Professor Alisa McKay had been a feminist and a vocal advocate of BIG. She was not only a good academic but also a good campaigner. She died 5th March 2014. An obituary by Anne Miller is published in “Citizen’s Income Newsletter, Issue 2, 2014”. The commemorative conference for her took place in 22 and 23 January 2015, at Glasgow Caledonian University where she held her professorship.
ITV news index released on 2nd March 2015 shows 36% of citizens is in favor of BIG. ComRess interviewed 2013 British adults online between 27th February and 1st March. They asked questions on policies of political parties including a citizen’s income proposal by the Green Party. It shows: Support 36%; Oppose 40%; Don’t Know 23%. More details can be read at:
https://www.comres.co.uk/polls/itv-news-index-green-party-poll/
https://www.comres.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ITV-News-Index_2nd-March-2015.pdf
Yvonne Roberts argues that ‘the unthinkable’ would not become ‘the eminently reasonable’ unless ‘female electoral disengagement’ would stop. She includes BIG along with free universal childcare, and so on, in her list of ‘the unthinkable’.
Yvonne Roberts, “Why Women Need a Stronger Voice in Politics”, the Guardian, 5 April.
Scottish Greens has published their manifest for General Election on 7th May. It says: ‘In the longer term we will build a welfare system which removes the stigma of benefit, helps end the “poverty trap” and promotes equality. A Citizen’s Income is emblematic of this approach. A Citizen’s Income will require a reform programme replace almost all benefits apart from disability payments with a simple regular payment to everyone – children, adults and pensioners. The beginning of this system already exist with state pensions and Child Benefit.’
Natalie Bennett, the Green Party leader of England and Wales, confirmed the party’s ‘citizen’s income’, paying everyone in the country £72 a week. The video is at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nm035
The article of it can be found at:
