News feed
Imagining Here - Archive Training 2
This session has been organised as part of the Imagining Here project. If you live in, or have some connection to Weeke, Sutton Scotney and South Wonston, and want to have the opportunity of learning how to use the county archives, then send an email to fiona.handley@winacc.org.uk to reserve a place.
Imagining Here - Archive Training 1
This session has been organised as part of the Imagining Here project. If you live in, or have some connection to Weeke, Sutton Scotney and South Wonston, and want to have the opportunity of learning how to use the county archives, then send an email to fiona.handley@winacc.org.uk to reserve a place.
Imagining Here - Weeke Launch
Come and find out about the story of Weeke - what was it like 50 years ago? How will it change in the next 50 years? We're looking for the person who's lived in Weeke the longest to share their memories. They'll be tea, coffee and biscuits and activities for children too.
Mega-by-election: Greens offer householders lower energy bills
The Green Party in Norwich is setting out ambitious plans to make it affordable for more households to opt for renewable energy and insulation to save money on their fuel bills.
If the Greens become the largest party on Norwich City Council after the local elections on September 9th, they plan to introduce the scheme even at a time when the coalition government is cutting funding for local councils.
Tomorrow (Wednesday 25th August), Darren Johnson, the party's trade and industry spokesperson, will be visiting Norwich to give his backing to the local plan. Darren Johnson was elected to the London Assembly ten years ago, and he was the chair of the assembly in 2009/2010.
Darren Johnson said: "I am very excited by the Norwich Green Party's plans to make life in the city greener and fairer. Practical plans to make the city's homes more energy efficient will help the environment and cut fuel bills for everyone. It's time to turn Norwich Green by voting Green on September 9th "
Johnson will visit the home of Robert and Clare Prowse and their two children at 17 Gould Road, Norwich, a house which offers an example of what the Green Party would like to provide.
The three bedroom semi was built three years ago by the Broadland Housing Association. It has modern standards of insulation and its electricity is provided by a solar panel array on the roof. The Prowses have been pleased with bills of £20 a month for all their electricity needs. Surplus electricity from the solar panels is sold to the national grid and the family receives a cheque every six months, typically for £70.
Crucially, Mrs Prowse believes the family would have been unable to afford the cost of fitting the system had it not already been built in.
The Greens' plan would provide the opportunity for retro-fitting homes where renewable energy and upgraded insulation might not have been affordable. By investing in partnership with energy companies, or by setting up the council's own Energy Services Company (or ‘ESCO'), the aim would be to make solar panels available for generating domestic electricity and to roll out a programme of providing high-grade home insulation. These services would be provided free to householders where possible.
Something similar has already happened in Kirklees, west Yorkshire. In 2007, Green councillors in Kirklees were instrumental in launching a scheme to offer all households in their area free loft and cavity wall insulation. By October last year, 32 000 households were making an average saving of £200 a year on their fuel bills. The scheme created more than 100 jobs and is estimated to have cut the area's carbon emissions by 28 000 tonnes a year.
The long term benefits mean Kirklees Council is saving people £4.5 million a year.
The Green Party candidate for Lakenham ward is Kit Jones, who has worked with the Buildings Research Establishment on sustainable housing. He said: "The Kirklees scheme has been inspirational for us and the Green Party would like Norwich to follow suit. Money will be very tight at City Hall for the next few years but renewable energy is increasingly seen as a safe haven for investment. In the case of solar panels, electricity can be sold back to the grid with the proceeds used to repay the cost of installation and, in time, generate a profit. The scheme would also fight the recession by creating jobs."
Notes
1) A key part of the Green/Labour informal pact in Leeds recently was a £30 million project on free cavity wall and loft insulation for all private households in the Leeds council area. - http://www.guardian.co.uk/leeds/2010/may/28/leeds-green-party-house-insulation
2) An ‘election special' edition of Norwich Green Party's Greenview newspaper is available online at: norwichgreenparty.org
3) If you want to help out the campaign in Norwich, or want more information, call 01603 611909.
Whiteley Energy Weekend
Carbon saving at the University of Winchester
Join WinACC’s Organisations’ Forum on a tour of the University of Winchester:
• learn about the energy saving technologies used and how they are monitored
• find out about plans to improve further the institution's environmental impact
• get ideas about how to cut your own greenhouse gas emissions.
