We All Need To Work Together To Protect Nature.

 

Members of North Staffs Pensioners Convention met in the Mitchell Arts Centre in Hanley for a public meeting to discuss environmental issues.

 

Green Party councillor for the Stafford war of Doxey and Castletown Tony Pearce was one of three speakers invited to address the meeting. Also on the platform were former Stoke-on-Trent councillor and member of the Save Berryhill Fields Action Group, and Dr Mick Salt of the Stop the Stink Scientific Advisory Group.

 

Tony Pearce spoke about how he had grown up in Stoke-on-Trent and been active in local politics from an early age, before working in education and then as a full time official for the National Union of Teachers.

 

He held elected positions on Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Staffordshire County Council for Labour before becoming disillusioned with the party’s policies, including its response to the threat posed by climate change.

 

The Green Party offered a more viable alternative with its understanding, he said, that the drive for endless growth is the cause of many of the problems we face and commitment to social justice. In 2019 he won his current seat for the party and since then has worked to make protecting the environment a priority for the county council.

 

He has tabled motions calling for the declaration of a climate emergency, single use plastics and helped to set up a Climate Change Panel to involve the community in decision making on environmental issues.

 

The important thing was, he said, for everyone to realize they had a role to play in working to protect nature.

 

Dr Mick Salt, a founding member of the Stop the Stink Scientific Advisory Group spoke about the ongoing campaign with Red Industries over the ‘stink’ from Walley’s Quarry.

 

The impact of pollution from the site, caused it has been claimed, by the illegal dumping of hazardous waste at the site can be seen in the 22,239 complaints received about the ‘stink’ by Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council in 2021 alone. A further 43,263 complaints were received by the Environment Agency and pollution from the site was described by the Appeal Court decision following the case presented by the family of Matthew Richards as posing a ‘real and immediate’ risk to public health.

 

Despite repeatedly issuing enforcement notices, Dr Salt said, the Environment Agency had failed to follow through when it came to ensuring Red Industries too the required action. He also spoke about the intimidating methods used by Red Industries to inhibit protest by members of the community, including taking out an injunction banning protesters from outside the gates to the quarry.

 

Barry Stockley spoke about the struggle to protect Berryhill Fields, which began in the 1980’s when it was proposed as the site for an opencast coalmine. Residents and the council fought successfully against British Coal to prevent this, eventually winning their case in 1994. He described this as being “one of the most satisfying” days in his career as a councillor.

 

The proposed Local Plan, originally to be created by Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme councils as a joint exercise, saw the site come under threat again in 2017. This time as the site for 1306 houses, if this has gone ahead it would have destroyed a habitat that is home to 167 species of birds and to rare brown hares and great crested newts.

 

The proposed Local Plan collapsed following a disagreement between the two councils and there was, he said, a strong possibility that the land would not now be developed, but the threat remains in place.

 

Responding to a question from the floor about the often-confusing rules around recycling Dr Salt said there was a need for a consistent and clear nation wide set of guidelines. Also responding to a question about recycling Tony Pearce said that the deal requiring the County Council to pay for a fixed quantity of waste to be burnt, regardless of the amount sent to the incinerator, removed the incentive for more to be done to encourage recycling.

 

Questions were also asked about the lack of funding for the Environment Agency and other bodies, the need for hydrogen powered busses to replace the polluting diesel ones used by First and the impact of lack of access to green spaces on local children.

 

 

OFGEM Changing The Goalposts Will Not Help Families Struggling To Pay Soaring Energy Bills.

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsey has criticized plans by energy regulator OFGEM to review the price cap on energy bills every three months, instead of every six months.

 

The change would not come into force until October and, the regulator says, will make the energy market fairer and more resilient to shocks of the type seen recently.

 

OFGEM chief executive Jonathan Brearley told Sky News "A more frequent price cap would reflect the most up to date and accurate energy prices and mean when prices fall from the current record highs, customers would see the benefit much sooner”[1].

 

Adding that it will also help “energy suppliers more accurately predict how much energy they need to purchase for their customers, reducing the risk of further supplier failures which ultimately push up costs for consumers."

