The Times - UK (2022-02-21)

2 2GM Monday February 21 2022 | the times

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A campaign calling for a “legal right to nature” as a key component of the government’s levelling-up reforms has been mounted. More than 60 nature, planning, health and equality organisations have written to Michael Gove demanding he provide funding for locally accessible nature-rich spaces, including extend- ing the levelling-up fund to green and blue infrastructure projects. They are also recommending that Gove, the minister for levelling up, housing and communities, set legal duties in legislation for developers and public bodies to provide equal access to green spaces for everyone. New research has found that 85 per cent of people in nature-deprived areas said more sites such as parks and gar- dens would improve their quality of life. The study by Wildlife and Country- side Link, the largest environment and wildlife coalition in England, also found that 83 per cent of Britons want greater protections for nature, and 85 per cent said that green spaces should be a much higher priority in new developments. Dr Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said:

Campaigners call for Gove

to level up access to nature

Nadeem Badshah “The government says levelling up means pride of place and equal oppor- tunity. But for many people this ends the moment they step out of their door. So many lives are worsened or shorten- ed by disconnection from nature. “Unless levelling up includes a legal right to healthy local natural spaces, it will surely fail.” Research last year by Natural Eng- land found that one in three people in England cannot access nature near their home. Ethnic minorities are twice as likely to live in a neighbourhood without nature-rich spaces. At the same time, wildlife is declining across the country, with the UK in the worst 10 per cent of countries for nature loss. Gillian Burke, the BBC Springwatch presenter and vice-president of The Wildlife Trusts, said: “Spending time in nature has multiple mental and physi- cal health benefits yet, for far too many of us, green spaces are simply out of reach. Nature-rich spaces for all are vital to create healthy communities, to reduce stress on our NHS and to help our struggling wildlife to recover. All neighbourhoods need nature, and the government must deliver.” Nature’s health kick must be accessible to everyone by law, Thunderer, page 26

Bus services

face big cuts,

Labour warns

Labour has warned of a “wave” of bus cuts that would be “devastating” for millions of people from Wednesday unless the government clarifies its financial support for the industry. Louise Haigh, the shadow transport secretary, said that a grant to support bus services during the pandemic is due to expire on April 6. Any route closures require a six-week notice period, meaning operators need to know if the grant is to be extended this week. The Confederation of Passenger Transport, an industry body, has warned that services could be cut by 30 per cent unless support continues. Haigh also said a £3 billion funding commitment that the prime minister had said would create a “bus revolu- tion” has been “slashed” to £1.2 billion. “The government must come clean on the wider cuts to funding they promised,” she said. A government spokesman said: “We have provided over £1.7 billion to keep bus services running across the country throughout the pandemic and are working closely with operators and local transport authorities to protect services after April.”

Priti Patel has rejected attempts to make misogyny a specific hate crime, arguing that it would deliver only “tokenistic” change. The home secretary will write to MPs explaining her decision and will cite recommendations from the Law Com- mission warning that adding misogyny to the scope of hate crime laws would make it harder to prosecute sexual offences and domestic abuse. It is one of a host of amendments voted through by the House of Lords that the government will throw out when its flagship crime-fighting legislation returns to the Commons next week. Patel has implored MPs and peers to back the controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which faced unprecedented opposition in the Lords, arguing that too many criminals are “getting off” with light sentences while the legislation is in limbo. The Home Office said making misogyny a hate crime would prove “more harmful than helpful” to victims of violence against women and girls. It said prosecutors would need to prove a “hate crime” occurred as part of another offence, such as rape, making it hard to prosecute sexual offences and domestic abuse. Instead, a new offence of public sexual harassment could be introduced as part of future legislation but it will not be added to the bill. Patel will table a new amendment,

Patel says misogyny will not be

made a hate crime in new law

Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor committing the government to pub- lishing a report on the nature and prev- alence of drink and needle spiking after a number of reported offences last autumn. She has already revealed she is considering creating a specific criminal offence to target spiking. While the Home Office has instruct- ed all police forces to start recording incidents motivated by misogyny, it will not be added to the list of protected hate crimes that would make it a specific offence. Only race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and transgender identity are recognised as such. Proponents of making misogyny a hate crime said it would help combat everyday sexism such as wolf-whistling in the street and would also enable judges to impose stronger penalties if prejudice against women is proved to be the motivation of a serious offence such as sexual assault or rape. However, the Home Office cited the Law Commission’s review of hate crime laws last year, which said adding sex or gender to hate crime laws was “unlikely to capture much public sexual harassment” as incidents such as unwanted sexual advances were unlikely to reach the threshold for prosecution. Its review also warned that making misogyny a hate crime would also add a layer of proof and complexity to sexual offences, which are already difficult to prosecute. The commission said it could create “hierarchies of victims” and “reinforce certain rape myths,” such as