COST: FREE Booking is essential as places are limited. email richard.boothman@winacc.org.uk.
Australia elects first Green MP – and 9 Green senators may hold upper-house balance of power
Yesterday Australia became the second Commonwealth country this year to elect its first Green Party MP – and in a show of solidarity from the other side of the planet, the Australian Greens invited Britain’s first Green MP to broadcast a live message to their celebration party in Melbourne.
Caroline Lucas, the new Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, congratulated Adam Bandt (1, 2), the new Green Party MP for Melbourne, who like Caroline won the progressive vote to take a seat from a Labour party. Caroline today spoke of her delight in the Australian Greens’ success:
“It’s excellent news for Australia, because the Greens are the party nowadays offering the socially progressive policies as well as the best environmental policies.
“And it’s excellent news for the world, because with a stronger Green influence we can expect Australia to be pushing harder for a proper global agreement on climate change.”
The Australian Greens had been polling at 13-16% of the national vote over the last 6 months, and this held up during the election campaign (3).
High expectations of Bob Brown's Greens team
Adam Bandt had been expected to take the house of representatives (lower house) seat of Melbourne from the Labor Party. This seat covers the inner city suburbs of Melbourne and had been held by Labor since 1900.
According to an official from Greens leader Senator Bob Brown’s team, “This seat has been Labor’s heartland, but now many of the progressive voters of Melbourne have become disillusioned by Labor’s conservative stance on refugees, climate change and gay marriage as well as many other issues.”
The early indication (3) was that Adam Bandt polled 52% of the vote “after preferences”, the vote being held under the AV (additional vote) system currently under consideration for the UK house of commons.
Hung parliament – with Greens potentially holding upper-house balance of power
Australia now has a hung parliament, with both major parties wanting to rule, and with independents in the house of representatives potentially in a position to be influential (4).
What has been less widely reported, however, is that the increase in the number of Greens in the senate (upper house) from five to nine could leave the Greens holding the balance of power in the upper chamber.
An Australian Greens insider said yesterday as the votes were being counted that even if the Greens won only two or three new senate seats, “all commentators agree that we will hold the balance of power in the senate. This means we will have a much more influential role in the parliament and in amending and moving legislation. Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Greens, has had unprecedented media attention during the campaign with good coverage of our health, education, transport and environmental policies."
Notes
1. Adam Bandt is an industrial and discrimination law lawyer. He ran for the seat in 2007 and got 45.3% of the vote after preferences were distributed and the Labor vote after preferences was 54% of the vote. This election the long-time Labor member who narrowly beat Adam in 2007 has retired, increasing Adam’s chances of winning.
2. See greens.org.au/content/adambandt# for further information relating to Adam Bandt's campaign.
3. Information provided by Senator Brown’s office to Green Party press office. At the time of writing, the official results website - vtr.aec.gov.au/Default.htm was not showing all of the final confirmed results. For early Australian reportage, see www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/21/2989795.htm
4. BBC Radio 4 Today, 0700 news bulletin 22.8.10.
Australia elects its first Green MP
Today Australia became the second Commonwealth country this year to elect its first Green Party MP – and in a show of solidarity from the other side of the planet, the Australian Greens invited Britain’s first Green MP to broadcast a live message to their celebration party in Melbourne.
Caroline Lucas, the new Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, congratulated Adam Bandt (1), the new Green Party MP for Melbourne, who like Caroline won the progressive vote to take a seat from a Labour party. Caroline today spoke of her delight in the Australian Greens’ success:
“It’s excellent news for Australia, because the Greens are the party nowadays offering the socially progressive policies as well as the best environmental policies.
“And it’s excellent news for the world, because with a stronger Green influence we can expect Australia to be pushing harder for a proper global agreement on climate change.”
High expectations of Bob Brown's Greens team
Adam Bandt had been expected to take the house of representatives (lower house) seat of Melbourne from the Labor Party. This seat covers the inner city suburbs of Melbourne and had been held by Labor since 1900.
According to an official from party leader Senator Bob Brown’s team, “This seat has been Labor’s heartland, but now many of the progressive voters of Melbourne have become disillusioned by Labor’s conservative stance on refugees, climate change and gay marriage as well as many other issues.”
