27 April 2018
27th April
Dieselgate: ‘Some real victories in new EU rules but UK consumers could lose out,’ Green MEP
In the wake of the Dieselgate scandal, the European Parliament voted on Thursday [19 April] for new legislation on type-approval and EU market surveillance of motor vehicles.
Responding to the vote, Keith Taylor, Green MEP for the South East and a member of the European Parliament’s Transport, Environment and Public Health Committees, said:
“Dieselgate revealed the full extent of the shortcomings in the approval of vehicles in states across the EU. A widespread system of emissions fraud and conflicts of interest between national governments and manufacturers has persisted for too long.”
Green MEP: ‘No surprise UK magical thinking on the Irish border will be rejected by EU27’
Responding to revelations that the UK’s ‘magical thinking’ and ‘half-baked’ proposals for the Irish border post-Brexit fail to stand up to scrutiny and are likely to be rejected by the EU27, Keith Taylor MEP, Green Party representative for the South East and a member of the European Parliament’s Peace Process Support Group, said:
“The British Government needs to stop pinning its hopes on Brexit unicorns and magical thinking; now is time for real and actual solutions to the Irish border issue. Staying in the Customs Union and Single Market is the real world solution to avoiding a hard border and upholding the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement. Peace is too important to be sacrificed on the altar of a shambolic Brexit.”
Green MEP: ‘Council must stop viewing Newhaven as a toxic dumping ground’
Green Party MEP, Keith Taylor, has written to both the leader of East Sussex County Council and the Secretary of State for Transport to express his opposition to the ‘woefully out of date’ plans for a Newhaven flyover.
The senior Green MEP’s letters come as local residents’ are urging the Council to consult on the £23m plan, which was approved more than twenty years ago.
The flyover has consent dating back to 1996, and Mr Taylor, a member of the European Parliament’s Transport and Environment Committees, said:
“Owing to the yawning period of time between 1996, when consent was first granted, and today, I and my constituents are convinced there is a legal duty for both the Department for Transport and East Sussex County Council to consult the local community on how best to spend the funds that could be made available for this project.”
Green MEP slams ‘broken’ Tory economy and Universal Credit as foodbank usage in South East soars
Keith Taylor, Green Party MEP for the South East, has slammed the disastrous rollout of Universal Credit and the rise of insecure work as the latest figures reveal a 15% rise in foodbank usage across the South East.
Responding to the latest figures, My Taylor, who visited Redhill foodbank at St Matthew’s Church in Surrey earlier this year where foodbank usage increased 123% in 2017, said:
“The Government can no longer deny the hugely harmful effects, exacerbated by the inflationary impacts of its shambolic approach to Brexit, of both its disastrous rollout of a Universal Creditbenefits shakeup that is seeing the most vulnerable in our society forced to survive on less and less and its support for a broken economy that encourages the growth of insecure and low-paid work.”
Greens claim ‘UK is complicit in the murder of innocent civilians in the Middle East’ as Israeli arms figures revealed
Green MEP, Keith Taylor, has slammed the UK Government’s foreign policy hypocrisy and complicity in the deaths of innocent civilians in the Middle East, as figures reveal the value of arms sales to Israel more than doubled last year after £86m in sales in 2016.
Green MEP backs campaigners’ bid to crowdfund legal challenge to UKOG’s ‘draconian’ injunction
Local residents and campaigners from across South East England gathered outside the Annual General Meeting of the oil and gas company UKOG in London this morning (Tues 24th April) to call on the firm to withdraw a ‘draconian’ injunction which ‘undermines’ their fundamental human rights.
Green MEP, Keith Taylor, is continuing to support campaigners. The senior Green Party politician said:
“I tip my hat to the dedicated campaigners and residents across the South East coming together to not only fight against the industrialisation of the Weald but also UKOG’s anti-democratic and draconian attempts to bludgeon their rights to do so.”
Green MEP calls on MPs ‘of all stripes’ to back People’s Vote to avoid ‘constitutional crisis’
Keith Taylor, Green MEP for the South East, has urged MPs from across the region to back a People’s Poll on any final Brexit deal, as David Davis acknowledged the Government could be heading for a constitutional crisis as Britain prepares to leave the EU.
Mr Taylor added:
“Yesterday we saw for the first time a Minister concede that the Government’s approach to Brexit raises hugely problematic questions about its respect for British democracy. To offer MPs only a ‘take it or leave it’ vote on a deal Ministers won’t have even finished negotiating is to show contempt for the sovereignty of British Parliament so many claimed Brexit would restore.”
Green MEP writes to West Sussex County Council to oppose ‘toxic’ Horsham incinerator
Keith Taylor, Green Party MEP for the South East, has criticised West Sussex County Council’s plans for a new Horsham incinerator as a ‘big step back on sustainability.’
“The community in Horsham fought an incinerator in the early 2000s, another application last year and is facing the same fight again today. Greens stood with residents in the past and, as a Green, I stand with residents today.”
“Embracing incineration is an unwelcome and toxic, literally and metaphorically, distraction from the concerted efforts we must make to promote and facilitate waste reduction, recycling, reuse, composting and other more creative solutions on the path to ‘zero waste’ by 2050.”