Around 70 people attended the Reclaim our Moors Stop Grouse Monoculture rally at Redmires on Sunday August 18th, organised by Unite the Union and Moorland Monitors. Here is Cllr Peter Gilbert’s speech. Lots of information can be found on the Moorland Monitors website. You will find out about stink pits, snares (now banned in Wales and Scotland but not England), Heather Burning and the pollution it causes here in Sheffield, raptor persecution, how Grouse Monoculture impacts climate change and much more. Please write to your MP about these issues.
Councillor Peter Gilbert made his maiden speech at the July Full Council meeting. You can see it here a t2.28. It was also published in the Sheffield Telegraph on 15/08/24
Here is the speech in full.
Thank you Lord Mayor,
And Members, with great combined experience. There is much you can teach me. And I look forward to working with you all. I would also like to pay my respects to my predecessor, Roger Davidson.
I grew up in Ecclesall but have not spent all my life in Sheffield. I have lived around the world, including countries where debate, especially political, is not allowed.
After 5 years in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam I returned to find my Council in the People’s Republic of South Yorkshire acting questionably.
As well as joining with our Street Tree Protectors I was later involved with climate protests. I know what happens when Governments lose their grip on reality, they tighten their grip on power.
The Local Government Association launched its Debate Not Hate campaign in June 2022.
I and over 700 Councillors have signed the statement. And so have many Councils, but until now not Sheffield City Council.
I would like to believe that no one in this chamber would disagree that abuse and intimidation in politics is wrong. We must also recognise that unpopular decisions and statements will result in legitimate and sometimes robust challenge. This challenge can make the politicians who make those decisions and statements feel uncomfortable. But being uncomfortable is not the same as being abused or intimidated. There may be a protest, it might be loud. People may seek answers to questions about why decisions were made. They may persist if answers aren’t forthcoming.
Our own behaviour as politicians must demonstrate our adherence to the Nolan Principles in Public Life: Selflessness, integrity, openness, honesty, objectivity, accountability and leadership. We must look inwards and recognise if these qualities are lacking.
There is a lot wrong with our Democracy. We are a country where a Government can get elected with 33% of the popular vote yet wield 100% of the power. A country where advertising standards of being honest and truthful do not apply to political advertising. This backdrop to political life in our country is not one which is going to build confidence in the legitimacy of elected politicians. Resulting at best in cynicism, and at its worst, hate and division.
We can do better than this.
But we must not stifle democracy or debate, as this fuels tyranny and hate.
Former Councillor Bernard Little recently spoke in a rally organised by the NEU outside the Town Hall, calling for an end to the two-child benefit cap.
Here is the speech in full.
So my name is Bernard Little. I was, until recently, a Green councillor for Walkley and Upperthorpe. I’ve retired through ill health. Tackling inequality is one of the main political objectives of the Green Party.
We all know what a scam looks like. But does our new chancellor, Rachel Reeves? Her claim that the 20 billion hole in public finances it creates is a surprise, is absurd. Utterly absurd!
To claim that she only just had sight of the figures that are prepared by the Department of Budget Responsibility every year for the last 40 years is not believable. What the hell was Labour doing when it was in opposition? Was it not scrutinizing what was going on, where the money was going?
Obviously, no, I knew about it. But I’m just an ordinary bloke. And now we have the Labour Party saying it can’t afford to scrap the Two Child Benefit Cap.
As was said earlier, we are the sixth richest country in the world. Our country has £15 trillion, over £15 trillion in wealth, in the hands of the very richest. We cannot put up with this. It’s outrageous. Yet, our compliant media, government, and big finance are giving away their pretence of having a moral compass. They no longer question what’s going on. So how could a government pay for decent public services, tackle inequality, and face head-on the climate and nature emergency?
So I’m going to quote from a report called the Taxing Wealth Report, produced by accountancy Professor Richard Murphy of Sheffield University. It’s called the Taxing Wealth Report and is highly recommended. It was produced before the General Election in the run-up to the General Election to challenge politicians, to say this is how we can have better public services. Up to £30 billion a year could be cancelled in terms of interest payments to the Bank of England.
