26 September 2018

Responding to the news that four environmental campaigners have been jailed for peacefully resisting fracking in Lancashire [1], Keith Taylor, Green Party MEP and a vocal critic of the policing of fracking protests, said:

“The frack free four are heroes. These people put their lives on hold to defend our environment and climate from the destruction imposed on it by a government blindly committed to fracking at any costs. The latest cost being the liberty of three peaceful protesters whose only crime is resorting to peaceful direct action to resist an industry after every democratic route of opposition was ignored and overturned by the government. The people of Lancashire and their democratically elected representatives repeatedly said no to fracking.”

“It has been almost a hundred years since Britain jailed its last environmental campaigners. Since then, the theory goes, we have developed into a mature liberal democracy that can accommodate dissent. Today’s decision blows that myth wide-open; authoritarianism has become a favourite tool of a minority government that lacks the public’s support to force through its environmentally destructive agenda by any other means. Any government that conspires with the dirty fossil fuel industry against its own people is rotten to the core.”

“Dissent is not a crime in any country with a political system fit to be called a democracy. Consequently, the sentences handed to the frack-free four are chilling.”

Notes to the editor

1. https://twitter.com/ruthhayhurst/status/1044900650998517760

2. Keith has been calling for a review of the policing of fracking and drilling operations across the UK https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/10/police-tactics-at-fracking-protests-need-urgent-review-says-mep

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25 September 2018

The Green Party has welcomed news the Environment Secretary has called for 30% of the world’s oceans to be protected by 2030 [1], and praised campaigners who have been pressing the Government to take action to safeguard seas.

Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party, called on Michael Gove to create marine conservation zones to protect marine life in British seas as a next step.

Bartley said:

“This is a victory for campaigners. It’s good to see the Government willing to take a lead in looking after the world’s oceans. The plastic crisis, climate change and over-fishing are putting our oceans in jeopardy and we need strong protections like this if we are to stand any chance of safeguarding them for the future. The Environment Secretary has shown he is willing to listen to scientists and activists, and now he must create marine conservation zones to protect marine life in British seas.” 

Notes:

1. https://news.sky.com/story/uk-to-call-for-third-of-worlds-oceans-to-be-protected-by-2030-11507876

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24 September 2018

Green Party animal rights spokesperson Keith Taylor MEP has responded to the news police in the South Weast are considering using drones to monitor anti-badger cull protesters [1] by suggesting the plans are symptomatic of a wider crackdown on the civil liberties of environmental protesters.

The senior Green politician, and Vice Chair of the European Parliament’s Animal Welfare Intergroup, said:

“It is truly astonishing that the authorities have managed to tie the government’s war on wildlife in with the continued war on our civil liberties. It is a malevolent act of authoritarian, anti-wildlife and anti-environment decision making. Not content with making badgers public enemy number one, the state is now wasting yet more taxpayers’ money targetting those who have the temerity to disagree with the Tories’ cruel, expensive and anti-science cull.”

“It is gobsmacking that this news comes in the wake of 10,000 people joining the weekend’s Walk for Wildlife [2], all of them urging the government to do more to protect our precious wildlife in the face of a terminal decline in Britain’s non-human animal inhabitants.”

The Green MEP for the South East previously condemned the government’s plans to extend the badger cull earlier this month and called for an end to the ‘scientifically illiterate and spectacularly expensive’ programme [3].

Notes:

1. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/24/police-consider-drones-to-monitor-badger-cull-protesters
2. https://theecologist.org/2018/sep/24/ive-never-seen-hedgehog-warning-after-peoples-walk-wildlife

https://www.keithtaylormep.org.uk/news/greens-call-immediate-end-scientifically-illiterate-ps30m-badger-cull-new-licences-issued

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21 September 2018

The Green Party has responded to Theresa May’s speech on Brexit following the EU summit in Salzburg [1] 

Sian Berry, co-leader of the Green Party, said:

“The only thing Theresa May’s desperate bluffing has achieved is boosting the campaign for a People’s Vote on Brexit. It is clear we have reached a Brexit deadlock and that negotiations have gone from failure to farce, with the Prime Minister seeming to now blame the EU for the chaos her government has created.

“There is no doubt a no-deal Brexit would be catastrophic for Britain and the Prime Minister’s increased threat today is an act of great recklessness. It is more important than ever the people of Britain have the final say on Brexit with a People’s Vote.”

Notes:

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45603192

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21 September 2018

The Green Party has responded to a report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee [1] which has said Trident is ‘not fit for purpose’, and faces a funding black hole of almost £3 billion.

Sian Berry, co-leader of the Green Party, said the report must be the “final wake up call” for ministers to stop ploughing billions into nuclear weapons which can never be used, and scrap Trident for good.

Sian Berry, co-leader of the Green Party, said:

“This report reveals the lie behind the Government’s claim nuclear weapons keeps us safe. The fact Trident has been found unfit for purpose must be the final wake up call to ministers who are ploughing billions into these weapons which can never be used, while inflicting further cuts on an NHS and public services in crisis. It’s time to stop throwing good money after bad and scrap Trident for good.”

Notes:

1. https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-accounts-committee/publications/

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