The early indication is that Adam Bandt polled 52% of the vote “after preferences”, the vote being held under the AV (additional vote) system currently under consideration for the UK house of commons. Mr Bandt may even find himself in a “balance of power” situation.
Green Party campaign won progressive vote
As with their English colleagues in Brighton Pavilion, the Australian Greens won the Melbourne seat through an effective targeting strategy and a strong message to progressive voters on social issues, as well as far stronger environmental policies than the bigger parties were offering.
The Australian Greens had been polling at 13-16% of the national vote over the last 6 months, and this held up during the election campaign. At the time of writing it’s too early to tell how many new senators (upper house representatives) the Greens will gain, but a vote of this size could mean five new seats in the senate. This would bring the number of Greens in the upper chamber, which is elected under the single transferable vote system, to ten (3).
An Australian Greens insider said today as the votes were being counted:
“Even if we only get two or three new senators all commentators agree that we will hold the balance of power in the senate. This means we will have a much more influential role in the parliament and in amending and moving legislation. Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Greens, has had unprecedented media attention during the campaign with good coverage of our health, education, transport and environmental policies."
Notes
1. Adam Bandt is an industrial and discrimination law lawyer. He ran for the seat in 2007 and got 45.3% of the vote after preferences were distributed and the Labor vote after preferences was 54% of the vote. This election the long-time Labor member who narrowly beat Adam in 2007 has retired, increasing Adam’s chances of winning.
2. See http://greens.org.au/content/adambandt# for further information relating to Adam Bandt's campaign.
3. Update: later it appeared the Greens had won four more seats in the senate, bringing the total to nine. See http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/21/2989795.htm.
Greens step-up campaign to be largest party in Norwich
Jenny Jones, Green Party member of the London Assembly and former deputy mayor of London, is in Norwich today supporting the Green Party's campaign to become the main party on a UK local authority for the first time ever.
The so-called "mega-by-election" has been scheduled as a result of a court decision earlier this year. The elections of 9th September could see Norwich Greens become the biggest party on the city council - having since 2008 been the first ever Green Party council group to form the official opposition, with more Green councillors than Conservatives and Lib Dems combined.
Supporting local businesses
A major strand in the Greens' campaign is support for local small businesses. Jenny Jones AM will meet leading members of the Green Party campaign team and the "Buy Local" network, who together are opposing a mini-supermarket development which many locals believe will harm existing smaller shops.
Jenny Jones is deputy chair of the planning and housing committee of the London Assembly, which this summer published Cornered Shops - a new report calling for better protections for small businesses under strengthened planning powers.
Greens across the country are playing a leading role in supporting the local economy during the recession:
- Lancaster's indoor market was saved through a campaign led by local Green councillors. A Green Party motion to council won the support of Labour and other councillors to ensure that tenants' leases were renewed. The decision meant that local jobs, tourism and food production were saved, and proved popular with local shoppers who enjoyed the choice and healthy goods provided by the market (1).
- In Camden, the local Green Party carries out an annual survey of local shopping streets in Dartmouth Park and Highgate. The survey measures how many vacant shops there are, how many have recently closed, and how many are soon to close. This helps the party to understand the particular problem areas, and most effectively campaign to protect local businesses. In 2006 for instance, Camden Green Party called for people to use local shops and avoid chain-stores, as a response to plans for the opening of yet another Tesco in Kentish town (2).
- In St Albans, Greens supported local campaigners who demanded "local business zones" which would offer protection against unaffordable rates (3).
- Plans for the construction of a new Asda in Shipley, in Bradford, were strongly opposed by local Green councillors, saying the store would undermine local businesses which were already struggling in the worst economic recession for a century (4).
- The York Green Party has produced a guide called "Local Shops for Local People" which promotes community traders. The Greens have delivered this street-by-street to all local residents (5).
- The Lewisham Green Party has encouraged the use of reusable cotton shopping bags bearing the logo "Shop Local in Ladywell." As well as promoting local businesses the reusable bags cut down on plastic waste. Local Green councillor Sue Luxton organised a competition at a local primary school to design a logo for the fairly-traded, organic cotton carriers (6).
