Bev McCarthy

Shared Lives Carer, Singer of sorts, Runner of sorts, absolutely rubbish mountain biker, green, veganish.

[Melodies & Masterpieces @SVG__Collection]

Happy birthday to the great Nina Simone, born on this day in 1933!

[Novara Media @novaramedia]

“You’ve won!”

This is the heartwarming moment Novara Media’s @StevenJMethven broke the news to Reverend Sue Parfitt that the ban on Palestine Action had been ruled unlawful by the high court.

Parfitt, who is in her eighties, has been arrested several times while protesting the group’s proscription as a terrorist organisation.

She is among more than 2,700 people detained by police while resisting the ban since July 2025.

The government has said it plans to appeal the court’s decision and Palestine Action will remain a proscribed organisation in the meantime.

[Bev McCarthy @BevvoMc]

Please sign and share this petition to demand the government suspends all arms exports to Israel, including components for the F-35 combat aircraft currently being used in the genocidal assault on Gaza: https://t.co/8jC2vpNSHZ

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Must watch on House of Commons reform @EllieChowns

Dr Ellie Chowns, "As a newly elected member, I'd like to offer observations on three elements on how this house operates: sitting, speaking and voting"

➡️ Sitting
- Chamber is too small
- In Council and in European parliament we had own seat, desk, plug in devices
- Extraordinary there aren't enough seats for every MP

There is a practice of Christian prayers, as a daughter of preachers I am familiar with this. But in this day and age where we are a mix of all faiths and none, it might be time to represent a range of faiths

➡️ Speaking
- If we have more time limits more MPs would be incentivised to speak
- Trying to get a slot, bobbing up and down, last week I did for five solid hours without getting attention of the speaker
- This is not good for a democracy
- Find a better way of allocating speaking time
- The culture in this house is everything from excessive deference to braying, we need to clean to clean up politics, we are here to debate in as positive a spirit as possible

➡️ Voting
- It's extraordinary we do not have electronic voting
- While I've been here I've participated in 5 votes, that's taken 1.25 quarter
- If you add up all the votes thats 1.5 months of MPs time, totally unproductive
- If we got rid of the voting lobbies we could double the physical size of the chamber (everyone could then have a seat)

"My final point, if we want to be a truly modern house of commons: proportional representation"

[George Monbiot @GeorgeMonbiot]

Everything that Labour ought to stand for - but doesn't - is in the Green Party manifesto. My column.
https://t.co/7IizkGON6G

[Sian Berry @sianberry]

BBC Verify has looked into Green plans for a tax on the super rich to pay for our broken public services, and the result: "Economically credible".
✅ We CAN make different choices for a fairer tax system that funds a better society!

[Caroline Lucas @CarolineLucas]

In one of the richest countries in the world, nurses, firefighters & many more are relying on food banks. A 1% wealth tax on the super-rich could raise up to £70bn to ensure public sector pay keeps up with inflation. Yet Govt makes political choice not to.

Me on #PoliticsLive 👇

[Telford & Wrekin Green Party @TWGreenParty]

Our full manifesto for 2024 can be found here 👇
Please share as widely as possible!

🏡🌍🌳💚✊👏

https://t.co/RKdWWuMxiv

[VoteGreen29 @VoteGreen29]

Defending the RIGHT of peaceful protest, @TheGreenParty are only party who would repeal Draconian laws introduced by @pritipatel and @SuellaBraverman, notorious right wing environmental hoodlums.

#CarlaDenyer gave great answers at #GreenParty #Manifesto launch.