 

Adrian Ramsey said “Changing the goalposts in this way will do nothing to help the millions of households struggling to put food on the table and pay eye-watering energy bills. Energy companies may think that such tinkering will mitigate the cost-of-living crisis, but they're not fooling anyone” [2].

 

The plan has also been criticized finance expert Martin Lewis, speaking to Sky News he said it was an anti-competitive measure that would stop energy firms from undercutting the price cap.

 

An IPSOS poll conducted for Sky News revealed that one in five Britons are concerned about the rising cost of living and that one in four have resorted to skipping meals to save money [3].

 

Charity Action for Children say families they work with have reported having to wear coats to keep warm and ‘living in the dark’ because they cannot afford to switch on lights.

 

Director of Policy at Action for Children Imran Hussain told the Guardian “The worst pain and misery of the cost-of-living crisis is being felt by children in low-income families, yet the government is refusing to target help for these children or accept that it needs to rethink its huge cut to universal credit” [4].

 

Adrian Ramsey said “We need measures that put money back in people's pockets now. That’s why the Green Party has argued for restoring the £20 uplift to Universal Credit and doubling it to £40 per week, in addition to other benefits. We also want to provide every household with an additional £320 to help them pay for spiralling energy costs”.

 

The need to act on the cost-of-living crisis is made more urgent by the impact it is having on people’s health.

 

A YouGov poll conducted for the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) found that out of the 2001 people questioned 55% felt their health had been made worse by higher bills for food and heating.

 

The impact is being felt, the data shows, by people with existing and sometimes life-threatening health conditions who cannot afford to travel to hospital for treatment.

 

People questioned about the impact of the rising cost of living on their health who reported it as being negative cited increased heating costs (84%), and the rising cost of food (78%) as contributing factors.

 

Speaking to the Guardian Dr Andrew Goddard, the president of the RCP said “The cost-of-living crisis has barely begun, so the fact that one in two people is already experiencing worsening health should sound alarm bells, especially at a time when our health service is under more pressure than ever before” [5].

 

In addition to the measures he outlined to address the short-term impact of the crisis action must be taken to protect people from further energy price rises. Adrian Ramsey said “we need to see a massive nationwide insulation programme over the next decade. This could reduce energy bills dramatically while ensuring that everyone has energy efficient homes to live in”.

 

Adding that “the introduction of a carbon tax on the fossil fuel companies - who are making colossal profits on the back of the cost-of-living crisis - would help pay for such a retrofit programme”, something Green Party law makers in the Republic of Ireland have successfully campaigned for [6].

 

 

[1] https://news.sky.com/story/cost-of-living-energy-price-cap-adjustments-could-be-every-three-months-under-regulators-shake-up-plan-12614328

[2] https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/05/16/ofgem-tinkering-energy-cap-review-fails-to-address-cost-of-living-crisis/?link_id=0&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-monday-16-may&email_referrer=email_1546537&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-tuesday-17-may

[3] https://news.sky.com/story/more-than-four-in-five-britons-concerned-about-rising-cost-of-living-poll-for-sky-news-suggests-12614622?link_id=7&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-monday-16-may&email_referrer=email_1546537&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-tuesday-17-may

[4] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/may/17/poverty-families-cost-of-living-crisis-action-for-children?link_id=8&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-monday-16-may&email_referrer=email_1546537&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-tuesday-17-may

[5] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/17/cost-of-living-crisis-health-worse-poll-britons?link_id=11&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-monday-16-may&email_referrer=email_1546537&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-tuesday-17-may

[6] https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/government-launches-the-national-retrofitting-scheme/#

 

 

A Lot of Bills and Hot Air in a Queen’s Speech That Fails to Address the Cost-of-Living Crisis.

 

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsey has joined leading figures in criticising the programme of legislation outlined by the government in the Queen’s Speech.

 

He said the programme contained “a lot of Bills; a lot of hot air. Nothing to create the fairer greener communities that so many are crying out for, and so many people voted for when they elected Green councillors in record numbers last week” [1]. 

 

The speech contained 38 bills to be put before parliament, these include controversial plans to sell off Channel 4 and to replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights. Notable by their absence were any fresh measures to help people struggling to make ends meet as energy costs and the price of food both rocket.

