How can Tory MPs lack a conscience on Rwanda bill? Last chance vote to save ourselves – and our planet Inequality must be erased under Labour leadership

✒ THE House of Commons is about to vote again on the Safety of Rwanda Bill over amendments from the House of Lords.

On March 18 all 10 amendments from the Lords were voted down by the Conservative majority. Labour, the LibDem, SNP and the smaller parties all voted in support.

Amendment 9 seeks to identify and protect victims of modern slavery and human trafficking from being removed to Rwanda without their consent.

Amendment 10 exempts agents or allies who have supported His Majesty’s armed forces overseas and dependent family members.

Amendment 4 allows the presumption that Rwanda is a safe country to be rebutted by credible evidence presented to decision-makers, including courts and tribunals. (other amendments can be found in the House of Commons Library – Research Briefing March 22, 2024 Number 9944).

I am appalled by the actions of these Conservative MPs including our own Anthony Mangnall and Kevin Foster to reject these amendments.

Where is the morality in voting against protecting victims of modern slavery; voting not to stand by people who have made heavy sacrifices to support the UK’s armed forces eg Afghanistan; voting to say that no one is allowed to say Rwanda is not safe even if there is evidence to the contrary?

On March 19 the Law Society wrote: “The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill is a defective, constitutionally improper piece of legislation.

It undermines the rule of law ... and ultimately will prove to be unworkable.”

On April 15 the bill returns to the Commons for another vote on seven of those amendments slightly reworded.

I hope Messrs Mangnall and Foster will reconsider how they vote this time lest they lose all respect from voters in this constituency who require their MP to uphold British values of fair play and justice under just laws.

Peter Scott South Brent ✒ CLIMATE and nature are on the brink.

We are running out of time to take action.

Your voice, and vote, have never been more important.

At some point in the near future we will be going to the polls to elect a government and we think it will be our last chance to address our climate and biodiversity crisis because we are getting close to the tipping point where runaway climate change will become irreversible.

That will mean hotter and hotter temperatures resulting in world-wide crop failures, causing famine on a mass scale, sea level rises, flooding and uncontrollable wildfires.

The inability to control body temperature would also be a factor resulting in deaths from overheating.

In short, the sixth mass extinction (since the dinosaurs), would be upon us all.

The Climate and Nature Bill is a very robust and scienceled plan to make sure we can address this crisis.

It will build stronger and sustainable communities.

It will involve us citizens as participants and lead.

It will lead to a better outcome for nature, wildlife and the environment and in the longer term, ourselves.

At this point would you please impress upon your prospective parliamentary candidates the need to rapidly implement the Climate and Nature Bill.

You could say to them – “if you don’t do that then you risk not receiving my vote”. This time it’s not just about voting for one of our MPs, it’s about voting for our future.

Visit zerohour.uk to take action

David Bailey Dawlish ✒ READERS may remember it was rather windy last Thursday, March 28. So windy, in fact, that a strong gust caught my umbrella and I was spun around, only to be deposited, rather unceremoniously facedown on a very wet pavement in Middle Street, Brixham!

I should like to thank the good Samaritans who helped ✒ THE UK economy is in a bad way and has been getting worse for a long time. High streets are in severe decline. Ordinary workers’ wages haven’t risen in real terms since before 2010 – unlike prices which have rocketed.

Billionaires have become much richer while ordinary people have become much poorer. The property owning middle class is disappearing fast. Once you have a very unequal society, you have a) a large group of poor people needing work; and b), a very small group of extremely wealthy people with enormous amounts of money to spend – by no means always ethically earned.

If your small town has no rich people (ie many workers and no employer) it soon becomes non-sustainable. Highly unequal countries don’t have cute little towns for ordinary people – they have slums. People have to move to find work, to where rich people want workers. There are never enough jobs for everyone, so wages stay low. Cities become huge and sprawling, with affluent centres surrounded by large areas of poor quality housing. Family farms are bought up by rich conglomerates. The countryside becomes large industrialised units containing few people.

In Victorian times, inequality was rife, but during the 20th century that balance shifted. After the Second World War, up to the crash of 2008, inequality in the UK decreased dramatically, but now that has reversed. The Conservative Government since 2010 has amplified the decline. To reverse this dark path must be a key priority of a new Labour government. Dilys Morgan Scott

Torquay me, one of whom who stopped and turned their car around to pick me up and returning me to my office in New Road.

Your actions were appreciated very much indeed. Thank you, once again, sincerely.

Guy Thompson via email