assumptions about victims’ flirtatious behaviour and choice of clothing. Patel faces a fresh fight with opposition parties when the bill returns to the House of Commons next Monday as she revealed last night that she is rein- stating plans to crack down on disrupt- ive and noisy protests that were stripped out of the bill by the Lords. The upper chamber rejected changes that would give the police powers to set maximum noise levels on each separate protest. Peers also voted against plans to create a new offence of “locking on”, a tactic used by protesters to prevent them being removed, with a maximum penalty of up to a year in prison and new police powers to stop and search anyone at a protest “without suspicion”. The measures are designed to prevent groups such as Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion bringing mo- torways and critical infrastructure to a standstill. Extinction Rebellion pre- vented the publication of more than 1. million newspaper editions, including The Times, in September 2020. However, the home secretary has ac- cepted an amendment that will create buffer zones around schools and vaccination centres if they are targeted by “harmful” antivaxers. Patel said: “This bill is vitally impor- tant as we overhaul the criminal justice system and make our streets safer. It must be passed soon so that we can continue to cut crime, reduce violence and protect women and girls.”

frontline and low-paid workers, it was claimed. The government has bought enough jabs to vaccinate the population twice over in the next two years. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation will continue to provide advice on who should receive protection. The over-75s and those who have

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Very windy with outbreaks of
showery rain, especially at first, but
turning drier later. Forecast, page 53

THE WEATHER

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If I ruled the world: the footballer John Barnes speaks to Matt Chorley Mariella Frostrup chats to the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Paul Butler Amanda Spielman, chief of Ofsted, on the post-Covid recovery in education Skin, right, lead vocalist of Skunk Anansie, on the rock band’s spring UK tour The front pages with the journalists Rachel Cunliffe and Noa Hoffman

COMMENT

Princess Anne’s contribution ought to be

better recognised in a free 21st-century country LIBBY PURVES, PAGE 27

House prices up

by £8K in month

The average asking
price of a house has
risen by nearly £8,
this month, the biggest
jump in more than
20 years. According to
Rightmove, the average
price of a house coming
on to the market is
£348,804, about
9.5 per cent higher
than a year ago. Page 4

Weather halts BA home flights British Airways cancelled all domestic flights yesterday afternoon and warned of disruption as Britain continued to be hit by high winds and rain. Passengers arriving at Heathrow Terminal 5 faced four-hour waits for bags owing to Storm Eunice. Page 5

Family’s fear for Maxwell safety Ghislaine Maxwell’s family fear for her safety after Jean-Luc Brunel, 75, a former modelling agent accused of trafficking girls to her boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein, was found hanged from knotted sheets in his prison cell in Paris on Saturday. Page 9

Leeds facing missile inquiry Leeds United are set to face an FA investigation after the Manchester United winger Anthony Elanga, 19, was struck by at least one object thrown from the crowd at Elland Road as the visitors celebrated their third goal in a 4-2 victory. Page 64

Trump appeals

to supporters

Donald Trump will
take to the stage at
the Conservative
Political Action
Conference in
Orlando, Florida,
this week, ready to go
back on the offensive
as criminal inquiries
close in on the
former president and
his business. Page 30

Car dealers will keep Covid cash Britain’s motor dealers will together post record annual profits of up to £1 billion in the coming financial reporting season but are refusing to return hundreds of millions of pounds in taxpayer handouts which got them through the pandemic. Page 35

immuno-suppressant conditions will be offered another booster vaccination within weeks. It is six months since many had their jab last autumn. A government source said: “A certain level of population immunity will be needed to stop the virus getting to an unsustainable level. Vaccines will be here for the foreseeable future.” Eight in ten people in England have received a booster dose of the vaccine. Nearly 53 million people — or 91 per cent of the UK adult population — have

had one vaccine dose, and nearly 49 million (85 per cent) have had a second jab. Ministers have also pointed to new treatments that are being introduced, including antiviral drugs that significantly reduce the threat of severe disease or death, in order to justify the lifting of all restrictions. Coronavirus reports, pages 6- Mandatory self-isolation can no longer be justified, leading article, page 29

continued from page 1 Covid restrictions to be lifted

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The Times - UK (2022-02-21)

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