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 NEW: The Green Party 2024 manifesto in full

Immigration:
- End immigration detention unless a public safety danger

- Allow asylum seekers to work during application process

- End the hostile environment

- Remove minimum income requirements for spouse visas

- Provide safe routes for those fleeing persecution

- Replace the Home Office with a new Department of Migration

- Abolish 'no recourse to public funds' condition

Nuclear weapons and NATO:
- Dismantle nuclear weapons, cancel Trident, remove foreign nukes

- UK to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)

- Increase focus on global peacebuilding

- Commit to 'No First Use' of nuclear weapons

Climate aid:
- Increase international aid to 1% of GNI by 2033

- Increase climate finance for Global South to 1.5% of GNI by 2033

- Contribute to a new Loss and Damage Fund

Social support:
- Increase Universal Credit and legacy benefits by £40 a week

- Abolish the two-child benefit cap

- End the ‘bedroom tax’

- Introduce universal basic income

- Restore disability benefits, immediate 5% uplift

- Reform eligibility tests like PIP

- Free transport for 16-18 year old pupils with special needs

Housing:
- Spread small developments across local areas

- Ensure new developments include local service investments

- All new homes to meet Passivhaus or equivalent standards

- Include solar panels and heat pumps in new homes
£29bn over five years for home insulation to EPC B standard

- £4bn over five years for other building insulation

- £9bn over five years for low-carbon heating systems

- Provide 150,000 new social homes annually

- Implement rent controls and end no-fault evictions

- Tenants' right to demand energy efficiency improvements

- Private tenancy boards for dispute resolution

Democracy/human rights:
- Replace first past the post with proportional voting

- Replace House of Lords with elected chamber

- Votes for 16-year-olds

- End violence against women and girls

- Scrap laws eroding protest and free expression rights

- Support self-identification for trans and non-binary people

- Scrap Prevent, tackle hate crime and restore trust in police

- Invest £2.5bn in renewing the court system

Energy:
- 70% of UK electricity from wind by 2030

- Deliver 80GW offshore, 53GW onshore wind, and 100GW solar by 2035

- Invest in energy storage and efficient distribution

- Community ownership of energy sources

- Cancel recent fossil fuel licenses, stop new projects

- Remove oil and gas subsidies

- Introduce carbon tax on fossil fuels

Economy:
- Invest £40bn annually in green economy
Introduce carbon tax

- Public ownership of railways, water, and major energy companies

- Invest £12.4bn in skills and training for green economy

- Encourage community ownership in energy projects
Implement Wealth Tax on high-value assets