Notes
1. See http://northwest.greenparty.org.uk/region/northwest/news/lancasters-indoor-market-saved-by-greens.html
2. See http://camden.greenparty.org.uk/localsites/camden/news/newstescokentish.html
3. See http://stalbans.greenparty.org.uk/news/111
4. See http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/4372589.Asda_store_plan_draws_criticism/
5. See http://york.greenparty.org.uk/news/21
6. See http://lewisham.greenparty.org.uk/localsites/lewisham/news/new-bags-to-promote-ladywell-shops-and-reduce-plastic-waste.html
More European aid needed for Pakistan floods, say Greens
Caroline Lucas MP, Green Party leader, has urged the European Commission to increase aid to Pakistan, amidst the continuing flood disaster.
The UN is set to hold an emergency session to boost international aid to flood-hit Pakistan. The international response has been slow, and the UN says it has raised only half of the $460m (£295m) needed for initial flood relief efforts.
The size of the area affected by the disaster is now equivalent to Belgium, Austria, and Switzerland combined.
Fewer than a million of the eight million people in urgent need have received basic supplies such as tents or plastic sheeting. As well, tens of thousands of villages remain under water.
Green Party leader Caroline Lucas said: "I join Oxfam in urging the European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, to dramatically increase the EU's contribution to address the crisis in Pakistan. 14 million people have been affected so far, and one-third of the country is underwater. Aid agencies say eight million people are in need of immediate assistance, but many have received no aid at all."
Greens urge stronger action to tackle climate change
As well as addressing the immediate crisis, the Green Party is keen to draw attention to the views of the world's scientific community that climate change is leading to the greater frequency and severity of extreme weather events leading to crises like the one currently devastating Pakistan. A party spokesperson commented today, "The UK government and the EU are not doing anywhere near enough to push for effective science-based targets and the policies we need to implement to deliver them.
"Britain should be leading the world on this - if only because no-one else is. Both the parties in the coalition government have gone out of their way to portray themselves as green, yet now they're in government they have simply failed to take the urgent and radical action that they need to.
"Instead of a Thatcherite policy of cuts aimed at reducing the size of government, they should be pursuing a Green policy of massive investment to transform our economy to reduce our carbon emissions. The deficit is an important, but climate change is far bigger, its consequences far more devastating, and its effects will extend much further into the future if we don't prioritise it now.
"And let's remember that the policies for radically cutting our carbon emissions will also deliver a more stable economy, warmer homes, huge numbers of sustainable jobs, much better public transport, an end to fuel poverty and the start of a new era of energy security."
Part-time job at WinACC
If you want a job at WinACC and you are unemployed, ask the Job Centre to put you forward for our Future Jobs Fund vacancy for a Communications and Action Assistant (attachment). Don't delay - interviews are 1 September. Do not apply direct to WinACC - you must be referred from the Job Centre. We also need an unpaid intern or volunteer to help with fundraising, and one for our website - details here. Email winnacc@winacc.org.uk if you're interested.
Re-launch meeting of WinACC Food Action Group
WinACC's Food Group is relaunching itself at a meeting on Sat 18 Sept at 10.00 in the Garden Room at the Friends Meeting House in 16 Colebrook Street, Winchester, SO23 9LH (behind Abbey Gardens). All welcome.
Video - Norwich Elections on 9th September
The Norwich Green Party is campaigning to become the largest party on Norwich City Council, with a special 13-ward by-election called for the 9th of September.
The video outlines their three campaign themes:
- transparency and accountability in local government
- help households save money on their fuel bills, by opting for renewable energy and more home insulation, and,
- a call for Norwich people to support the local economy, and the "Buy Local" campaign.
Contact Norwich Green Party on 01603 611 909 to help out with leafleting and canvassing and other campaign activities between now and the 9th September.
Low Carbon Winchester - open meeting
- Hear about what’s going on to influence local people and politicians and cut the carbon footprint of our housing, travel and food
- Share ideas
- Join an action group - or set up your own.
Imagining Here Launch
The exciting new Imaging Here project launches on the 25th September at Sutton Scotney Victoria Hall. As well as introducing the project the event will feature artefacts and information presented by Graham Scobie of the Historic Resources Centre and a video on life in Winchester 50 years ago which offers a rare view of our near past produced by David Lee from the Wessex Sound and Film archive.
Green MP accuses PM of "counter-productive assault on tenants' rights"
In a strongly-worded private letter, Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP has accused the prime minister of dealing council and housing association tenants a double-whammy as the PM proposes to slash housing benefit (1) while attacking security of tenure.