 

Adrian Ramsey said the government appeared “to be putting its energy into creating a bonfire of environmental standards and protections we enjoyed as part of the EU rather than tackling the root causes of growing climate instability. It refuses to impose a dirty profits tax on the fossil fuel giants or introduce the hugely popular idea of a carbon tax that could help fund the transition to a cleaner, greener economy with greater energy security and lower bills.”   

 

Responding to the speech Labour leader Kier Starmer said the government had failed to respond to a “looming stagflation crisis”, adding that it was “bereft of ideas or purpose, without a guiding principle or a roadmap for delivery”.

 

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the government were doing “nothing to help the millions of families and pensioners facing soaring bills and eye watering inflation”, adding that it showed “a prime minister refusing to listen to the clear message sent by voters at last week’s local elections who are fed up of being taken for granted by this Conservative government.”

 

Criticism also came from the right with Tory MPs including David Davis and John Redwood calling for tax cuts, former policy adviser to Theresa May Gavin Barwell criticised the government for showing a “lack of action”, saying that “morally and politically” it needs to do more [2].

In response the government claim that two thirds of the bills contained in the speech, citing as an example the energy security bill, are aimed at boosting economic growth.

 

However, prime minister Boris Johnson said, no country was “immune” to the “economic shocks” caused by the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and other issues. Adding that “no government can realistically shield everyone from the impact”.

 

The severity of the squeeze on household incomes was highlighted by data published by the National Institute for Social and Economic Research (NIESR) showing that 1.5 million households are set to see the cost of living outstrip their disposable income, forcing them to borrow money or rely on savings. As a result another 250,000 households will be ‘tipped over’ into destitution, taking the number of households in extreme poverty to 1.2 million.

 

Speaking to the Guardian NIESR boss Jagjit Chadha said the policies pursued by the government could be directly blamed for harming the incomes of UK households. He called on the government to use its £20billion borrowing capacity to help those who are struggling [3].

 

Prior to the Queen’s Speech the Green Party had called on the government to help people cope with the rising cost of living. Co leader Carla Denyer said their strong results in the local elections showed the public are increasingly supportive of plans to use initiatives such as insulating millions of homes to cut energy bills and combat climate change.

 

She said “The recent local election results, where the Greens gained more seats than Labour in England, shows that the public are crying out for the ambitious plan to address the cost of living crisis that Greens have put forward”, something that contrasted sharply with the response of a government that “Distracted by scandal after scandal” was “utterly failing to get a grip on the twin crises of the rising cost of living and the climate emergency” [4]. 

 

Among the measures called for by the NIESR to help households cope with the spiralling cost of living are a £25 weekly uplift to Universal Credit to be paid between May and October this year and a one-off cash payment to low-income households.

 

NIESR deputy director for public policy Professor Adrian Pabst told the Guardian these measures were needed because rising prices will “push up bills, drag down demand and increase income inequalities. The big squeeze on budgets will hit the lower-income households hardest who live in some of the most economically and socially deprived parts of the country”.

 

The NISER recommendations are close to policies the Green Party has been advocating since the beginning of the cost-of-living crisis. The Greens would go further though, using a Universal Basic Income to reduce poverty and creating jobs through insulating draughty homes and switching to renewable energy.

 

Its failure to offer even this limited amount of support, Adrian Ramsey said, showed that the government had “again demonstrated its failure to get to grips with the cost-of-living crisis and the climate emergency. Greens have a plan to tackle both in parallel through a multi-billion-pound programme of home insulation to cut energy bills and carbon emissions”.

 

 

 

 

[1] https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/05/10/the-queens-speech-nothing-to-create-fairer-greener-communities-say-greens/?link_id=0&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-tuesday-10-may&email_referrer=email_1540278&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-wednesday-11-may

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/may/10/queens-speech-boris-johnson-bereft-of-ideas-to-tackle-cost-of-living-crisis?link_id=8&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-tuesday-10-may&email_referrer=email_1540278&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-wednesday-11-may

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/11/further-250000-uk-households-face-destitution-in-2023-warns-niesr?link_id=9&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-tuesday-10-may&email_referrer=email_1540278&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-wednesday-11-may

[4] https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/05/08/greens-call-for-humane-approach-to-cost-of-living-and-refugees-in-queen%E2%80%99s-speech/

 

Desperation On The Dole As The Value Of Unemployment Benefit Falls.

