3 December 2019

The Green Party has promised to end the “throwaway economy” with a new suite of policies designed to encourage repair and reuse.

The launch takes place at the Goodlife Centre, Southwark; a community focused studio and workshop space. The Party will announce two key policies: a “Right to Repair” and “Repair Cafes”.

A comprehensive “Right to Repair” will require manufacturers to keep goods operational for years after purchase and encourage repair and reuse. The practice of producing goods with the deliberate intention that they will become obsolete within a few years time will be banned.

“Repair Cafes” will give local communities the skills and tools to repair, upgrade and customise their belongings. Using and borrowing equipment will give people access to expensive items such as power tools and sewing machines.

Based on figures from WRAP, this policy could save the average UK household around £800 a year, which is the value of electrical equipment thrown out and replaced.[3]

Green Party Co-Leader, Sian Berry, and Deputy Leader, Amelia Womack, delivered a keynote speech.

Sian Berry, Co-Leader of the Green Party, said:

“From the coffee cup you chuck in the bin, to the smartphone you upgrade year after year, disposability is at the heart of our economic model. And we all know it’s not right. It doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t make us happy. Nobody wants to add to the mountains of junk choking our natural world

“Today, we are pleased to propose a right to repair, which would make it a legal requirement for companies to lengthen the lifespan of their products, make spare parts available, and build them in ways which can be fixed by everyday tools.

“This is an essential step towards cutting waste and going net-zero by 2030, and none of the other parties are even talking about it.”

Amelia Womack, Deputy Leader of the Green Party, said:

“Today, we’re excited to pledge that Greens will support the creation of a repair cafe on every high street in Britain.

“Our high stress have been devastated over the last ten years. We need to rebuild the fabric of our communities. Repair cafes are just one step to deliver innovative ideas that support people’s needs and save people money, while helping the environment

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28 November 2019

The Green Party will call to abolish HS2 at a campaign rally outside the Department for Transport at 3pm on Thursday 28th November.

The announcement follows reports earlier in the year that HS2 Ltd has estimated the total cost of reaching around £80bn. The Green Party would instead spend the money investing in local and regional transport links.

Green Party Co-Leader Jonathan Bartley spoke to the rally, which will include Green Party Candidates, activists and other Stop-HS2 campaigners.

Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley said:

“HS2 is an act of Ecocide and must be stopped. It will bulldoze huge areas of natural woodland and cut wildlife habitats in half. HS2 would come at eye watering cost to both the taxpayer and our environment.

“Instead of causing this huge environmental disaster, the Green Party would invest in local and regional transport infrastructure, particularly in the North, Midlands and South West of England. This will include upgrading and electrifying rail networks, re-opening closed stations, providing free bus transport for everyone, and spending £2.5 billion a year on new cycleways and footpaths.”

“Whilst a handful of MPs have stood up against High Speed 2, reacting to the threat this will pose to their communities, it’s deeply concerning that the official lines of the top three parties are all to go full steam ahead with it.”

“Only the Green Party opposes this nightmare project.

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25 November 2019

Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley has today expressed the Green Party’s support for the strike by University and College Union (UCU) members at 80 universities around the UK.

Bartley said: “This is about the long-term wellbeing and welfare of both staff and students. Staff at our universities have been pushed beyond breaking-point by institutions that are not giving them proper pay and conditions, or pensions, and that are leaving huge numbers trapped in the uncertainty of zero-hours and variable hours contracts.

“The future of our world-class universities, and the quality of education of students, is dependent on staff being treated properly. I know from speaking to UCU members at previous strikes how much they fear not only for their own futures, but also their students’ futures. University pay structures need to be rebalanced away from ludicrously high pay for a few management staff, and towards maintaining the pay and conditions for those doing the teaching and research.”

Carla Denyer, Green Party MP candidate for Bristol West and a local councillor representing a ward with many university staff and students living in it, said: “At last week’s Student Union hustings at the University of Bristol, I spoke to many students who are highly sympathetic to the staff’s plight, and who will be joining them on the picket lines.

