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CTV News
42 minutes ago
- Business
- CTV News
Rally in downtown Kitchener to protest controversial provincial bills
'Rally for People and Planet' at Carl Zehr Square in downtown Kitchener on May 31, 2025. (Hannah Schmidt/CTV News) A 'Rally for People and Planet' was held in downtown Kitchener on Saturday. Dozens of people gathered at Carl Zehr Square to hear from Aislinn Clancy, the deputy leader for the Green Party of Ontario and MPP for Kitchener Centre. Rally for People and Planet Kitchener Carl Zehr Square Aislinn Clancy Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy speaks at the 'Rally for People and Planet' at Carl Zehr Square in downtown Kitchener on May 31, 2025. (Hannah Schmidt/CTV News) The event focused on two proposed provincial laws – Bill 5 and Bill 6. Bill 6 targets homeless encampments and drug use in public spaces. If passed, police officers would have more power to arrest anyone in a public space, including a tent, who is in possession of an illegal substance. Those individuals would then face tougher penalties, including up to six months in prison or a fine of up to $10,000. Advocates have argued that punitive measures often fail to address the issues causing homelessness and may, in fact, make them worse. Bill 5, meanwhile, seeks to speed up development for certain projects, like mining, and create 'special economic zones' where provincial and municipal laws would be suspended. The Ring of Fire is one the sites identified by the province.
New Statesman
11 hours ago
- Politics
- New Statesman
The British left is coming for the Government
Photo byWhisper it as yet, but after five long years of confusion and disarray, the British left is rallying. Local political organisations are coalescing, from Chiswick to Liverpool to Newcastle. The Green Party leadership contest has become a straight fight between an energetic, 'eco-populist' left candidate, and the party's more cautious establishment. The prize is clear: local elections due next May across England's major cities, including London councils. After that, who knows. Could Labour's urban fiefdoms fall victim to the rout northern councils saw in the local elections last month? It won't be easy. Bitterly, almost viscerally unpopular as Labour may be, it is the self-styled insurgents of Nigel Farage's Reform that have been the overwhelming beneficiaries of the Starmer slump. Farage himself has been happy to pilfer from the left – a long-time Thatcherite now turned improbable friend of the welfare state. But the Reform squeeze isn't only on Starmer's Labour, who, after talking up their fiscal discipline at huge political cost are now u-turning on its most unpopular consequences. It's also a squeeze on all those on England's left who fondly imagine that the popularity of their traditional policies, from nationalisation to more welfare spending, is enough to win them votes. Instead, they're now seeing those same demands nabbed by opportunists from the radical right, precisely because they are popular. A new programme for 21st-century England will be needed, focused relentlessly on the everyday cost of living and wealth inequality. But new organisations are also needed. Peter Mandelson once spoke of a Labour left buried in a 'sealed tomb' by New Labour. This proved to be optimistic, as the Corbyn surge of the 2010s proved. And fearful of a second Corbyn-style resurrection, Starmer's operation has driven a stake through the left's heart, stuffed its mouth with garlic, placed it in a lead-lined coffin, sealed the tomb, and stationed a grim-faced 24-hour armed guard outside, gripping their pistols and blazing torches. The monster will not now escape. As a political force, the Labour left is finished. The tactic of entryism – entering the Labour party and changing it – is finished too. Instead, the party's steely-eyed Van Helsings should have been looking elsewhere. From the shadows, far away from Westminster, a terrifying new apparition is approaching. Disguised by the size of Labour's majority, the 2024 election saw the non-Labour left win its biggest parliamentary representation in British history, on its biggest vote ever. Four million voters returned nine left MPs, spread between the Greens and five independents, including Jeremy Corbyn in Islington. At the height of its success, in the late 1940s, the Communist Party won two MPs and 94,000 votes. Since the foundation of the Labour Party itself, the non-Labour left has never seen anything like this support. Against a seemingly monolithic Labour majority, this may have mattered little. Britain's perverse voting system found Keir Starmer foisted into Downing Street with a landslide majority, but with half a million fewer votes than Jeremy Corbyn lost by in 2019. As a result, the party has been left with more marginal seats than ever before in its history. Fifty-one of its seats were won with a margin of less than 5 per cent. Accurately described