Questions’ programme on BBC1 on 4 June. 

Jonathan Bartley, Green Party co-leader, said:

“This is getting beyond a joke. The BBC’s love affair with UKIP is getting embarrassing” and it is time it recognised that the Green Party is entitled to a fair hearing in its election programming.”

“As the local election results, in which 150,000 people voted Green compared with less than 100,000 for UKIP [3], demonstrated, when people see what we stand for, they support the Green Party. It’s time the BBC recognised the strength of the Green movement and the widespread support for our positive vision for Britain as a confident and caring country. It is time to stop giving so much air time to UKIP.”

Notes:

1. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/pdfs/2017localelectionguidelines.pdf

2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/general-election?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_press_office&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=corporate

3. http://britainelects.com/results/may2017/

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Green Party •

Labour will guarantee the rights of EU nationals

9 May 2017

Labour has challenged the Tories and the SNP to gurantee the rights of EU nationals living in Scotland

Today is Europe day, and Kez Dugdale has confirmed that EU nationals will have their rights guranteed by a Labour government.

Now it’s time for Ruth Davidson to do the same

Kez said:

“The Tories have used people like poker chips since the EU referendum. It’s sickening, it’s wrong and it needs to stop.

“Labour’s manifesto will guarantee the rights of EU nationals. This goes to the very heart about who we are as a country. There are over 180,000 EU nationals currently living and working in Scotland and they make a rich contribution to our society and economy.

“In Edinburgh, EU nationals are vital to our capital’s economy, and Ian Murray will always fight for their rights in Edinburgh South.

“Ruth Davidson and the Scottish Tories need to match Labour’s commitment and guarantee beyond doubt that EU nationals will be able to continue to live and work in Scotland after we leave the EU.

“Nicola Sturgeon needs to stop destabilising Scotland’s economy and take the threat of a second independence referendum off the table.

“Labour believes that together we’re stronger.  Our country is divided enough. It is time to start healing the scars of both 2014 and 2016. That’s why a vote for Labour on June 8 is a vote against another divisive independence referendum and against a hard Tory Brexit.”

Share our values? Then spread our message. 
 

 

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Scottish Labour

Ruth: We can use general election to “bring the SNP down to size”

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8 May 2017

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Ruth Davidson has launched the Scottish Conservative General Election campaign in Edinburgh.

At the launch she will say that voters can use their vote to bring the SNP down to size, with the Scottish Conservatives the only party capable of leading the fightback against the nationalists.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said:

“I’m setting everybody a challenge today.

“Just as we doubled our numbers of MSPs last year, and doubled our number of councillors last week, we now we have to double our efforts over these next four and a half weeks.

“Because we have a massive fight on our hands against an all-powerful SNP.

“We go into this election with one seat. They go into with 54 – and most of them with large majorities.

“Even to challenge the Nationalists in some of these seats is going to take a Herculean effort.

“Make no mistake – we are the underdogs going into this campaign.

“But we also know this.

“The SNP is not Scotland.

“And people across this country don’t take kindly to Nicola Sturgeon pretending the opposite is true.

“Across Scotland, it’s a two-horse race.

“And across Scotland, we also know people are looking for somebody to stand up to the SNP.

“So our challenge is this

“It’s to bring the SNP down to size.

“To show they can’t take Scotland for granted.

“To show that we, the Scottish Conservatives, can lead Scotland’s fightback against the SNP.”

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Scottish Conservatives

News story: Accelerator webinar: autonomous last mile resupply

A webinar for this Defence and Security Accelerator competition will be held on 30 May 2017.

The competition is seeking new technologies, processes and ways of working to improve the way we deliver mission-critical supplies, focusing on the challenging ‘last mile’ resupply in the land environment.

It involves delivering combat supplies from the forward-most location to personnel engaged in combat operations. Although relatively small in distance, these resupply activities are challenging as they are in an environment that is typically hostile, complex and contested. These activities need to quickly and efficiently deliver vital supplies in order to enable successful mission outcomes.

The challenges of this Accelerator competition are to develop and demonstrate:

  • Challenge 1: unmanned air and ground load carrying platforms
  • Challenge 2: technologies and systems to allow load carrying platforms to operate autonomously
  • Challenge 3: technologies to autonomously predict, plan, track and optimise resupply demands from military users

Phase 1 proposals must be submitted online via the Accelerator submission service and received no later than 12 noon on 21 June 2017.

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HM Government