The letter was sent on 5 August but the PM has yet to respond.
In the letter, the Green Party leader and MP for Brighton Pavilion questions the PM's evidence base and calls his proposals "ill-judged". Mr Cameron has indicated publicly - but with no prior announcement from the Department of Communities and Local Government - that he would like to see fixed terms for all new council and housing association tenancies, lasting as little as five years (2).
Caroline Lucas points out that "Cutting housing benefits will serve to further increase demand for social housing, as private tenants are unable to afford their rent."
She accuses the prime minister of "coercion", saying that "making continued occupation of a tenant's home dependent on an official deciding whether or not the tenant deserves to remain there would both remove tenants' security and discourage social mobility."
She asks: "Why would I want to get a job and do well if this meant I might lose my tenancy?"
The UK's first Green MP also questions the prime minister over the bureaucracy likely to be created by his proposal, including "the cost of the process of assessing who should and shouldn't lose their home, including the inevitable appeals and possible court cases..."
"These are people's homes not just their houses"
Caroline Lucas continues: "A real look at the evidence shows that the shortage of council house supply is not down to under-occupation by tenants but due to massive and continuous under-investment in council and social housing over decades accompanied by the disastrous policy of 'right to buy' which has decimated the council housing stock."
She adds, "it should not be forgotten that these are people's homes not just their houses and security of tenure is one of the great successes of council and social housing, allowing families to remain in areas they could never afford to stay in if this security did not exist and allowing them to make roots and play an active part in their communities."
The letter concludes with an attack on the government's cuts agenda, which Caroline Lucas says is the driving force behind the policy:
"This policy is a transparent attempt to divert attention away from the consequences of the cuts that your Government is making."
Notes
1. See "Housing benefit cuts will increase homelessness, Green Party leader warns" at http://www.greenparty.org.uk/News/2010-13-08-Lucas-Housing-benefit-cuts-homelessness.html.
2. See eg "David Cameron announces plan to end lifetime council tenancies: Council homes for life to be replaced by tenancies lasting as little as five years based on need and income", Guardian 3.8.10, at http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/aug/03/lifetime-council-tenancies-contracts-cameron.
3. The full text of the letter is below.
Rt Hon David Cameron MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
5 August 2010
Dear David,
Council and Housing Association Tenancies
I am aware of the convention to write to the Minister responsible on a particular policy area. However I am writing to you directly as public knowledge of your policy proposal on the above issue arises from the comments you made during your recent visit to Birmingham, rather than any official policy document from the Department for Communities and Local Government or communication with Parliamentarians.
The media reports that you want to see fixed terms for all new council and housing association tenancies lasting as little as five years. The details of the proposal are not yet available on the DCLG website, despite press reports that a consultation paper is imminent. It is not at all helpful for such a major policy proposal to be made before any official documentation is made available. Nonetheless, going on what the press has reported, I understand that the idea is for a new short-term tenure to be implemented by local councils, involving regular reviews of tenancies.
I cannot see how your policy announcement could be described as evidence based. On what basis do you conclude that under-occupation and high income are prevalent in the Council and social rented housing sectors? I would be very interested to see the data upon which you have relied in coming up with this ill-judged policy.
A real look at the evidence shows that the shortage of council house supply is not down to under-occupation by tenants but due to massive and continuous under-investment in council and social housing over decades accompanied by the disastrous policy of "right to buy" which has decimated the council housing stock. Do you still support "right to buy" given that you do not even appear to support the "right to rent"?
I should be grateful for details of what account has been taken of the impact of your Government's threatened cuts to housing benefits in relation to this policy? Cutting housing benefits will serve to further increase demand for social housing, as private tenants are unable to afford their rent. Clearly, it makes sense to provide opportunities for council and social housing tenants with space in their home to move to smaller accommodation if that is something they want to do.
However, it should not be forgotten that these are people's homes not just their houses and security of tenure is one of the great successes of council and social housing, allowing families to remain in areas they could never afford to stay in if this security did not exist and allowing them to make roots and play an active part in their communities.