after the election by polling expert James Kaganasooriam as a 'sandcastle majority', the turning political tide has now washed away Labour's 2024 support. The main beneficiaries, for now, are Reform, whose spectacular success in the local government elections saw them win control of previously Labour councils from Durham to Derbyshire. Its one-time heartlands in the North of England were already riddled and on the verge collapse, with Boris Johnson's demolition of this so-called 'Red Wall' in 2019 having already delivered the fatal blow. Johnson's failure to hold his new coalition together, coupled with Liz Truss' calamitous 44 days in office, saw many of Johnson's wins fall back into Labour hands five years later – but on the most tenuous and temporary basis. Demographic change, and a great, decades-long shift in the economy from manufacturing to services, has created new heartlands for the party, concentrated in inner cities and major urban areas across the country: a mix of underpaid, insecure younger workers, often with university degrees; more settled ethnic minority communities; and a solid layer of public sector employees, many of whom are now at or approaching retirement. Generally socially liberal, 15 years of persistent economic failure since the financial crisis have shoved this base increasingly to the economic left. And 25 years of failed military interventions have created a deep cynicism about Britain's role abroad – crystallised in the distance between Starmer's government and its voters on Israel. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Even before entering Downing Street, the horrors of Gaza, and Britain's complicity in them, had been a powerful solvent on Labour's new base of support. That undermined Labour's vote in 2024, and resulted in the arrival of the 'Gaza independents', the four pro-Palestinian MPs elected in the strongly Muslim areas of Leicester, Blackburn, Dewsbury and Birmingham. Combined with Labour's blunders and cruelties in office, from the Winter Fuel Payment to disability allowance cuts, the party's support has been hollowed out. Its voters won't vote, its activists aren't active, and the party's once-fearsome ground game is crumbling. There was a taste of what could be to come in Haringey last month when a Green Party candidate, Rurairdh Paton, was elected by a landslide in a solidly Labour and solidly working class ward. Tellingly, local campaigners report that Labour grew so desperate for campaigners that local councillors from Folkestone in Kent were drafted in to door-knock. It's the better-established Greens who can seize this opportunity in Labour strongholds. Zack Polanski's leadership bid, and the newly formed internal faction, Greens Organise, have already identified the potential for a breakthrough. Polling shows the Green's support to be younger, and poorer, than the other national parties. These are not the middle-class do-gooders of legend. The broader left, outside the Greens, needs to recognise how the world has changed. Rumours that Jeremy Corbyn was about to set up a new party have swirled around him since his expulsion from Labour, almost five years ago. National negotiations to establish a new party, organised between different chunks of the post-Corbyn left, have come to little. A combination of political caution, and disagreements over a new party's potential direction and leadership have so far scuppered agreement. Perhaps wisely, Corbyn himself has been wary of jumping the gun. The history of left-wing breakaways from Labour, from the Independent Labour Party in the 1930s, to Scottish Labour in the 1970s, to Respect in the 2000s, has not been a happy one. Only George Galloway has, to date, made anything like a success of it, and then only via an increasingly eccentric one-man triangulation between the economic left and 'socially conservative' right. Whatever else he may be, Jeremy Corbyn is not George Galloway. And declaring a new party will not magically reproduce his 2015 breakthrough. Cooperation across the non-Labour left is the order of the day. On the ground, this cooperation is already starting to happen. In Lancashire, Greens have banded together with the newly formed Preston Independents to become the official opposition on the County Council. Greens and Independents are working closely in Islington. Local organisations are being pulled together by prominent independent left candidates, like former mayor Jamie Driscoll in Tyneside, Faiza Shaheen in Chingford, and former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein, who came second place in Keir Starmer's own constituency of Holborn and St Pancras at the 2024 election. Green Party members in all those constituencies are working alongside the independent left. Local alliances can become a national force. Across the channel, France's New Popular Front, an alliance between forces of the traditional left, the left populist France Insoumise, and the French Greens, was pulled together