 

Analysis published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) shows that in April the value of the basic rate of unemployment benefit fell by the greatest amount since 1972.

 

Peter Matejic, Deputy Director for Evidence and impact at the JRF said “A decade of cuts and freezes to benefits have left many people in our society in increasingly desperate situations, struggling to afford food, energy and basic hygiene products. Without urgent action from the government, the stark reality is that the situation could get much worse” [1].

 

Benefits increased by 3.1% in April, far behind an increase in inflation expected to hit 7.7% and continue rising. As a result, households receiving benefits will see real terms cut to their income that could pull another 600,000 people into poverty.

 

Analysis carried out by the JRF shows that in eight out of ten benefits level changes between 2013 and 2022 the basic level of unemployment benefits has lost value in real terms.

 

They identify a precedence of benefit levels not keeping pace with inflation, but this latest fall represents a significant loss in value as prices continue to rise.

 

Peter Matejic said “With living costs predicted to rise further this year, it is difficult to comprehend the logic behind a choice not to act to protect the value of benefits, thereby imposing the single biggest benefit cut of its kind in fifty years. The government has chosen to weaken the incomes of the poorest at the worst possible moment”.

 

This latest blow to the incomes of the most vulnerable households comes as the cost of living is continuing to rise.

 

In March the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) predicted that inflation could reach a forty year high of 8.7% as wages fail to keep pace, they warn living standards are set to fall by 2.2% [2].

Additional problems have been caused by the 54% hike in energy costs introduced at the start of April, this is set to be followed by another significant rise in the Autumn. Speaking to the commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee leaders of the main energy companies warned an increase in people living in fuel poverty is inescapable [3].

 

Further pressure is being added to family budgets by the rising cost of food caused by higher costs for producers and the impact of the war in Ukraine on global supply chains.

 

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Sunday Morning programme ASDA chair Stuart Rose said that while retailers were, he believed, committed to “doing what we can to shield customers”, prices would inevitably rise and that many families already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis “are going to suffer” [4].

 

Across the country communities go to the polls in local elections this week, traditionally national issues cut less ice than matters such as poor road maintenance and other parochial issues. That will not be the case this time.

 

These local elections will be the first chance since 2019 for the public to express an opinion on the progress of a Johnson government that promised to level up struggling communities. A cost-of-living crisis sandwiched between a pandemic and a possible European war has thrown things significantly off track. Not least because their efforts to address all three have been slow, confused and often ineffectual.

 

This should be a boom time for Labour, they are ahead in the polls and should do well picking up seats lost in previous local elections. Yet something about them fails to convince and often even confuses voters.

 

Despite being in a position to land a killer blow on a seemingly weekly basis leader Kier Starmer pulls his punch more often than not. Preferring to rely on showing how nifty his footwork is at keeping balance on the centre ground, even though the latitude and public desire for something more challenging, even radical is evident.

 

Predicting election results is a far from exact science, what is clear though is that an election the public go into feeling antagonism towards the government and bafflement as to what alternative the opposition offers does not promise a happy outcome locally or nationally.

 

 

[1] https://www.jrf.org.uk/press/main-out-work-benefit-sees-its-biggest-drop-value-fifty-years?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=JRF%20Newsletter%20April%202022&utm_content=JRF%20Newsletter%20April%202022+CID_acbac5f93d1bb505fef901f0abc9cbbe&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=British%20silver%20coins

[2] https://obr.uk/overview-of-the-march-2022-economic-and-fiscal-outlook/

[3] https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/economic-update-cost-of-living-has-wide-ranging-impact/?utm_source=HOC+Library+-+Research+alerts&utm_campaign=337604fbff-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_04_30_08_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a9da1c9b17-337604fbff-102538305&mc_cid=337604fbff&mc_eid=f71b05b479

[4] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61271562

 

 

Falling Life Expectancy for Women in the Poorest Parts of the England Make UBI an Issue Every Party Should be Talking About.

 

If you are a woman living in one of the poorer parts of England, you are likely to die 8 years sooner than if you lived in a more affluent community. The UK trails in a disappointing 25^th out of 38 countries ranked for women’s life expectancy.