As well as being unfair, coercion will be ineffective - it is not the way to improve council housing supply. The threat of coercion in the background, making continued occupation of a tenant's home dependent on an official deciding whether or not the tenant deserves to remain there would both remove tenants' security and discourage social mobility. Why would I want to get a job and do well if this meant I might lose my tenancy? And what would be the cost of the process of assessing who should and shouldn't lose their home, including the inevitable appeals and possible court cases?
The Government cannot avoid the need for real and sustained investment in both council and social housing by trying to suggest the supply problems are caused by under-occupation of council homes. It is not tenants who are to blame for the council and social housing crisis!
This policy is a transparent attempt to divert attention away from the consequences of the cuts that your Government is making and it can only be described as a counterproductive assault on tenants' rights.
I should be grateful for your response to my concerns.
Yours sincerely,
Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion
No GinACC from 31 August onwards
WinACC's pub nights ("GinACC") on the last Tuesday of the month have come to a natural end. We will not meet on 31 August. Next year, we will replace them with evening open meetings, each with a specific theme. More details to follow soon.
Housing benefit cuts will increase homelessness, Green Party leader warns
Caroline Lucas, the leader of the Green Party and MP for Brighton Pavilion, has warned that the coalition government's cuts to housing benefit could result in increasing social problems with serious debt and homelessness.
The Green Party leader was commenting on a recent report published by homelessness charity Crisis (1). The report highlights the social risks of housing benefit cuts, which will affect 936,960 households across the UK who are currently claiming local housing allowance (LHA). On average, these households will lose over £600 a year (2).
The report also warns that cuts to housing benefit could have hidden costs in the future, in order to deal with the social problems of homelessness, including health problems and providing accommodation.
Housing benefit cut is equivalent to big increase in income tax for poorer people
Caroline Lucas MP said:
“Consider someone earning £16,000 (after tax-free allowance) and receiving housing benefit. If they lose £728 that would be the equivalent of paying an income tax rise of over 4.5 per cent (3, 4, 5).
“These particular Tory-Lib Dem cuts will leave more people struggling to pay the rent, more people falling into serious debt and ultimately more people becoming homeless.
“This is very unfair, coming at a time when many of these people are facing economic uncertainty or even redundancy.
“Once again we see the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition’s cuts hitting the poorer people in society. The government could avoid these cuts by properly tackling tax avoidance and tax evasion perpetrated by some of the wealthiest, which could raise billions of pounds a year (6).”
Notes
1. The report by Crisis can be found at http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/1008HBCuts%20formatted.doc. Crisis comments, “The Government announced cuts of £1.8bn to housing benefit in its emergency Budget soon after coming to power. According to an impact assessment by the Department of Work and Pensions, every one of the 123,000 households in the region reliant on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) — the form of housing benefit paid to tenants in the Private Rented Sector — will be affected. On average, claimants in the South East will see their LHA cut by £12 per week, or £624 per year.”
2. Figures from “New figures reveal areas hardest hit by housing benefit cuts”, Crisis news release of 12 August 2010: http://www.crisis.org.uk/pressreleases.php/403/new-figures-reveal-areas-hardest-hit-by-housing-benefit-cuts.
3. £728 is the extra rent that people in one-bed properties in Caroline’s own constituency, Brighton and Hove will be forced to pay annually due to cuts in housing benefit. The amount will vary from area to area due to the government’s method of calculation. The calculation of housing benefit is complicated. The level of benefit you can claim is linked to local rents in the area and is calculated at the median rent level. The government is moving the basis of calculation of entitlement from the 50th to the 30th percentile (of rental costs of properties in a given area). The reason for the relatively high figure in Brighton and Hove is that there’s a bigger gap between the 30th and 50th percentiles. This is because there’s an especially large private rented sector in Brighton and Hove, so rent levels are more spread out, hence the bigger gap, hence the higher average cut in benefit.
4. £728 as a percentage of £16,000 = 4.55%. Of course taking into account tax-free allowance, the actual percentage would be much higher.
5. This and all other raw figures here are derived from the aforementioned report by Crisis, citing two government sources: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/local-authority-staff/housing-benefit/claims-processing/local-housing-allowance/impact-of-changes.shtml and http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/impacts-of-hb-proposals.pdf.
6. See Cuts: The Callous Con Trick by Caroline Lucas et al, http://www.financeforthefuture.com/TaxBriefing.pdf. See also Green Party news release of 19 June 2010, “Cuts ‘destructive and unnecessary’ says Green Party leader”, at http://www.greenparty.org.uk/News/2010-06-19-callous-cuts-report.html.