The net benefit of that change would be over 20 billion a year, £20 billion. Would that make a difference? Of course, it would. If would end child poverty and the Two Child Benefit Cap. It will allow us to pay the whole of the backlog of pay due to junior doctors and restore their confidence in the National Health Service. So those doctors do not leave this country to go to Canada, Australia, or elsewhere.
It would allow us to pay for the special education needs of every young person at school, primary or secondary, across the whole of the UK. It would end the Bedroom Tax. It would restore most of the payments due to those with disabilities. These were lost during the period of the Tory government. It could restore the services provided by local government.
Having been a councillor, I have fought for the last three years to try and get decent public services for people in my ward, and it was very, very difficult to explain to people why on earth this was happening. £20 billion is a lot of money. It would mean a real change to the way our economy is run and our services are supplied. And right now it’s all going to the banks and it makes no sense at all.
Should they, and the most wealthy be enriched at the cost to the people of this country who need government services. Services that enable people to enjoy a full life as part of their community.
I’m a member of the Green Party, we don’t think so. Do you?
Cllr Alexi Dimond supported the student encampment as the University took them to court.
Here is his speech.
So right now in Palestine, the ultimatecrime of genocide isbeing committed with weaponssupplied by arms companies with which theUniversity of Sheffieldhas significant relations,holding multi-million pound contracts forresearch and development.
And for the last two and a half monthsbrave students havecamped on their campus,seeking to raise awareness of theirUniversity’s ties to the arms industry,and have requested a meeting with them todiscuss theUniversity’s level of complicitywith genocide, apartheid and deadlyoppression, and what theUniversity will do to end this.
But rather than meet their own students,the University seeksto use the legal systemto evict them from their own campus inorder to avoid scrutiny.
In the shadow of the Holocaust, UK’slawyers had a substantial role in writingthe Geneva Conventionand setting up international courts withthe supposed intention ofpreventing further genocides.
You might imagine that brave studentswould have the backing ofthe legal system, but not so.
The legal system is being used to targetthose who are trying toend an unfolding genocide.
We live in a sick society where most, if not all, of the institutions we are toldare the pillars of a so-called civilizedand mature democracy.
The courts, the state, national and localgovernment, pensions, universities,businesses, the media,are facilitating a genocide in Palestine.Many of these same institutions are alsobeing instrumentalized to silence orcrush those who try toprevent or expose crimes againsthumanity, and more widely, thedestruction of the entire natural world.
In the future, the brave and dedicatedstudents of the encampment and allprotesting around the worldagainst the genocide in Palestine will becommemorated alongside thosewho struggle for causes such asan end to the Vietnam War, for civilrights in the US, for the end ofapartheid in South Africa,for an end to fossil fuel extraction, forthe repeal of Section 28.
Future generations will wonder why it waslargely left to young people to opposethe brutal and racist murderof men, women and children.
Meanwhile, those who supported thisgenocide and tried to silence thosetrying to stop it will be condemned,whether they face justice or not.
It is not too late for those who governthe university to change course. Discoveryour moral compass,discover your humanity,feel compassion for the tens, if nothundreds of thousands of victims ofIsrael’s current genocide and theirfamilies, some of whomattend your university.
I say to the university, meet with yourstudents, hear their demands, and discusspossible resolutions.The university should be proud to havesuch principled students and can certainlylearn a lot from them.
Recently, I had the privilege of answering questions from pupils at Mercia school, in Millhouses, for their mock elections. I set out the issues we face and the Green Party solutions. I also spoke about leadership and the power of working together. When we think of leaders we may think of the Prime Minister. But leaders exist throughout our communities.
Our local leaders are councillors and charity coordinators, governors and sports club coaches. They are small business owners and litter pick volunteers. Every community needs people to step forward. Someone who inspires others to work alongside them towards the same goal.
Everyone reading this can think about stepping forward. To clean up a park. To protest a closure. To start up a sports club. It doesn’t take many people working together to make positive change. You could work together with friends or family. Or a club or community group. Even a political party!
But I also ask your readers to reflect on this, as I said to the pupils who questioned me. For our nation, the challenges we face seem huge. Crumbling public services. People not being able to afford food. The climate crisis. All these problems can be solved if enough people work together to fix them.