in weeks on a radical programme that catapulted the alliance to top of the polls in the snap elections – and pushed Marine Le Pen's National Rally to third place. France Insoumise MP Danielle Obono spoke at the London Green Party's conference last month on the practical experience of unity. There's a desire to learn from what worked – and what did not. The next general election isn't due until 2029. But a string of local council victories next year would pave the way for an unprecedented challenge to Labour – not from the right, as the party has always had to fight, but from its radical flank. And this new movement could take parts of Labour with them: from the tone of his Guardian op-ed on Wednesday, John McDonnell already regards his party as half-lost. Far from the coming in from the cold, what was once the Labour left has a different goal: burning the house down and building something completely new. [See also: Child poverty is rallying the Labour left] Related
The Independent
a day ago
- Business
- The Independent
I want the Greens to be a populist party – here's how we can do it
It's an exciting time to be in the Green Party. We've gained seats in eight successive elections, have four brilliant MPs in parliament, and we're polling in double digits. Since I joined eight years ago, the change has been huge – and built entirely on the hard work of our members. It's been an impressive decade, but the next decade needs to be explosive. That's why I'm running for the party leadership, on a platform of 'eco-populism'. I want to take the eco message beyond the grassroots and to the masses. You don't have to be a political scientist to see why this moment requires a bold Green Party. The climate crisis is affecting all our lives and biting into our livelihoods, but we have a government that has been disappointingly quick to break its promises on climate action, even when green investment is the clearest route to raising living standards and improving quality of life for millions of people up and down the country. First came the binning of the £28bn green investment – then support for major airport expansion, followed by backpedalling on clean car standards. Prime minister Keir Starmer has gone from shouting about a Green New Deal to jettisoning climate justice. The sad truth is that Labour is obsessed with the electoral threat from Nigel Farage's Reform UK, and its supposed green credentials are the first thing to go to the wall. This week, the prime minister made time to give a speech about how Farage, if he were ever put in charge, would crash the economy like Liz Truss. I don't doubt it – but politics shouldn't bend to the will of the hard right. More voters than ever are keen to vote Green. But I believe we need to communicate our clear policy platform in a way that better speaks to people's everyday needs. Under my leadership, we will stand with those at the sharpest end of the country's economic failures – and we will show them how a climate-proofed economy will mean warmer homes, cheaper bills, decent jobs and greater security for all of us. The current administration is missing basic opportunities to do green things. They're part-nationalising the railways… but have forgotten the most important part: improving the trains. Meanwhile, Robert Jenrick this week filmed himself stopping fare-dodgers on the London Underground – which is all well and good if that was his job. But, as a former minister, he had both the time and the power to create systemic change – and failed to enact change. Even now, in his role as shadow secretary of state, instead of pushing the government to reduce the burden on some people living in poverty, which is a much more effective preventive measure against crime, he is acting as some sort of vigilante for the sake of social media. It's not radical to say that corporations shouldn't profit from the water coming out of taps, or that extreme wealth ought to be taxed fairly – it's just that no one is willing to say it. Some might say such things are far cry from what the Green Party has been most known for. But there's no environmental justice without racial, social and economic justice, too. And the same corporations that are discharging sewage into our rivers are destroying our communities and, ultimately, will do the same for our democracy, too. In the coming weeks, I'm going to make it my mission to tell one simple story – one which says it doesn't have to be like this. We can do things differently. The UK can have clean air, lower bills, job security and public services that we all can rely on. This is what I mean by 'eco-populism'. At the very heart of our environmental mission are bread and butter issues that affect all of us. And making climate action relevant to people's material, every day concerns. Under my leadership, we will have a Green Party that can demonstrate that a better country and a better world is within our grasp – one that can build the mass movement needed to demand it.