 

Research carried out by the Health Foundation and reported by the Guardian this week shows that can expect to live 78.7 years. This is way behind the average for other countries with only Mexico (77.9) faring worse.

 

The average lifespan in the UK is 79.0 years for men and 82.9 years for women. Life expectancy in the UK has been increasing for forty years, although the rate has slowed over the past decade. This has, partly, been driven by the impact of the pandemic and as it recedes the improving trend may return [5].

 

Life expectancy for women living in more affluent parts of England is 86.4 years, only beaten by Japan with an average life expectancy of 87.3 years.

 

Improving women’s health along with health outcomes in general for people living in disadvantaged areas has been front and centre of government ‘levelling up’ plans. These figures show the size of the challenge and the lack of progress that has been made.

 

They demonstrate with grim accuracy the yawning gap between the right and the poor, as Jo Bibby director of health at the Health Foundation told the Guardian the poorest people can “expect to live shorter and less healthy lives than their richer counterparts [1]”.

 

She added that the less than world beating response is evidence the government “has so far failed to acknowledge the mountain it needs to climb to bring life chances in the UK in line with other comparable countries.”

 

Grim as they are these figures don’t yet include the impact of the cost-of-living crisis that has hit already struggling communities hardest.

 

Data gathered by the Office for National Statistics shows that 83% of adults reported a rise in their cost of living in March. This was driven by rises in the cost of food and utilities [2].

Additional pressure has been added by the Bank of England predicting inflation could rise to 8% [3]. At the same time incomes are being squeezed by a rise in National Insurance contributions for some workers and increases to benefits that fail to keep pace with inflation.

 

As a result, warn the Resolution Foundation, an extra 1.3 million people, including 500,000 children will fall into absolute poverty in 2023 [4].

 

What is to be done? Maybe the findings of a trial carried out by Basic Income Conversation and the London Federation of Solidarity Funds suggests and at least part of an answer.

 

Basic Income Conversation work to promote the idea of a Universal Basic Income provided unconditionally to all citizens, the London Federation of Solidarity Funds is a coalition of community financial support groups initially set up in the capital during the pandemic. They provided small no strings attached grants to people who had suddenly been left without income.

 

Basic Income Conversation worked with four funds operating in the most deprived parts of the capital, up to April this year they had issued 2140 £50 payments to people they refer to as ‘neighbours’ or ‘expensers’.

 

This helped people in receipt of the money to meet expected expenses with which they were struggling and identified areas such as people with ‘no recourse to public funds’ due to their residency status [6].

 

The efficacy of the scheme is demonstrated by the fact that 71% of expensers surveyed said they felt less stressed, 42% said they felt more financially secure and 75% said the solidarity fund had provided them with help they couldn’t find anywhere else.

 

More importantly people who accessed the scheme felt they had been trusted and  treated with respect, unlike the formal benefits system which operates on a basis of suspecting everyone of fraud.

 

The key learning from this is that you can’t help people or communities just by giving them money, a mistake the government makes in its levelling up agenda time and time again, then compounds by announcing the same grant twice or more over.

 

How you treat people matters massively, if you make them feel diminished by seeking help then they will do so only as a last resort and usually too late to do any good. Treat them with respect and they will come forward sooner and, in a detail sure to please the bean counters, require less resources as a result.

 

Poverty is at the root of most health and social problems faced by developed countries. The poor have the worst diet, live in substandard housing for which they are charged crippling rents, work in the most unsatisfying jobs, and must fight tooth and nail to get even the most basic support from a monolithic state. No wonder they fall sick more often and die sooner.

 

The payments offered by the London Solidarity Funds aren’t a Universal Basic Income, but they are further evidence that one could be implemented and made to work if it is done in the right way.

 

This means involving local communities, treating people seeking help with respect by trusting them to be honest and having the imagination to look beyond a status-quo that blatantly does not work.

 

The cost of living is, unsurprisingly, going to be the dominant issue at the local elections next month, and, likely at the next general election too. Public patience with promises of jam tomorrow that rapidly turn into a timid sticking with what we’ve always done has worn thin to the point of transparency.

 

The time has come for a sustained nationwide trial of a universal basic income to be something all political parties talk about. If not then all of us, men and women alike, risk living lives that are harder and shorter than they need be.

