Showing posts with label Caroline Lucas MP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caroline Lucas MP. Show all posts

Monday 19 August 2013

Democratic deficit necessitates peaceful direct action says Lucas after her fracking arrest


After her arrest today at Balcombe anti-fracking protest, Caroline Lucas MP said:

“Along with everyone else who took action today, I’m trying to stop a process which could cause enormous damage for decades to come. The evidence is clear that fracking undermines efforts to tackle the climate crisis and poses potential risks to the local environment.

 “People today, myself included, took peaceful non-violent direct action only after exhausting every other means of protest available to us.  I’m in the privileged position of being able to put questions to the Government directly and arrange debates in Parliament, but still ministers have refused to listen.

“Despite the opposition to fracking being abundantly clear, the Government has completely ignored the views of those they are supposed to represent.  When the democratic deficit is so enormous, people are left with very little option but to take peaceful, non-violent direct action.”

Thanks to Steve Hynd for this statement which appears on his blog LINK

Thursday 20 June 2013

GMB strike action in Brighton suspended

Strike action by CityClean GMB  in Brighton members has been suspended for 28 days from  Monday to allow a ballot of members on a Council offer to take place. The offer is preliminary until the formal consultation period is completed. The offer will be discussed with Unison tomorrow and other areas will  need to be negotiated with both unions.

I understand that the work-to-rule is also suspended and there will be an extensive clean up and catch-up work programmed in now for the next fortnight.

Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, tweeted tonight:
Thanks to @gmbcityclean for returning to work while ballot members on council offer - importance of their work appreciated more than ever

Sunday 18 November 2012

What future for Brent's ash trees?

An ash plantation in Fryent Country park earlier today
It won't really be clear until next Spring and Summer how many of the ash trees in Brent have been affected by ash dieback disease. A considerable number have been planted in Fryent Country Park over the years and contribute greatly to the beauty of the woodlands. With their own open canopy they encourage rich growths of small trees, shrubs and plants beneath the trees.

Brent Parks Department told me:

The spread of the disease, knowledge and best practice are in a fast-changing situation.  Obviously we are vulnerable due to the large number of Ash trees in the Country Park and elsewhere in Brent.

There is very little that we can do protect trees if the disease does spread.  The movement of Ash trees is prohibited so we won't be planting any.  Dried timber is thought to not carry the disease and can continue to be used for timber or fuel; and on my reading of the government Order, felled greenwood can also still be moved for these purposes providing it is not from an area where Chalara is present.  The Government has accepted advice that diseased mature trees should not necessarily be removed in woodland.  Experience from continental Europe is that 10-20% of Ash trees are resistant. 

In practical terms the main protection is not to move Ash material from site to site; and certainly not infected material.  If the disease is also air-borne, then there is little that can be done to directly stop movement through the air.  Longer-term, the important of diversifying woodland would be a good policy, though there are some areas of Britain where Ash naturally dominates woodland, and also in secondary woodland.
Brent Parks will be monitoring the health of ash trees in the Country Park and elsewhere in the borough.

Caroline Lucas, Green MP, has expressed concern and called for changes in government policy to deal with the issue on the Guardian Environment website LINK

To stand a chance of safeguarding our trees and plants, the government must respond to calls from the scientific community for far more radical controls on biosecurity.

According to a growing number of tree disease specialists, this should mean using quarantine for other iconic trees such as oak, pine and plane, and banning imports if necessary.

If plants known to be carrying pathogens were quarantined, as they are in Australia for example, we might be able stop at least some diseases spreading and slow down others. If quarantine conditions are not met, then an import ban should be urgently considered.

Furthermore, as set out in an early day motion by Zac Goldsmith which I co-sponsored, we need guarantees from Defra that the forestry authorities will get the resources they need to ensure both a rapid response to other disease outbreaks and improved screening in future.

Finally, ministers should also look again at the forestry grants system, which perversely seems to encourage imports from overseas and perpetuates the great tree trade. In particular, late decisions by the government on the grant agreements mean that UK growers are often left with no time to grow the saplings here, forcing them to source from abroad.

The potential cost of inaction on these issues is incredibly high. With the Woodland Trust warning that ash dieback could wipe out between 70-90% of our ash trees, it's more urgent than ever that the government listens to the warnings and takes the long-term view – recognising that investment in resources now to safeguard our natural heritage is money well spent.








Thursday 19 January 2012

Caroline Lucas on Question Time tonight

Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP, will appear on BBC Question Time at 10.35pm this evening, alongside Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, co-chairman of the Conservative Party, Stephen Twigg MP, Labour's shadow education secretary, Germaine Greer, feminist writer and academic, and Charles Moore, columnist and former editor at the Telegraph and the Spectator.

The programme will be available to watch again here once it has been broadcast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01b3cdw

Saturday 17 December 2011

We need a socially just and ecologically sustainable new economic order - Lucas

Caroline Lucas on the Guardian Environment Blog

In a month dominated by the political and economic crisis in Europe, those of us following events at the COP17 climate summit in Durban took what little hope we could from the talks.

