Sorry/annoyed to miss the important #ProtectStudentChoice debate today - as @borisjohnson is so desperate to cling on he's tabled a motion of confidence in his own Govt at the same time…
... But want to highlight campaign standing up for young people & BTECs - colleges in #Brighton & #Hove point to the success of BTECs & worry that removing funding for the majority of BTEC qualifications would be a serious and harmful mistake not least because disadvantaged
2/8
Young people are amongst those with the most to lose – as the Government’s own equalities impact assessment makes clear, stating:
“those from SEND backgrounds, Asian ethnic groups, disadvantaged backgrounds, and males [are] disproportionately likely to be affected”
3/8
Ministers must stop ignoring their own evidence and abandon their plan to cut BTEC funding.
T-levels have a place - educationalists are telling Ministers that T-levels are a welcome development - but…
4/8
They should sit alongside, rather than replace, BTECs as they are a different type of qualification and experience
The scrapping of BTECs is a short-sighted narrowing of options for our young people’s post-16 choices - the opposite of what 'levelling up' should mean
5/8
The Sixth Forms and further education colleges in my constituency point out that applied general qualifications such as BTECs have transformed the life chances of thousands of their students, and made a huge contribution to both social mobility and the local economy
6/8
We must stand up for BTECs as an engine of social mobility - a quarter of students now enter university with BTEC qualifications, and that they are likelier to be from disadvantaged backgrounds, with the vast majority completing their studies successfully
7/8
The plan to defund BTECs needs to be stopped in its tracks to protect fairness, and keep opportunities open for our young people at 16 - in short, to #ProtectStudentChoice
As it stands, the Financial Services Bill will make "competitiveness & growth" a strategic objective, i.e forcing the Govt to take steps to 'act' on something
Meanwhile, climate & net zero is a "regulatory principle", i.e the Govt merely has to 'think' about it
2/7
This epitomises the problem with the Govt's attitude to the #ClimateEmergency
That it's something to think about at some point in the future, a tick box exercise, while we prioritise endless growth above all else
Slightly technical thread on why I’m opposing #Nuclear Energy Financing bill - a comparison with US shows why it’s a costly disaster for all of us 👇
🧵1/12
In US, as in UK, high cost of building nuclear plants & introduction of competition into the provision of electric generation brought an end to any possibility that new nuclear could be built without government intervention
🧵2/12
One of the most significant of these interventions was the introduction of a US version of the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) methodology called Early Cost Recovery (ECR)
🧵3/12
Tomorrow, we hear the first #QueensSpeech this decade & the last before #COP26 climate summit
New legislation announced could be make or break for climate, nature and communities across the UK
Here are my #FiveToThrive Bills for a fairer, greener future 🧵👇
A #GreenNewDeal with the scale and ambition of @POTUS plan to upgrade America would:
✅Create millions of good green jobs across the UK
🏡 Improve everyday life
🌍Set us on a path to a greener, fairer future @labourlewis and I have a #GreenNewDeal bill that's ready to go
The #CEEBill is the framework we need to tackle the climate & ecological crises together. It would commit the UK to:
🌡️ Doing its fair share to limit temperatures to 1.5 ºC
🌳 Protecting and restoring nature
🙋 Creating a Citizens’ Assembly to put decision in the hands of people
The Government has today released long-awaited draft of new Environment Bill. 💚🌍📜 This is welcome 👏 - but I see a number of alarming sections. 🤔🚨 A thread. 1/6
1⃣ The environmental principles currently guaranteed under 🇪🇺 law *must* carry the same legal weight as they do now. Draft clauses says Gov't should "have regard to" but we know that leaves too much wiggle room. This must change. 2/6
2⃣ Those key principles won't apply to any public spending decision or 'any other matter' specified by Government - a truly absurd caveat to vital rules protecting our oceans, wildlife and animals. This Get Out of Jail Free card must go. 3/6
There seem to me to be three key paragraphs in the Attorney General's legal advice to the Prime Minister on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland - the 'backstop - in the Withdrawal Agreement.
Here they are. 1/4
Para 16: The Protocol will "endure indefinitely".
Para 30: The review mechanism does not provide a unilateral route out of the backstop. 2/4
Para 33 (conclusion): There is a legal risk that UK could become stuck in "protracted and repeating rounds of negotiations". 3/4 #Brexit#Art50