- Reform Capital Gains Tax

- Align tax rates on investment and employment income

- Remove Upper Earnings Limit for National Insurance

- Set up regional mutual banks

- Provide £2bn annually for business decarbonisation grants

- Encourage community ownership in zero-carbon transition

International:
- End occupation of Palestinian land

- Uphold self-determination and international law

- Support Ukraine against Russian invasion

- Re-join the EU when politically feasible

- Bilateral ceasefire

- End arms sales to Israel

- Secure release of hostages

- Ensure equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians

- Reinstate funding for UNRWA, support South Africa’s ICJ submission

Education:
- Abolish university tuition fees

- Increase school funding by £8bn, with £2bn for teacher pay

- End high-stakes testing in all schools

- Abolish OFSTED

Work:
- Repeal anti-union laws, introduce Charter of Workers’ Rights

- Implement 10:1 pay ratio

- Raise minimum wage to £15/hour

- Equal employment rights from day one

- Move to a four-day work week

Health:
-New NHS dentists’ contrac taiting lists annually

- Guarantee access to NHS dentist

- Guarantee rapid GP access

- Boost NHS staff pay, restore junior doctors’ pay

- Increase primary medical care funding by £1.5bn by 2030

- Restore public health budgets with £1.5bn annual increase

- Fund smoking cessation, drug treatment, and sexual health services

- National Commission to reform UK drug laws

-New NHS dentists’ contract

- Invest £3bn annually in NHS dentistry by 2030

- Fund community hubs for free dental nursing

- Support mental health rights

- Increase mental health care funding

- Access to evidence-based mental health therapies within 28 days

- Trained counsellor in every school and sixth-form college

- Tailored mental health services for diverse communities

- Support for neurodivergent children in schools

- Legalise assisted dying

- Aim for no more HIV transmissions by 2030

Caring:
- Introduce free personal care

- Increase pay rates and career structure for carers

- Add £3bn for high-quality children's social care

Arts, sports and culture:
- Invest £5bn in community sports, arts, and culture

- Keep local facilities open

- Remove VAT on cultural activities

- Limit media ownership to 20%

- Implement 2012 Leveson Report reforms

Animals:
- Create Commission on Animal Protection

- Ban all blood sports

- Protect marine life in UK waters

- End badger culling

- End factory farming, enforce maximum stocking densities

- Ban close confinement and unnecessary mutilation of farm animals

Transport:
- Increase subsidies for rail and bus travel to £10bn

- Free bus travel for under-18s

- Invest £19bn in foot/cycle paths and electrification

- Public ownership of railways

- Increase local control and funding for bus services

- Aim for 50% of trips in towns/cities to be walked or cycled by 2030

- Introduce frequent-flyer levy

- Ban short domestic flights

- Halt airport expansion

Nature:
- Introduce Rights of Nature Act

- End sewage discharge by taking water companies public

- Expand access to green spaces with Right to Roam Act

- Protect 30% of land and seas by 2030

- Ban bee-killing pesticides

- Enact Clean Air Act for the right to clean air

Agriculture/farming:
- Triple financial support for green farming transition
Improve biodiversity and soil health

- Reduce pesticide use

- Provide free school meals daily to all children

- Offer free breakfast clubs in primary schools

- Include food growing, preparing, and cooking in curriculum

- Reduce food waste

"We are prepared to borrow to invest."

[Carla Denyer @carla_denyer]

Fed up of Starmer and Sunak offering more of the same?

Join the Green Party, the only party offering real hope and real change 👇

https://t.co/7HbTErorJj

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

The only thing more depressing than Rishi Sunaks awful rhetoric about migrants is knowing Keir Starmer will be competing with him to be awful too.

We shouldn't just tolerate people who want to come & contribute to this country. In @TheGreenParty we celebrate them.

#Panorama

[Adrian Ramsay MP @AdrianRamsay]

"The climate and nature crisis is the defining issue of our time. Political parties need to be held to account on the environment."

Will @RishiSunak and @Keir_Starmer agree to take part in a #ClimateDebate?

Retweet if you agree they should.

#GE2024

https://t.co/SM4iiHppj4

[Telford & Wrekin Green Party @TWGreenParty]

Owen Jones on why you should be voting Green Party 👀👇💚
https://t.co/95L9v9CCUE

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

.@ZackPolanski responding to accusations of antisemitism directed at Green Party candidates.

And well done to Zack for making it clear the right wing are attacking & smearing the Greens because progressive Green policies are challenging power and wealth.

[VoteGreen29 @VoteGreen29]

Fabulous puff piece by @AnnabelDenham1 💚 Merci
#Greens want free school meals for all primary & secondary pupils
They want rent controls
#GreenParty want a wealth tax
#Greens want more money for the NHS
They're polling higher among the under-50s than both Tories & Reform
💚💚

[Telford & Wrekin Green Party @TWGreenParty]

🌞Incredible day met 100's of amazing people in Telford! Sun shining, & atmosphere was filled with positivity for us!
Thrilled that the Green Party was warmly received by 98% of the folks we spoke to. 🌿💚Support means everything to us, & we're so humbled by the encouragement 🌍

[Caroline Lucas @CarolineLucas]

Big decision from @OwenJones84. People are desperate for change & it’s deeply sad @UKLabour isn’t offering it. We need a Govt unafraid to tax super rich, invest in Britain, act on climate & stand up for human rights here & abroad. We need Green MPs more than ever to demand better

[Sian Berry @sianberry]

Some very welcome common sense words from Owen 🙏

Real emotion when he says he’s scared what Labour will be like with the huge majority and unchallenged power it is pushing people for.

The Tories ARE toast and, as PM, the Labour leader will need a strong opposition. #VoteGreen

[Heather Mendick @helensclegel]

Susie Dent using her word of the day to subtweet the Labour Party leadership