Politically, there was some success in the form of a roadmap towards a new treaty to succeed the Kyoto protocol. The fact that this new agreement to cut emissions, which will have legal force, is to include the United States, as well as the fast growing economies such as China, India and Brazil, is encouraging.
Sadly, it says a great deal about people's faith in the UN climate negotiations process that, after so many summits and empty pledges over the years, an agreement "in principle" to tackling climate change without much in the way of substance could still be hailed as an overall success.

But at least we do now have an international consensus on the need to cut emissions. The real tragedy is that our government will completely fail to rise to the challenge in the post-Durban, euro crisis landscape - and seize the opportunity to build a different kind of economy.

Drowning out calls for the coalition to deliver on its green pledges and invest in the low-carbon industries which can help lift us out of recession and create jobs, are those who frame the debate as a false choice between "going green" and keeping the economy on track.

And drowning out news about critical decisions made in Durban has been the coverage of the prime minister's euro-sceptic swaggering at the Brussels summit, where he singularly failed to defend the interests of the people of Britain who, like Europeans, are threatened by a financial crisis that could result in the loss of their homes, their life savings and livelihoods.

Preventing financial meltdown was, after all, the purpose of the summit. Instead, Britain used the occasion to defend the interests of a tiny minority - the 1% - that are the cause of the crisis, and that thrive on the back of taxpayer-backed subsidies in the City of London.

In answer to my question to the prime minister this week: "Why did he choose to conflate the interests of the nation, with the interests of the City of London?" no real explanation was offered.

Meanwhile, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy appear hellbent on accelerating the crisis by intensifying austerity across the eurozone. This is likely to be explosive: in economic, political and social terms.
But for all their misguided approach to the consequences of the crisis - rising public debts - German and French politicians are clear about the causes: lax and loosely regulated financial centres like the Square Mile.
And in that analysis they are not wrong. The City of London is set, once again, to play a major causal role in the coming financial catastrophe.

The reason is not hard to find. This week we learned about the impotence of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in dealing with bankers at RBS that destroyed a bank, caused many to lose their jobs, and stripped British taxpayers of £45bn.

That's £45bn which could have been used to keep millions of young people in employment for a considerable time, to support renewable energy and energy efficiency measures to create jobs and help those in fuel poverty, or to pay more nurses and teachers.

Payday lenders have scuttled across the Atlantic to avoid the anti-usury laws of Canada and the United States, and found refuge in what the FT calls the "singularly attractive market" that is the City of London - where there are no usury laws.

According to Thomson Reuters, the City's "lax and loose regulation" allows companies, like the recently bankrupted MFGlobal, to gamble with money that belongs to clients and then " …to finance an enormous $6.2bn eurozone repo bet … a position more than five times the firm's book value, or net worth."

It is this kind of financial speculation that once again threatens not just Europe, but the global economy.
Occupy Wall St protesters at St. Paul's are exploring alternatives to this failed system of financial liberalisation. Even the Bank of England, in papers published this week, is considering a transformation away from deregulation towards a rules-based system, that constrains capital mobility and secures stability and "internal balance" for countries like Britain.

Our politicians should be debating these profoundly important issues. They should be leading us out of this global financial morass, towards a more just, stable and sustainable future.
But they are not. Across the political spectrum - from Ed Balls, to Ed Miliband, to Nick Clegg and David Cameron - we are governed by politicians that have all promoted and defended the current neo-liberal system: "light touch regulation".

They are all part of the design team that brought you credit crunch 1.0 and that is about to deliver credit crunch 2.0.

The fact that the government has confirmed it will not support a financial transactions tax such as the Robin Hood tax, or offer anything new to tackle tax avoidance and evasion, tells us all we need to know about the commitment to social justice amongst the cabinet's millionaire ministers.

So I want to appeal for a debate about how we transform our economic system away from today's failed economic order - designed to serve the interests of the City of London's 1% - and instead build a new one.
One that is socially just and ecologically sustainable. One that provides useful and meaningful employment for all and strengthens our communities. We can and must find a better way of bringing people closer together and building a better society, while operating within the limits of the ecosystem.

Why will my fellow politicians not engage in these debates? The system we have is catastrophically impaired, yet our leaders remain prostrate before neoliberalism - an ideology that has destroyed jobs and firms, ruined the life-chances of millions, while enriching crooks, thieves and oligarchs. I call on others to join me in calling on our political leaders to match progressive politics with meaningful action, and in taking a principled stand to challenge the deeply corrupt financial system that has plunged us into environmental and economic crisis.

Saturday 13 August 2011

Riots: The danger of growing inequality mixing with a culture which puts consumerism above citizenship.- Caroline Lucas

As I posted Barry Gardiner's comments on the disturbances earlier it is only fair that I report what Caroline Lucas, the only Green MP, said in the same debate on August 11th:

We reject and condemn the horrendous violence, arson and looting that we have seen on the streets of Britain. But we must seek to understand why this happened to prevent it being repeated. If we stop at denunciations and crackdowns, nothing will be learned about why sections of our own population feel they can riot, loot and treat their neighbours and communities so appallingly.

