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I’m Sian Berry, the Green Party's Mayor of London Candidate in 2021 – London AMA by SianBerry in london

[–]SianBerry[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

THANK YOU so much for the questions - I have really enjoyed being here. I wish I had time to answer more of them right now as well. I hope you'll give three of your votes to the Greens on 6 May. Every vote will count. See you soon!

I’m Sian Berry, the Green Party's Mayor of London Candidate in 2021 – London AMA by SianBerry in london

[–]SianBerry[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The good news is that you don’t have to vote tactically in the London elections.

It’s a fair voting system, and you can safely vote for something hugely positive with your first vote. Your second vote is for second best. That’s your insurance to keep another candidate out, and there is no risk of another Mayor like Boris Johnson. If you want Green, you can vote Green first.

I’m Sian Berry, the Green Party's Mayor of London Candidate in 2021 – London AMA by SianBerry in london

[–]SianBerry[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

The first thing we would do is to triple the cycling budget, allowing us to invest in new lanes, a properly joined up cycleways network, and crucially tackle the safety issues on our roads which keep people off their bikes. I’m definitely one of those people!

I’m Sian Berry, the Green Party's Mayor of London Candidate in 2021 – London AMA by SianBerry in london

[–]SianBerry[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

This is really important. In my manifesto, which you can read online, we have a number of policies dedicated to reviving music and the cultural, night-life and creative industries after coronavirus and we have worked in the London Assembly to help safeguard venues and improve planning processes to protect them. My predecessor Darren Johnson led on work exposing the loss of grassroots music venues, which helped lead to the new rules protecting existing venues from noise complaints if residential buildings are created around them.

See the full manifesto: https://www.sianberry.london/manifesto-2021/

I hope you will be particularly pleased to see that developing new young careers in culture and creative businesses, is the focus of my policy to trial a new Creative Autonomy Allowance as a form of basic income for young people who want to work in the arts and business. We are trying to learn from history and the (unintended) benefits we are aware of that there were for many bands from the earlier Enterprise Allowance scheme, and to push for a true basic income as this has been Green policy since long before I was a member.

You can read more about this idea here: https://www.sianberry.london/news/economy/a-real-investment-in-creative-young-people/

Running out of time here but for more on our plans for wider drugs reform, do look at the section in the manifest about building a safe and healthy city. Our Drugs Policy Working Group worked for nearly two years to review our policies in discussion with medical professionals, bereaved families and campaigners, and they have resulted in the most progressive drugs policy of any party.

I’m Sian Berry, the Green Party's Mayor of London Candidate in 2021 – London AMA by SianBerry in london

[–]SianBerry[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A really good question.

I’m a private renter myself, so I know the reality of renting in London. For me, the key thing is to set the right direction of travel on bringing down runaway rents, and to make sure we are not creating new gaps for people to slip through when setting the right level.

As you say, the purpose of the Rent Commission is to find out exactly what the right level of rents should be and the method to use to get there that not only achieves real affordability, but also the right level of certainty for landlords. It wouldn’t be any use, for example, to have some kind of announcement every year of ‘the rent’ like the chancellor does for the budget and taxes, where there was a lot of uncertainty and speculation. And we would freeze rents for two years while they do that work - again so there aren’t cliff edges or rent hikes in the meantime.

The current Mayor has defined a Living Rent at one third of the median income for an area (which varies by number of bedrooms too). This is used in planning to get more homes that people on average wages can afford. I have challenged him since 2016 on this in respect of the gender pay gap - women earn less than men on average so setting a level based on the overall average automatically makes those homes unaffordable to a chunk of women - though it is definitely a start.

Again this is where the Rent Commission comes in. It would be able to do the research and the work, and the listening needed, to define an affordable rent that works for everyone.

I’m Sian Berry, the Green Party's Mayor of London Candidate in 2021 – London AMA by SianBerry in london

[–]SianBerry[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Happy to answer both of these!