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Douglas Ross in PO pro-indy bias claim after FMQs expulsion
However, a spokesperson for Holyrood said the MSP had been repeatedly warned about his heckling. READ MORE The row began after Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay questioned the First Minister on the impact of net zero policies on agriculture. In response, John Swinney said Brexit had harmed farmers, prompting Mr Ross to shout: 'Swinney deflecting again.' Ms Johnstone halted proceedings and said: 'Mr Ross, you have persistently refused to abide by our standing orders and I would ask you to leave this chamber and you are excluded for the rest of the day.' Mr Ross did not initially leave, forcing the Presiding Officer to pause proceedings again to insist he depart. Here is the moment Douglas Ross was kicked out of the Chamber today during FMQs @heraldscotland — Hannah Brown (@HannahMargBrown) May 29, 2025 Speaking to journalists afterwards, Mr Ross said he was 'very frustrated' by the decision. 'For a member to be expelled from the chamber without being warned at all, I think may be unprecedented. I have been warned in the past, as has John Swinney. I have been warned quite a lot recently, as has John Swinney, for shouting and heckling and others and asking questions, as have many SNP backbenchers and frontbenchers.' Asked if he was questioning the Presiding Officer's neutrality, Mr Ross replied: 'Yes.' He said MSPs from other parties had messaged him to express concern about Ms Johnstone's conduct. 'They were just surprised by the actions of the Presiding Officer. We are a legislature here — we are not a library. "There is going to be some discussion from the benches around the respective party spokespeople. That is what people watch politics for. Now, sometimes it goes beyond the pale and action has to be taken. "But I do not recall ever seeing a Presiding Officer take no action to try to minimise that behaviour or to warn any members before excluding them — and she reached straight for that option today, which for me raises serious concerns. "The speed at which she did it made me almost think it was premeditated. 'It did not matter what I did today. I wonder if she was just going to go straight for that. And certainly, by looking at it, there was no hesitation from Alison Johnstone to reach for that straightaway.' He added: 'I think we have got to look at her actions against Conservatives in general, and how she has responded to comments from SNP ministers. "For example, the First Minister is apparently allowed to call the Conservatives a disgusting party with no sanction. "But Russell Findlay was making comments about the Green Party, which she immediately slapped down. "So it does raise questions about the consistency in her decision-making and how she is treating members of different parties.' He said: 'Alison Johnstone, formerly being a Green Party member, said that she would leave her party allegiances at the door, but [she is] taking very different approaches to nationalist politicians who step out of line compared to unionist politicians who step out of line.' The Scottish LibDems said they continued to support Ms Johnstone. Alex Cole-Hamilton said: 'If Douglas Ross does not want to be in the Scottish Parliament any more he should just resign. 'Anyone watching First Minister's Questions will know that for weeks and weeks Douglas Ross has been provoking the Presiding Officer in the hope that he would get thrown out, in a cynical bid for relevance. 'The Presiding Officer was quite right to eject him and my party has full confidence in her impartiality.'
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Contractor sought for Hereford bypass
A contractor is being sought to start work on a new bypass proposed for for the "Western Bypass" around the city were shelved by a coalition of the Green Party and independents on Herefordshire Council in the Conservative group, which regained control of the authority last year, has said it intends to revive the scheme, in a bid to cut one would see a link created from the A49 south of Hereford to the A465. The council has said it aims to start work by 2026, with consultants employed in February to redraw the scheme - which could cost more than £300m - has been talked about for decades. Its opponents have argued that addressing congestion issues would be better served by investing in public transport and other alternatives to Milln, a Green councillor on the authority and also chair of Hereford Civic Society, said the current proposals had unanswered questions over their funding and lacked agreements with landowners and authorities such as Network Rail."It is wildly premature to be proceeding with this scheme at the moment," he Milln also argued building extra roads would "worsen traffic" and said the city needed "viable alternatives to driving which are attractive and affordable for most people". Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