“Students are weighed down by the huge weight of student debt, a pressure the Green Party plans to take away from them by ending tuition fees and paying off existing student debt, but their lecturers are increasingly suffering also from intolerably low pay, poor conditions and insecurity.

“I have been on the picket lines and at the rally in Bristol this morning supporting striking university workers. The commercialisation of higher education benefits nobody. I fully support the UCU’s demands, especially their call for an end to casualisation of the workforce. The Green Party wants to stamp out casualisation in education, and would do this by offering all hourly paid staff and agency staff salaried contracts.”

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22 November 2019

Green MPs will fight for a new criminal offence of Ecocide, the Green Party’s Deputy Leader Amelia Womack has announced today.

The new criminal offence would punish severe, widespread and long-term environmental damage, and impose individual liability on company directors. 

This would include companies who are responsible for polluting rivers and oceans, companies involved in large scale deforestation of rainforests and polluting soils. 

Additionally, the Greens would work across the United Nations to recognise ecocide as an international Crime Against Humanity.

Amelia Womack, Deputy Leader of the Green Party, said: 

“Big companies can not get away with destroying the forests, rivers and oceans which all of us depend on. These are crimes and should be punished in law.

“Introducing a new law on ecocide will be a clear signal that we are moving away from our old polluting ways and recognising that we need to protect the environment for generations to come.

“Green MPs will fight for the law to treat large-scale environmental damage with the seriousness it so clearly deserves.”

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19 November 2019

The Green Party will announce 10 key pieces of legislation to kickstart the transformation of the country at the launch of its manifesto in south west London today.

The party will set out the Bills Green MPs will push for in the first two years of a new Parliament to tackle the climate emergency, secure the future of the country as part of the European Union and create an economy that is fair for all.

The centrepiece of the manifesto is the Green New Deal, a plan to transform the economic, political and social system to tackle the climate emergency and create a fair and equal society.

The full list of Bills the Greens will pledge to put forward in the next Parliament are:

· Green New Deal Bill – to get the UK on track to reducing climate emissions to net zero by 2030

· People’s Vote Bill – to give people a chance to vote on the future of our relationship with the European Union

· NHS Reinstatement Bill – to increase funding for the NHS by at least £6 billion per year each year, until 2030, and a further £1 billion a year in nursing higher education

· Further and Higher Education Bill – to fund tuition for every higher education student and scrap undergraduate tuition fees

· Sustainable Economy Bill – to set new binding targets to ensure our economy functions within environmental limits

· Future Generations Bill – to require public bodies, including the UK government, to balance the needs of the present with the needs of the future.

· Universal Basic Income Bill – to transform our social welfare system with a phased-in unconditional payment to everyone at a level above their subsistence needs.

· New Homes Bill – to end the housing crisis by creating the legislative framework to build 100,000 new zero carbon homes for social rent each year.

· Renters’ Rights Bill – to transform the lives of renters across the country, making housing more secure and bringing rent levels down, especially in places where they currently far outstrip incomes

· Voting Reform Bill – to replace the archaic first past the post voting system with proportional representation, create a fully elected House of Lords, and extend the vote to those aged 16 and 17.

Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, will say:

“Today, we’re proud to put forward a manifesto which puts us on track to remain in the European Union and make the whole country carbon neutral by 2030, while delivering social justice across Britain.

“And it’s the most ambitious Green New Deal proposed anywhere in the world.

“While the other parties are trying to catch up, we’re still racing ahead, reaching new horizons.”

Sian Berry, co-leader of The Green Party, will say:

“The Greens are clear about which path we must take as a country. And that’s why each and every Green MP elected this December will have in their in-tray a legislative agenda ready to go.

“Ten Bills ready for the next Parliament to hit the ground running. Because the future won’t give us another chance to get these next two years right.”

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