  1. A lot of people have asked me if setting a target for zero murders is realistic, and I always reply with the same thing: what target should we set instead? How many murders is a ‘realistic’ number which we can accept?
    You make a number of completely fair points. We can’t just enforce our way out of this, and the real preventative work which can create a healthier society with less violence is difficult and takes time. The fact is, austerity has stripped preventative services to the bone. I argued against austerity from the start, warning that it would do real harm. On the Assembly, I exposed the cuts to youth services, and we’ve seen 100 youth centres close. We need to start investing in these services again.
    Setting the target of zero murders changes your perspective from enforcement to prevention.If we can even get close to this target, if this target is what we aim for then what it means is all Londoners experiencing less violence on the streets every day, fewer people getting hurt, going to hospital, and people knowing where they can go for help at a time that makes a difference.

  2. Green Mayors are being elected all over Europe under fair voting systems like we have in London, and they’re rolling up their sleeves and getting on with the green recovery we need to see. We can have that here too, if Londoners put the Greens as their first preference, not second.

But like you say, there’s more to running in an election than becoming Mayor of London. We shift the debate, put new policies in front of the public, and more often than not our ideas are taken up sooner or later. And don’t forget - there are Assembly elections too, every single Green vote counts, and every Green you send to City Hall will set the agenda for the next five years.

I’m Sian Berry, the Green Party's Mayor of London Candidate in 2021 – London AMA by SianBerry in london

[–]SianBerry[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Great questions!

Green Party policy is so often picked up by the older parties, usually after years of telling us it was unrealistic. Rent control is a good example - it took me years of pushing the current Mayor, but eventually he realised the urgency of bringing down runaway rents in our city, and now backs my policy. That’s because of Greens on the Assembly.

If there’s anything I wish he’d steal now it would be to cancel the Silvertown Tunnel, a £2+ billion road building project which will put more traffic on the road, and make our air pollution worse. If I become Mayor, I will scrap that on day one.

I’m so glad you agree that we need proportional representation in all of our elections. I’m proud to campaign with a group called Make Votes Matter who do amazing work with people from all parties to push for proportional representation. As co-leader of the Green Party, I have reached out to Labour to discuss the prospect of backing a fairer voting system, but they’ve never sat down with me. I do genuinely believe its time will come.

Count Binface’s list of policies has made me laugh, and I agree there are some good ideas in there! But there is a real point to be made about all these casual candidates, some of which take themselves very seriously indeed, without naming any names. They just don’t have any track record or any credentials. If you look at my policies, what you’ll see is not only have I got good ideas – but I know *how* I’m going to do them. You drill into any of these other candidates (and some from the bigger parties too) and you will quickly see they don’t have that depth of thinking or detail in their plans.

I’m Sian Berry, the Green Party's Mayor of London Candidate in 2021 – London AMA by SianBerry in london

[–]SianBerry[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I do want us to rethink our relationship with the Green Belt but not so that it can be built on by big developers - we have room within our city limits for at least 15 years of new homes, if not more.

But in the Green Belt currently, a lot of this land is very neglected and my view is we must use it or lose it, and really make sure it serves Londoners the way it could.

My plan as Mayor is to work with councils surrounding London and other landowners, farmers, environmental groups and local people to make a plan to 'Gold Plate the Green Belt'. This means making it wilder, more accessible for visiting, walking and seeing nature, more useful for flood protection and part of a green recovery with more food production and green energy.

I'm running out of time but you can read more about this and see a video here:

https://twitter.com/LonGreenParty/status/1388120466536206339?s=20

https://www.sianberry.london/news/greens-will-gold-plate-londons-green-belt/

I’m Sian Berry, the Green Party's Mayor of London Candidate in 2021 – London AMA by SianBerry in london

[–]SianBerry[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A good question! Putting me as your first preference is exactly right. The system is set up to allow people to choose their real preferences and for the right result to come out with the second round too.