 

 

 

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/17/women-in-englands-poorest-areas-die-younger-than-in-most-oecd-countries

[2]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/expenditure/articles/impactofincreasedcostoflivingonadultsacrossgreatbritain/november2021tomarch2022

[3] https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy-summary-and-minutes/2022/march-2022#:~:text=Inflation%20was%20expected%20to%20increase%20further%20in%20coming%20months%2C%20to%20around%208%25%20in%202022%20Q2%2C%20around%201%20percentage%20point%20higher%20than%20expected%20in%20the%20February%20Report.

[4] https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/inflation-nation/

[5]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/bulletins/nationallifetablesunitedkingdom/2018to2020

[6] A full and Shorter version of the Basic Income Conversation report can be downloaded from https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/user_files/user_files/000/075/205/original/Full_report_-_Basic_Income_Month.pdf?link_id=2&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-read-the-report-on-our-crowdfunded-basic-income-pilot&email_referrer=email_1514467&email_subject=new-report-results-of-our-basic-income-month

 

Nowhere Left To Hide For A PM Who Partied While People Died.

 

Green activists in North Staffordshire have joined the party leadership in calling for Boris Johnson to resign as he and chancellor Rishi Sunak are handed fines for attending ‘gatherings’ held at Downing Street during lockdown.

 

In an embarrassing first for British politics, they became the first sitting prime minister and chancellor to face criminal charges. They have both also been accused of lying to parliament by initially denying they had attended any of the parties held during lockdown.

 

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsey said their actions were a ‘damning indictment’ of the ‘reckless culture’ operating within the Conservative Party.

 

He said that “During lockdown, people throughout the country were making unimaginable sacrifices, yet Boris Johnson and his chums thought they could act with apparent impunity, regardless of what they were asking others to do” [1].

 

Boris Johnson issued a what he described as a ‘full apology’, speaking from his country retreat at Chequers saying “I understand the anger that many will feel that I myself fell short when it came to observing the very rules that the government, I lead had introduced to protect the public. I accept in all sincerity that people have a right to expect better.” [2].

 

Despite this he has rejected calls for him to resign saying he is instead that he is “focused on delivering for the British people at this challenging time”.

 

Chancellor Rishi Sunak also gave an “unreserved apology” for the “frustration and anger” caused. Both men have paid the £50 fine imposed.

 

Adrian Ramsey said the refusal of the prime minister to resign was indicative of the “cruel and callous” attitude of his government and showed that “throughout the Conservative Party there runs a streak of sheer contempt for the vast majority of us”. 

 

A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said “during the two lockdowns people made heart wrenching sacrifices for the good of the wider community, including not being at the bedside of dying relatives. The least they should expect is for those who lead the country to share their hardships”.

 

Adding that Boris Johnson has behaved with “sickening irresponsibility and has insulted everyone who has suffered over the past two years”.

 

The prime minister may face further charges relating to lockdown parties with the Met Police still to investigate gatherings held in May and November 2020 at which he was present [3].

 

Tory back benchers, some of whom had sent letters to the chair of the 1922 committee calling for a leadership election then withdrawn them at the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, have continued to back Johnson.

 

Only Nigel Mills and Craig Whittaker, MPs for, respectively, the Amber and Calder Valley seats, have publicly called for the prime minister to resign.

 

Nigel Mills told the Guardian “I think for a prime minister in office to be given a fine and accept it and pay it for breaking the laws that he introduced … is just an impossible position”.

 

There has also been one ministerial resignation with Tory peer Lord Wolfson stepping down as justice minister citing the prime minister’s “own conduct” and the “official response to what took place”.

 

In his resignation letter quoted on Sky News he writes that the “recent disclosures lead to the inevitable conclusion that there was repeated rule-breaking, and breaches of the criminal law, in Downing Street” [4].

 

Adding that he had “come to the conclusion that the scale, context and nature of those breaches mean that it would be inconsistent with the rule of law for that conduct to pass with constitutional impunity".

 

There is, Adrian Ramsey said “nowhere left for Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak to hide. They both broke the very laws they made to try and keep this country safe in a pandemic”, adding that the only way they can “maintain a shred of decency is to apologise for the harm caused and step aside.”