Green Party leader shines once again as survey suggests most British MPs are guilty of “stunning apathy” over climate change
A Guardian newspaper survey of British MPs concerning climate change was met by “Stunning apathy, mainly,” says the newspaper today.
Only 11 per cent of the 650 MPs replied to a Guardian survey asking three short "yes or no" questions.
The paper, which wanted to test whether “the UK's new parliament think global warming is happening and manmade” said the survey results showed “worrying apathy,” especially as some 232 of the members elected in May – over one-third – are new to parliament. Only 70 MPs replied to the questions, which asked MPs whether they agreed with these statements:
1. Scientific evidence strongly suggests the world has been warming since the Industrial Revolution and will continue to do so?
2. Scientific evidence strongly suggests that most of this warming is caused by emissions from human activities?
3. The UK government should take urgent action to cut the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, in order to meet a target at least 20% lower by 2020?
Caroline Lucas, Green Party leader and the UK’s first Green MP, answered as follows:
1. Yes of course it does, and has done for many years.
2. Ditto.
3. Yes, but we must emphasise “at least”, because 20% by 2020 would be hopelessly inadequate.
Caroline Lucas today commented on parliament's "lack of wholehearted commitment" to tackling climate change:
“There clearly has been movement in the right direction over the years, but the bottom line is that there still isn't enough urgency or ambition behind action on climate change.
"And most politicians are still far too ready to talk about the difficulties of cutting emissions, when they could be focusing on the benefits – like warmer homes, much better public transport, huge numbers of sustainable jobs, a more stable economy, an end to fuel poverty.
"Radical CO2 reductions brought about by conservation and renewables would also give us energy security and would stabilise energy prices in a way that fossil fuels and nuclear power can’t hope to.
“In the end government doesn’t have the right targets – even 40% global cuts by 2020 would give us only a 50:50 chance of avoiding dangerous climate change.
"The Green Party can show how to deliver 90% cuts by 2030, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process.”
What did the survey demonstrate?
The Guardian acknowledged that it “would be wrong to draw many conclusions from this small and self-selecting sample but perhaps considering the response rate is the safest: 28% of the parliamentary Lib Dem party replied, 19% of Labour and just 2% of Tories. That would fit with many observers' ideas of the importance of the climate change issue to MPs in those parties,” said The Guardian, adding that of the mere seven Tory MPs who responded, one was a moderate climate sceptic and one more a “hard-core” sceptic. The Labour contingent also included “1 hard-core and 1 moderate sceptic,” said the paper.
The climate change and energy secretary, Chris Huhne, climate change minister Greg Barker and energy minister Charles Hendry all supplied three yeses, said The Guardian – adding that none of the three Defra ministers in the Commons bothered to reply.
A Green Party spokesperson commented today:
"It is slightly worrying that only 11 per cent of MPs, including less than a fifth of Labour and much less than one-third of the Lib Dems, could be bothered to take the opportunity to side with climate science.
"Of course MPs are not obliged to answer questions from newspapers – but they were simple enough questions. And with the evidence of the consequences of climate change mounting all the time, I would have thought any MP who was remotely concerned would have been glad of the opportunity to stand up and be counted."
The Green Party says it continues to be "the only party with the science-based targets, the right policies and the political will to tackle climate change."
Jenny Jones calls for reform of police Territorial Support Group
The Crown Prosecution Service has decided that four police officers, accused of a "serious, gratuitous and prolonged" attack on terror suspect Babar Ahmad in December 2003, are to face criminal charges.
The high court was told last year that Ahmad was punched, stamped on, kicked, and strangled during his arrest by officers from one of the Metropolitan Police's territorial support groups (TSG).
The CPS's decision to prosecute came after an independent review by retired senior judge Sir Geoffrey Grigson into the handling of the case.
Jenny Jones, Green Party member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said: "We've known for many years that the TSG has needed reform. There have been consistent allegations of unnecessary aggression and brutality. I, for one, am tired of being assured by senior officers that all force has been 'reasonable' only to find out that it hasn't. It's difficult to believe even today that this same situation couldn't happen again. Urgent reform of the TSG is needed."
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