*UNDER CONSTRUCTION* Signal-boosting #ToryBritain truths to the nation. Helping YOU be part of the fightback.
From The Independent: MPs and the heads of environmental organisations have written to Theresa May saying the 2018 Budget is an “unforgivable betrayal of future generations”, due to its “worrying lack” of policy to combat climate change.
From Morning Star: Responsibility for the Windrush scandal falls “squarely on the shoulders” of Theresa May for ignoring a report warning her what would happen, Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas charged yesterday.
The Brighton Pavilion MP had tabled a written question asking if Ms May, as home secretary, had acted on the Legal Action Group’s prescient October 2014 report Chasing Status.
Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes responded: ”No specific action was taken as a result of this report.”
The report recommended a number of measures which could have prevented the Windrush scandal, including to set up a special unit to fast-track cases of people living in Britain on January 1 1973.
It also called for the restoration of legal aid for these cases, allowing Commonwealth-born citizens to work, access the the NHS and claim benefits and for Home Office proof of residence standards to be revised.
Another of the report’s recommendations was for “greater openness” from the Home Office about its archiving and destruction policies, and for it to accept that some immigration records could be rendered inaccurate or incomplete over time.
From The Guardian: Caroline Lucas has announced she will stand down as co-leader of the Greens in the autumn, saying it is time for others in the party to step forward and widen the pool of its prominent figures.
Lucas, the party’s only MP, returned for a second stint as leader in 2016 on a joint ticket with Jonathan Bartley, who leads the opposition group on Lambeth council in south London.
The party requires it leaders to re-stand every two years, and Lucas told the Guardian that while she remained committed to her Brighton Pavilion constituency, she would not be continuing in the co-leader role.
“I think making space for other people at this point is a straightforward thing to do and a good thing to do,” she said. “We have a wonderful array of talent in the party and I would love the opportunity for more of that to be showcased.”
Nominations for the leadership and for a series of other senior party positions will be open during June, and there will be a vote in August.
From The Guardian: The Conservative Party’s rhetoric on the environment is a “fluffy communications strategy” when change on plastics could happen in half the time pledged, the co-leader of the Greens has said ahead of her party conference speech.
“The government’s 25-year environment plan – finally published a few months ago – is desperately disappointing,” she will say. “A vague promise to ban ‘avoidable’ plastics in a quarter of a century is woefully inadequate and easy to do, with the politicians who wrote it likely to have retired or expired by the time it would come into force.”
Speaking to the Guardian ahead of her speech, Lucas said she thought the Conservatives’ electoral strategy on the environment could be dangerous.
“It is dangerous to have a nice, fluffy communications strategy which lulls people into the sense you can trust this government on the environment, when time and time again they’ve shown you simply can’t,” she said.
Caroline Lucas writes in The Independent… “Stopping climate breakdown won’t happen by tinkering around the edges of an economy reliant on fossil fuels – which is why the Government’s record doesn’t live up to May’s claim today that we are ‘leading the world on climate change’.”
From Evolve Politics: BBC Question Time on 6 July featured Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg and Green MP Caroline Lucas.
Caroline’s response to the Tory logic espoused by Rees-Mogg: “So I just thought it was interesting how Jacob spent the first half of the programme saying that government debt is really bad, and we need to avoid it at all costs, and he just spent the last ten minutes saying that student debt is absolutely fine, and don’t worry about it at all.”
David Levesley writes in iNews: Imagine any other politician- let alone a party co-leader- appearing in interviews where their policies were not even touched upon. I have experienced Lucas do this three times, and that’s just since the General Election was called.
From Daily Mirror: The Green Party would offer a four-day week, universal basic income and cap private rents in a radical offer to the electorate.
Caroline Lucas eschewed party political advantage in her address to the ITV Leaders’ Debate, to express sentiments that most progressive voters are likely to agree with:
Caroline Lucas on ITV Leaders' Debate
Tonight Caroline Lucas spoke with honesty and hope to the people of Britain. When people come together and reach for a bigger future, we can change the course of history 💚
Posted by Green Party of England and Wales on Thursday, May 18, 2017
“Never in my lifetime has our future felt so uncertain. Brexit, climate change, an NHS in crisis. But when people come together and reach for a bigger future, we can change the course of history. Read more
From The Independent: The Conservatives’ election manifesto would be “an absolute car-crash for the environment” if implemented by the next Government, Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas has warned.
From The Independent: “8) You can’t breastfeed – or wear T-shirts with slogans.
“The parliamentary rules on dress code have always seemed a bit of a mystery to me, but they appear to exercise a number of colleagues. For example, Labour’s Thomas Docherty seems to have a problem with women wearing denim in the House, even asking for guidance “as to what is an appropriate dress code for the mother of Parliaments”.