Source > Jo Bird blog
Posted 22 March 2022
I’m becoming a Green Councillor because the Green Party is better for Bromborough and better for me.
The Greens are doing excellent work for Wirral people all year round and we share a commitment to social and environmental justice. The Greens promote public services, road safety, cleaner air, healthier communities, insulated affordable homes and more.
At the local council elections last May I was elected with a huge 61% of the vote. I stood to promote justice and equality, protect lives and livelihoods, enhance jobs, services and our environment, and oppose cruel cuts. But Labour and Conservative councillors have just voted for cuts to frontline council services. Only the Green councillors voted for my budget proposals to save Wirral libraries and Europa fun pool.
Bromborough, Port Sunlight and New Ferry first elected me as their Labour councillor in 2018. The Labour Party expelled me retrospectively in November 2021 for breaking rules that did not exist at the time I spoke at a meeting in 2018.
Many other people have also been suspended and expelled on unfair charges. The Labour Party have even removed their previously selected candidate – Ruth Molyneux – for trying to save Bromborough library. Such treatment is not OK and not good for our well-being.
Wirral Greens treat people fairly. I now hope to stand for re-election as a Green councillor for Bromborough next year in May 2023.
Cllr Pat Cleary, leader of the now six-strong Green group on Wirral Council says,
“Passionate, effective, hard-workingpeople like Jo are very welcome in the Green Party. I’m delighted that people in Bromborough, Port Sunlight and New Ferry will continue to be represented by Jo as their Green councillor.”
The political make-up of Wirral Council now includes: Labour (27), Conservative (23), Green (6), Lib Dem (6). This means no party has a majority and all decisions need the backing of at least two parties.
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The UK state is not unitary from the point of taxation. There is significant fiscal devolution – council tax and its equivalent is devolved to all four polities, and property sales taxes devolved in Cymru and Scotland. Scotland has significant influence over income tax rates and bands, but the ability to create new taxes is largely controlled by Westminster though a Tourist tax has been approved. Interestingly, Corporation Tax was devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly by the Tories (largely to encourage it to match the very low rates in the 26 county Republic of Ireland state). However VAT, National Insurance and many other taxes are UK-wide (not just “Britain”) and controlled by Westminster.
The STUC has identified measures https://www.stuc.org.uk/news/news/stuc-launch-tax-proposals-to-save-scotlands-public-services/ under current devolution arrangements that could be used to tax wealth more by the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Greens have in the last few days introduced an exemplary measure into the housing bill at Holyrood to remove the exemption on the monarch’s properties being taxed in Scotland (he owns 80), a symbolic gesture but not politically insignificant, and have proposed a new council tax band for mansions. The Scottish Socialist Party has long proposed removing the regressive council tax and replacing it with a redistributive Scottish Service Tax.
This is all in advance of the devolved Scottish Parliament elections in May 2026. Polls tell us voters in Cymru strongly support the extension of the fiscal powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament to Senedd Cymru, as a minimal demand, and also elect a new Senedd on a new PR system in May 2026.
The campaign for a wealth tax will therefore have a totally different character and demands in the different parts of “Britain” (which has not been a fiscal or economic unit for 225 years by the way). There are no Anglo-centric “one size fits all” fiscal solutions, even within the current form of the UK state.