 

 

[1]https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/04/12/green-party-co-leader-adrian-ramsay-calls-on-prime-minister-and-chancellor-to-resign-following-partygate-fines/?link_id=0&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-tuesday-12th-april&email_referrer=email_1509555&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-wednesday-13th-april

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/12/boris-johnson-and-rishi-sunak-fined-for-breaking-covid-lockdown-laws?link_id=6&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-tuesday-12th-april&email_referrer=email_1509555&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-wednesday-13th-april

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/13/boris-johnson-could-get-three-more-fines-over-partygate-say-insiders?link_id=6&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-wednesday-13th-april-2&email_referrer=email_1509600&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-thursday-14th-april

[4]https://news.sky.com/story/lord-wolfson-conservative-peer-quits-as-justice-minister-over-scale-of-covid-breaches-in-downing-street-12589521?link_id=7&can_id=8bc5e413fe5b14a23ca14eb06da17776&source=email-green-party-morning-briefing-wednesday-13th-april-2&email_referrer=email_1509600&email_subject=green-party-morning-briefing-thursday-14th-april

 

Green Jobs Plan Will Help Deal With Rising Living Costs And Protect The Planet.

 

The Green Party has announced an ambitious plan to create jobs through retrofitting the UK’s poorly insulated housing stock.

 

As energy industry experts warn of another huge rise in bills in the Autumn the issue of how we pay to heat and light our homes is set to be a major issue at the local elections being held in May.

 

As the UK faces the most sustained fall in the standard of living since the fifties the party said in a statement to the press there has ‘never been a more important moment to elect Greens who will work hard to help their community deal with the cost-of-living crisis while tackling the climate emergency and reducing inequality [2]’.

 

The Green Party is calling for £25billion a year to be spent funding local councils to retrofit homes to make them more energy efficient saying this will ‘address the energy security and the cost-of-living crises, reduce carbon emissions, and create jobs all at the same time’.

 

Households have already been hit by a rise of £693 on April 1^st, those with prepayment meters will see their bills rise by even more, an estimated £708 a year. This coincides with rises in council tax and water rates

 

Cornwall Insight published figures over the weekend predicting that the energy bill for a typical household could rise to £2600 in October.

 

Concern has been expressed by debt charities and energy companies that government support for people struggling to pay their bills does not go far enough. Children and older people, it is feared, will suffer health problems this winter through living in poorly heated homes [1].

 

The £25billion a year investment plan in retrofitting homes would, the Green Party say run for a decade, £2billion a year would be directed towards developing skills within the workforce to help with the transition to a net-zero economy [3].

 

Power would be devolved to local authorities to allow them to direct how funding for skills training schemes would be spent to better meet the specific needs in their area. Many of the new jobs would be created in the renewable energy sector, investment in which would be paid for by a 40% tax on polluting energy companies that would raising £5billion.

 

The party also wants to see it made easier for companies and individuals to recycle 100% of what they use and a move away from ownership to usership instead. This would see an increased use of carpools and community libraries for things like tools and equipment.

 

Scientists preparing a major report for the UN on climate change have advised that the world needs to move away from using fossil fuels over the next eight years to have a realistic chance of controlling the greenhouse gasses warming the planet [4].

 

Green Party spokesperson on Employment and Social Security Catherine Rowett said, “the time is ripe for a blossoming of the renewable energy sector, thriving on the creation of real jobs and clean industries fit for the 21st century”.

 

Adding that to pay for their ambitious plans the Greens would “tax pollution and wealth. That includes increasing the tax already charged on North Sea oil and gas to 40%, which would raise £5 billion and make polluters pay for their activities.”

 

Green Party councillors across the country were, she said, already “working to ensure that people will benefit from green jobs by creating training programmes, and by investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency. We’ll need a workforce ready to retrofit homes on a mass scale. Electing more Green councillors will speed up this revolution”.

 

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60959357

[2]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gRCJsr0yq1TrP9LlcQ_JWB17iUk_P6KiJlM2Tko4Yus/edit

[3]https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VU-AdxPNqItgIquQwavDE0DE8x_-aaw3LvCxjEMavuk/edit

[4] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60959306