The bigger picture has to be considered. Britain is deeply unequal. Last year, London's richest people were worth 273 times more than its poorest. Given the growing evidence, from Scarman onwards, that increasing inequality had a role to play in at least some of the rioting, the government must commit to an impact assessment of any further policies to establish if they will increase inequality.


If individuals are defined as consumers not citizens, there is danger that those who cannot afford to consume feel they have no stake in their community and become more likely to turn against it.


The Prime Minister has said this is 'Not about poverty but about culture.' But it is about both. It is about inequality and culture and how dangerous it is when you mix growing inequality with a culture which puts consumerism above citizenship.
 

Wednesday 8 June 2011

Lucas Bill Tackles Company Tax Scandal

A new Tax and Financial Transparency Bill, which could help the UK recover billions of pounds of lost tax by forcing companies to be more transparent in their accounting, is on the agenda for debate in Parliament on Friday 10 June.

The Bill, launched by the MP for Brighton Pavilion and Green Party leader Caroline Lucas in March this year, is due for its second reading in the House of Commons - and will also feature on BBC Radio 4's Decision Time programme tonight (8pm)

The Brighton Pavilion MP launched her campaign after posing a number of Parliamentary Questions to the Chancellor, in which she exposed the fact that H M Revenue & Customs is failing to prevent serious tax evasion which could amount to as much as £16 billion in lost tax.

Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), said:
This bill goes right to the heart of the economic issues facing our country. If the Government was serious about protecting the most vulnerable people in our communities from the cuts, it would start investing in tax collection and proper regulation so that companies are not allowed to simply disappear without paying the taxes they owe.
 A report published by Tax Research UK  in March revealed that around 500,000 companies "disappeared" from the UK's Register of Companies in the year to March 2010 - with billions being lost to the Exchequer as a result.

Caroline Lucas MP believes that urgent measures are needed to stop companies that are formally dissolved from trading fraudulently, thereby undermining honest businesses who do pay their taxes.She is also calling for a requirement on multinational companies to publish information on where they make their sales, record their profits and pay their taxes, in order to ensure that corporations make a fair and proper contribution to society.

Caroline said:
The first aim of this Bill is to tackle the scandalous reality that around 500,000 companies every year appear not to be paying tax in the UK. Tax Research UK estimate that regulatory failures by H M Revenue & Customs and Companies House mean that around 500,000 companies a year fail to pay their tax or file their accounts.

A great many are simply struck off the Register of Companies as a result, never to be heard of again. It is thought that up to £16 billion of tax a year might be lost to the country as a result. This Bill would ensure that banks have to provide details on all accounts they maintain for companies operating in the UK so that H M Revenue & Customs and Companies House can chase those companies who do not file the returns they're obliged to make for the missing information - and the tax they owe.

Secondly, the bill would force companies to 'publish what tax they pay', requiring all companies filing accounts in the UK to include a statement on the turnover, pre-tax profit, tax charge and actual tax paid for each country in which they operate, without exception.

If they only trade in the UK, this has no impact on them. This information would, however, mean that the answers to the questions asked of Barclays Bank earlier this year about where it earned its profits, how much profit was recorded in tax havens, and where it paid its taxes could be answered for all companies trading internationally.
The Brighton Pavilion MP added:
This information is vital if we are to ensure that multinational corporations make a fair and proper contribution to our society. Companies cannot opt out of corporate social responsibility - and paying tax to the country that provides them with their opportunities to trade is an essential part of it. You can't be socially responsible and accountable unless you say where you are and what you do in each place that you trade.
Caroline's Tax and Financial Transparency Bill will feature as the main topic of discussion in BBC Radio 4's Decision Time programme tonight (8 June 2011) at 8pm with Nick Robinson. Caroline will be joined in the debate by former Trade Minister Lord Digby Jones, Sir Nicholas Montague, former head of the Inland Revenue, Michael Jacobs, a former special adviser in the Treasury and Number 10, and Fraser Nelson, editor of the Spectator. The programme will be available to listen again here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011pkqn


Tuesday 22 March 2011

Caroline Lucas Reveals 'Green Budget' Wish List

On the eve of the Budget, and after the announcement of further diminution of the Green Investment Bank, Caroline Lucas discusses what a Green budget would look like. Follow this LINK

Saturday 12 February 2011

Say NO to Coalition Attempts to Divide Us

Caroline Lucas, Green MP, along with Peter Hain MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP , Salma Yaqoob (Councillor and leader of Respect) and many others from many backgrounds have signed the statement below. I intend to do so and hope you will too.  Brent is a brilliant example of a multicultural society that works.

We the undersigned believe that our multicultural society and the respect and solidarity it is built on is a cause for pride, and reject any moves by this government to undermine and destroy it.

We must not allow this coalition government to turn the tide back to the days when it was acceptable, through ignorance and fear, for people with a different religion, culture or skin colour to be scapegoated and treated as inferior or outsiders.

To add your name to this statement go to http://www.gopetition.com/petition/42826.html

Sunday 16 January 2011

Carline Lucas Backs EMA Campaign



Parliament will be voting on the Education Maintenance Allowance on Wednesday. This is an allowance that is absolutely essential to give secondary pupils from low income homes a chance to continue their education.

More on the Save EMA WEBSITE