In 1918, women were able to vote in general elections for the first time. The Representation of the People Act 1918 widened suffrage by abolishing practically all property qualifications for men and enfranchised women over 30 who met minimum property qualifications. My grandmother, widowed by the first world war with two small girls was one of those millions of women who did not qualify, living in rented accommodation. She went to demonstrations and meetings, and finally the 1928 Act widened suffrage by giving women electoral equality with men. It gave the vote to all women over 21 years old, regardless of property ownership. My grandmother drummed into me the necessity of me voting in elections for all sorts of UK democratic government, even when some people are saying loudly, “Not worth voting, nothing changes, my party will never win here”.
My Grandmother Gertrude Offer 1920. Doris aged 8 and Beryl aged 4 years
Now on July 4 we have the opportunity to vote in the Parliamentary election. I think of the necessary short term measures I would like implemented and even more important the strategic longer term vital systemic changes we need, in order that the UK stands tall in the wider world, and looks beyond petty false promises in the short term.
Some Key issues for us all to consider:
The environment and climate change
• There is increasing public concern about our local issues re. climate and the bigger strategic issue of warming oceans, resulting in more storms, rising sea temperatures. In a recent poll by Greenpeace of 20,000 people, two thirds said climate policies will influence how they vote.
• The disappointment and anger of seeing the government repeated green roll backs in 2023 and the granting of new oil and gas licences in the North Sea Rosebank field. These priorities have to change.
• Arran and North Ayrshire Council have set targets for reducing our carbon footprints, and these ideas must be supported by the UK/ Scottish governments. Insulating homes, encouraging green public transport, renewable energy production on Arran (wind and solar).
• The need to push Ofgem, the UK’s energy regulator to fully follow through on net zero targets.
• Produce a tax system that forces Big Oil to pay suitable taxes, on their billions of profit, which can be channelled into costs of reaching net zero and other community benefits.
Our Oceans around the world
• In 2023, a momentous Global Ocean Treaty was agreed after 20 years of effort, a confirmation that multinational talks and multinational campaigning works.
• The UK government had stated that it plans to ratify the Treaty by the UN Ocean Conference in June 2025. The UK’s ratification process must be urgently accelerated under the post-election government if we are to stay on track with the global goal of protecting at least 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030.
• Deep Sea Mining. A growing list of countries – including Germany, France, Spain, Chile, New Zealand and several Pacific Island nations – think deep sea mining is risky for marine life. They are proposing a pause or a ban on issuing licences. In October 2023 the UK joined these governments to support a global moratorium. It is imperative that the next UK government commits to this and argues for a ban. The moratorium means the UK will not sponsor or support licences until sufficient scientific evidence is available to assess the impacts of deep-sea mining activities on marine ecosystems and strong, enforceable environmental regulations, standards and guidelines have been developed and adopted by the ISA (International Seabed Authority).
• The new UK government must support the newly launched (February 2024) UK-based environmental science network, to gather scientific data, and carry out world-class research to help assess the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining. It is imperative that such work is well funded.
Plastics
We have just spent a couple of weeks with friends in Germany. Why, oh! why have we in the UK not moved to recycle plastic bottles? Internationally we need to move to a Global Plastics Treaty. Oil producing countries profit hugely from selling plastics as a by-product of the fossil fuel industry.
• Demand the incoming government fast forward a sound plastics policy. Move fast to action. Not just bottles for recycling schemes but to eliminate plastics in every product on the supermarket shelves, from fruit in plastic wrappers, fast food containers, and perhaps one of most polluting of all, the beauty products…sachets, wrappers, most of which are non- recyclable.
• Tax or fine companies, local and international corporations, that do not adhere to these strict policies within a short time frame. Unilever, for example, through its Dove brand, sold an estimated 1,700 plastic sachets every second in 2023, all of them practically impossible to recycle.
Forests and Agriculture
• Policies to cut the use of pesticides and encourage low intensity animal production, supporting rewilding systems, flood prevention systems and home-produced agricultural products.
• Ban the export of banned pesticides from the UK to the developing world, with clear sanctions list which is a compilation of individual sanctions that can be applied to individuals, countries, groups or companies.
• Ban or greatly reduce new forests of one species, and ban the change of use of good arable land to these forests for offsetting use by Private Equity Companies.
Civil Rights
• Remove without delay, within the first 90 days of the new Parliament, the restrictive new laws on the right to assemble and to be heard in protest. A critical move to safeguard the democratic rights of citizens to peacefully protest.
• The new government must put in place a policy to retain The Human Rights Act, a UK law passed in 1998. It lets each one of us defend our rights in UK courts and compels public organisations – including the Government, police and local councils – to treat everyone equally, with fairness, dignity and respect. The human rights contained within this law are based on the articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Government Probity
• The quality of having strong moral principles – in short, acting ethically and fairly. Demonstrating high standards of probity is essential to public confidence in our public services and in the government. This has been lacking in recent years. Scandals galore have hardly surprised us all! Clear policies on forbidden fast track deals and appropriate sanctions for misleading or lying to the media must rapidly be introduced. Public trust in Parliament to be rebuilt. Reform of the honours system and House of Lords vitally important
• In foreign policy, deal swiftly with the UK dependencies with their off shore lax tax laws, ensuring tax is paid appropriately into HMRC (His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs), not avoided by international companies or non-doms. This revenue to be for specifically earmarked public services, Health and Education specifically.
“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
Abraham Lincoln
Public Services
The famous Beveridge report, a 1942 official study recommended the first welfare state: Today there are five main parts to the UK’s Welfare State: social security, the National Health Service (NHS), comprehensive education, social housing, personal social services and services for children. All are in disarray and we all talk about “broken Britain”.
• Policies to bring these services up to suitable 2024 standards are urgently required
• Major studies must be initiated with urgency regarding systems, infrastructure, staffing
• Major funding requirements are required, so innovative solutions must be found to raise taxes URGENTLY from those international companies, Private Equity Companies and private individuals which have found loopholes in the UK taxation system.
So please VOTE. You may have completely different priorities and some people vote with their hearts and some with their heads. All is complexity. But please vote, even if you believe it will make no difference. It will to you because you have acted for our democracy to survive in the years ahead. Make sure you are REGISTERED to VOTE; if you are on holiday at that time, as many residents in Scotland may be as schools will be out for the summer, please register for a POSTAL VOTE or appoint someone as your PROXY.
With thanks to Greenpeace for data and photos.
Sally Campbell
May 2024
All image credits Greenpeace