The Greens offer a manifesto of hope and real change. Our policies move forward to address the challenges we face. They have been backed by teachers, Greenpeace, care workers, and more. We want to inspire others because we can only solve our challenges together.
Outside of Westminster, we will need leaders in our neighbourhoods, our workplaces, and our schools. We will need everyone to step forward and work together. Whatever the result on July 4th, we can all take the lead in making our nation better.
Yours sincerely,
Jason Leman
Green Party candidate for Sheffield Hallam Constituency
The last 14 years of government-imposed austerity have been devastating for communities in Sheffield. In Heeley, we have seen a huge rise in the use of food banks and ever-increasing poverty as the cost of living crisis has made it even harder to manage household bills.
Some policies seem designed to harm the poorest and most vulnerable in our community. An example is the two-child cap on benefits which punishes children for having been born and has plunged 420,000 families into poverty.
It was disappointing therefore to hear Louise Haigh (MP for Sheffield Heeley since 2015) on the BBC committing to keep the two-child cap which leaves families £3200 per child worse off every year.
To make matters worse, Labour have committed to even harsher austerity in the next Parliament than the Conservatives, according to BBC analysis. It is clear that the Tories are unelectable, but Labour are not offering the hope and real change our country needs.
A Resolution Society report found that scrapping the two-child cap policy would cost about £6.3 billion in today’s prices by 2035 and would lift about 490,000 children out of poverty.
After 14 years of Conservatives in power, funding for local councils has been stripped away. Public services are on their knees. Front-line workers are desperate to bring vital services to the people who need it the most. I see this so much in my role as Chair of the council’s Adult Health and Social Care Committee.
In 2022, Sheffield City Council passed a Labour motion calling on the government to “provide sufficient financial support for local authorities to ensure that people in Sheffield get the support they need through this ongoing crisis.”
Now Labour has published its manifesto. And it’s shocking to see there is not a penny more for local council services. The best that Keir Starmer’s party has to offer is a “multi-year” settlement … but no extra cash.
By contrast, Green MPs in Parliament will push for £5 billion a year in extra funding for local councils.
To see the Labour Party abandon local government is not just disappointing. It is damaging to everyone who uses council services, whether that means emptying bins or protecting children from harm. And it is deeply offensive to everyone working on the front line of public services.
“I took a neighbour of mine to her polling station on election day. She was prevented from voting because she couldn’t find her passport. She has no driving licence. Her electronic pass with a photo as a worker in the NHS was deemed not permissible. I was able to vote because I had an older person’s travel pass.
In many places a student at a UK university or college who is eligible to vote, their student ID card despite it having a photo ID is invalid. A young person’s rail card is not acceptable.
The Electoral Commission reports that: “In the past 5 years, there is no evidence of large-scale electoral fraud. Of the 1,462 cases of alleged electoral fraud reported to police between 2019 and 2023, 10 led to convictions and the police issued 4 cautions.” The Commission estimates that 8 million people are missing from the electoral roll which disproportionally affects private renters, young, Asian and black people. We need UK-wide automatic voter registration and the system we have should be repealed.
There is much bigger electoral fraud happening.
Lack of Proportional Representation is one.
No limit on the amount of money given to the bigger political parties to run their election machines is another.
The fact is our electoral system is unfair, runs in an ad-hoc way and is grossly unfair.
The UK is dangerously close to becoming like the repressive state of Belarus which like the UK uses a ‘First Past The Post’ voting system
We do not live in a democracy and this needs to change with great urgency.
Thank you for voting for a Fairer, Greener Sheffield on 2nd May. We are overjoyed to have kept 14 Green councillors in Sheffield, despite having to defend 6 seats won in 2021. Across the city, we had our highest number of votes and second highest vote share. Our candidate for South Yorkshire Mayor, Douglas Johnson, was also placed second in Sheffield for the mayoral election.
See our elections page for more details on the results in Sheffield for the Greens.
The last 14 years of government-imposed austerity have been devastating for communities in Sheffield. In Heeley, we have seen a huge rise in the use of food banks and ever-increasing poverty as the cost of living crisis has made it even harder to manage household bills.
