On Saturday 1st March the Green Party Spring Conference passed the following resolution:
We call upon [Green Party Executive Committee] to establish a working group (WG) drawing on expertise in the fields of taxation, social security and any other relevant fields, to calculate a Citizen’s Income at a level that is reasonable and affordable. We also call for a second WG to be established to create and propose a strategy to raise public awareness and support for a Citizen’s Income. We also call on Green Party Regional Council to ensure that a Citizen’s Income is included in the manifesto for the next General Election in 2015
The motion’s proposer, Alison Whalley, spoke extensively about Citizen’s Income (a form of BIG, also known as Unconditional Basic Income) in her address to the conference. At the same conference, Barb Jacobson, a housing and benefits adviser, gave a speech entitled “poverty is political,” in which she also spoke extensively on Citizen’s Income. According to Jacobson, “most crucially, Citizen’s Income enables us to decide how to use our time – it allows us to be free of stress, overwork, humiliation, and the bureaucratic nightmares that I encounter every week.”
For more information about the conference see the CIT Newsletter: https://www.citizensincome.org/resources/Newsletter20142.htm