Archive for Joe Fortune
Lack of positive measures for co-ops in Queen’s Speech
Parliamentary Officer Joe Fortune considers yesterday’s Queen’s Speech but sees little good news for co-operatives. Following the local election results, the Coalition Government briefed that they were ready to re-launch their partnership for power. The subsequent Queen’s Speech was to act as the clarion call for the Government’s priorities for the coming legislative term. The fifteen [...]
Our MPs working for a fairer economy
Parliamentary Officer Joe Fortune outlines the work Co-operative MPs are doing in Parliament to make our economy fairer. The Co-operative Party Parliamentary Group has always sought to provide the movement a range of activity in Westminster, whether it is promoting co-operative legislation, promoting the ideas of the movement and scrutinising proposals to ensure that the co-operative angle is [...]
Transport cuts being made with no long-term strategy, says National Audit Office
Following our rail event with Maria Eagle MP last week, Joe Fortune reports on the National Audit Office's report on the Department for Transport stating that the massive cuts lack strategy and may benefit rail companies at the expense of passengers.
The co-operative week in Westminster
Parliamentary Officer Joe Fortune rounds up the latest from Parliament with the work of Co-operative Parliamentarians. This regular column will briefly round up some of the important or noteworthy pieces of Parliamentary activity and business for co-operators each week. It will highlight the work being done by Co-operative Party MPs and co-operators in Westminster. Of [...]
The People’s Rail
Parliamentary Officer Joe Fortune, also transport coordinator for SERA, the Labour Environment Campaign, writes for Progress on the mutual options for the railways. As the Labour party seeks to develop a policy platform which will both stands up to peer scrutiny and capture the electorate’s imagination the Cooperative party and movement has much to add. [...]
Co-operative Party MPs help the fight to keep renewable energy co-ops growing
This week the co-operative movement was relieved to see the Treasury announce that it will reverse an earlier decision that would have put community renewable energy schemes at great disadvantage, although Co-operative MPs will keep up the scrutiny. George Osborne’s 2011 Budget had originally set out plans to cut Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), a tax relief, [...]
Want more say in how our railways are run? The Feeling’s Mutual
By Joe Fortune Transport may not sit at the top table of election issues; however, as the UK seeks to bounce back from the worldwide recession and pressure on jobs increases, public transport is likely to rise in importance. This is in the context of the coalition cutting Department for Transport expenditure by proportionally more [...]
The Climate Express and the Copenhagen summit highlight what’s still to be done to reduce emissions
The ‘Climate Express’ train travelled 9,000 miles and took over a month to journey between Kyoto and Copenhagen. The stunt was organised by the International Union of Railways (UIC), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the global conservation organisation WWF in order to highlight transport’s influence on climate change. Symbolic though it was, it [...]
