The Centre Party, a party which is in support of Basic Income, will become the largest party in the Finnish parliament, after winning yesterday’s election.
They received 21% of the vote with 99% of votes counted. Other Basic Income-supporting parties, the Green League and the Left Alliance were on 8% and 7% respectively. This is a big gain for both the Centre Party and the Green League but is a reduction in support for the Left Alliance. The second and third biggest parties respectively were the conservative NCP party and the populist True Finns. As a result, the Centre Party is predicted to form a ruling coalition with these two parties. [+]
Green party (England) outlines plan for basic citizen’s income for all adults.
Natalie Bennett says payment to replace unemployment benefit would ensure no one lived in fear of losing their home.
Green party leader, Natalie Bennett, on The Andrew Marr Show, discussing plans for a citizen's income,
photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/Getty Images.
The Green party would spend billions to give every adult – in and out of work – a citizen’s income The Green party would spend billions to give every adult – in and out of work – a citizen’s income worth more than £72.40 a week, the current value of the jobseeker’s allowance.
Natalie Bennett, the Green leader, said the policy would ensure no one lived in fear of losing their home or being unable to feed themselves. She said some of the cost would be recovered by the payment being withdrawn when an individual income reached a certain level. [+]
The groups in German Switzerland planning for the initiative’s voting campaign have organized a meeting in Zurich, and are cordially inviting everyone already involved (or who would like to get involved) in the voting campaign, to attend. The meeting will be an opportunity to exchange ideas, plans and our enthusiasm for convincing the population to say “Yes” to the coming popular vote on the initiative.
Meeting open to all!
Information : Unconditional Basic Income coordination meeting
Invitation: [+]
At the end of last year we sent the members of the Committees for Social Security and Health of National Concil* (CSSH-N) our detailed dossier on the Unconditional Basic Income initiative. This Commission will be continuing to consider the initiative at its next meeting, scheduled for 19-20 February 2015.
With the dossier we enclosed a cover-note, reproduced below, suggesting that the deputies commission a thorough study examining the possible effects of the introduction of a basic income. Such a study should in principle have been carried out by the Government before sending the initiative on to the Parliament, but it still has not been done, even though it is essential for the Parliament and later on the voters to have a satisfactory basis for their decision.
* National Concil is the lower house of parliament
Text of our message to Members of Parliament: [+]
Among the many happenings around UBI, December was notable for an event which is historic for the world movement behind this idea: the launch of L’Inconditionnel, a French-language newspaper dedicated to the concept of UBI, produced in partnership by the networks in Switzerland, France and Belgium and financed by more than 200 people.
This first number, free of charge, introduces the ideas behind the basic income in various ways. Its print run was 60,000 copies, so it is perfect for spreading the proposal widely. On www.linconditionnel.info you will find a downloadable version in PDF; even better, on the same site you can identify the physical distribution point nearest you, where you can obtain one or more copies to give to your friends: [+]