All articles written by Baroness Bennett on PoliticsHome.com

12 Dec 2024 Books & culture

Baroness Bennett reviews Liam Byrne's 'The Inequality of Wealth'

Often rich in detail with lots of useful data, Liam Byrne’s book is however too narrow in its perspective, failing to grasp how fundamental the environment is to its subject matter

04 Jul 2023 Environment

System Change, Not Climate Change: Why Business as Usual Won't Suffice

As the UK pledges to reach net-zero by 2050, Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle, Green Party member of the House of Lords, calls for the government to do more now in order to reach that target.

09 Mar 2023 Books & culture

'A great work': Baroness Bennett reviews 'The Earth Transformed'

A study of the impact of a changing climate on world civilisation from the beginning of recorded history to the present day, Peter Frankopan debunks many long-held assumptions

28 Dec 2022 Communities

My New Year's Wish....Universal Basic Income

A universal basic income would bring security and comfort for all

02 Jun 2022 Books & culture

'A truly crucial book': Baroness Bennett reviews 'The Dawn of Everything'

David Graeber and David Wengrow’s engrossing and revelatory re-examination of the human past challenges us to reject outdated ideas and consider new directions for our future

09 Jan 2022 Books & culture

'Glorious yet frustrating': Baroness Bennett reviews 'The Green Planet'

A triumph of innovative production, the new series from the BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit successfully depicts epic life and death stories from the plant-kingdom – but so far tells us frustratingly little about plant cooperation

15 Nov 2021 Home affairs

It is high time we increased the minimum age of criminal responsibility

We treat our young people appallingly, from schools forced to become exam factories to breath-taking rates of child poverty.

13 Sep 2021 Environment

Environment Bill is for the UK’s future, not just COP26

The Lords must act to strengthen further an Environment Bill written in 2019 that never was, and certainly in 2021, is not fit for purpose without further amendment.

06 Sep 2021 Environment

If the UK wants to be a climate world leader, we must say no to deep-sea mining

The development of new technologies are opening up the possibility of mining previously inaccessible ocean depths, causing vastly more damage.

10 Aug 2021 Environment

A complete system change is needed to save our planet

You can’t fix broken food, energy, or economic systems – let alone environmental systems – with the practices that broke them.

07 Jun 2021 Environment

Government must fix huge flaws in the Environment Bill

Empty words that the government has promised to protect food and animal welfare standards so there's no need to write it into law are not going to hack it.

19 Mar 2021 Political parties

Lord Diary: Natalie Bennett

Baroness Bennett on a "dizzy" week of finance reform, feminist foreign policy, the smacking ban, and forest bathing

16 Nov 2020 Political parties

Faith in our democratic processes was lost long ago – it’s time we establish a People’s Constitutional Convention

Deciding what the future of our democracy looks like should be a concern for us all, not something condemned to an inquiry carried out by a committee almost nobody has heard of.

30 Sep 2020 Home affairs

The Immigration Bill must not wipe out the freedom of movement so many Britons have benefited from

My amendment is to the Immigration Bill is asking members of the House of Lords to protect the freedom of Britons for decades to come.

21 Aug 2020 Home affairs

A proportional voting system is the first step in fixing our broken democracy

The Tories won just 44% of the vote in 2019, but effectively hold 100% of power in the Commons. That’s not democracy, it's fundamental illegitimacy – and the lack of trust that flows from it – is at the root of our broken system.

02 Jul 2020 Health

Government has a responsibility to reduce the amount of ultra-processed foods available in the UK

We have to ask whether companies should be allowed to produce, sell and promote such hazardous substances?

03 Jun 2020 Coronavirus

Local democracy is crucial to our coronavirus recovery

Just as the medical impact of Covid-19 has varied enormously around the country, attempts to recover from the shock of the virus’s arrival are going to have to be very different.

30 Apr 2020 Coronavirus

Universal basic income could help end the lockdown and create a more resilient society

There would be real peace of mind, as well as moral benefit, if you knew everyone in the UK had the basic resources to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads.

07 Apr 2020 Coronavirus

The Government must reduce the growth dependency of our economy

Decades of economic growth have delivered us a deeply unequal, unstable, insecure society and increased carbon emissions when we need to be slashing them.

27 Feb 2020 Environment

Baroness Bennett: It’s time we stop the production of unnecessary single-use plastic

The recycling of plastics isn't working, we need to make crucial environmental changes, such as introducing a bottle deposit scheme, to stop people using so much unnecessary single-use plastic, writes Baroness Bennett.

22 Jan 2020 Home affairs

A democratically elected Lords would allow proper checks on the Commons

My House of Lords Reform Bill would see existing life peers loose their voting rights and create 292 elected peers, with decision making powers, democratically elected under a PR voting system, writes Baroness Bennett.

01 Nov 2019

Lords Diary: Baroness Bennett

"It is clear that we need a new kind of politics"

Our political system needs a complete overhaul - and we can do it

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02 Sep 2016 Political parties

Our political system needs a complete overhaul - and we can do it

As the Green party conference begins, leader Natalie Bennett writes for PoliticsHome explaining how a complete restructure of our political system is necessary and achievable.