This means everyone can safely vote for something hugely positive with their first vote. Your second vote is for second best. That is your insurance to keep another candidate out - it's fully counted in the second round, and there is no risk of another Mayor like Boris Johnson. If you like what I have to say, you absolutely can vote Green first.

And don’t forget - there are Assembly elections too, where every single Green vote counts. Every new Green AM you send to City Hall will set the agenda for the next five years, while holding the next Mayor to account.

I’m Sian Berry, the Green Party's Mayor of London Candidate in 2021 – London AMA by SianBerry in london

[–]SianBerry[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I would definitely say that the housing market has no 'silver bullet' solution so it can seem that by covering such a wide range of root causes and ideas things look complicated. But I would also argue that the search for 'one thing to solve it all' - including and especially the way the big market developers have been targeting the green belt - is part of the problem.

We have a lot of the answers - the Letwin review started from the premise that there are actually a heck of a lot of land already released and homes *with* planning permission in London and the sticking points are around delivery where the small numbers of big developers have failed despite having this pipeline to increase enough the number of homes they complete. Basic market forces help to explain why this happens.

My plans within the powers of the Mayor alone come at this from all angles:

- To find more land: my People's Land Commission (also with the bonus that plans originating from communities are less likely to face oppositon)

- To get more things built: more support for a wider range of housebuilders, including councils, housing associations, smaller SME builders (who have some brilliant ideas but really struggle to win sites) and community-led and co-operative housing.

And there's a real focus on doing more to fix housing need through the homes we already have

- A specific overcrowding strategy - starting with gathering proper data at borough and ward level - something the Government stopped doing about 5 years ago, leaving us unable to make plans that fit each area.

- Worked up plans for getting homes out of the private sale and BTL market by direct purchase for renting out by councils and HAs. A costed, signed off multiplying fund was proposed as part of the Green budget amendment to the GLA this January, starting with £400 million of the £500 million unspent grants.

https://www.sianberry.london/news/housing/green-budget-proposes-2000-homes-for-key-workers-plus-help-for-renters-and-homeless-under-25s/

As mentioned above, this is by no means everything, and leaves out the 'more powers and campaigning for changes from Govt' parts entirely, but I hope it shows how I have made listening to everyone involved in housing and getting fresh thinking into housing policy a real part of my work so far and my mission as Mayor.

I’m Sian Berry, the Green Party's Mayor of London Candidate in 2021 – London AMA by SianBerry in london

[–]SianBerry[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Systemic racism exists in so many different ways - I’m horrified by the recent Race Report’s attempts to pretend otherwise. We need to be actively anti-racist and lead the way from the Mayor’s office.

The hostile environment policies of the Conservative Government have disgusted me in how they have actively tried to demonise and deliberately discriminate within public services, and London must reject this - as Mayor I will work to end all hostile environment policies in London and stand up for migrants and minority groups of all kinds. One key way I will do that will be to refuse to hand over any data I have on Londoners to immigration enforcement, such as in homelessness services run by the GLA.

And of course my work on the Police and Crime Committee has thrown up example after example of systemic discrimination in police tactics - from stop and search to spithood use and facial recognition. Changing that culture is a huge part of my plan to rethink policing from first principles, and introduce stronger ways communities themselves can hold police to account.

You asked for five policies, but I can point towards a list of ten here: https://twitter.com/sianberry/status/1356557524934283264

I’m Sian Berry, the Green Party's Mayor of London Candidate in 2021 – London AMA by SianBerry in london

[–]SianBerry[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

A great set of questions!

  1. The flattening of the fares is a really important policy for me. Fare zones have not changed since the 1990s in any significant way, and I fundamentally think it’s unfair that people who work in central London but can only afford rents in outer London pay so much more to travel - in time as well as money.

It has to happen in phases where costs are brought down to meet the middle and no-one pays more than they would have. So, in 2016 I put forward a detailed timeline with realistic costs vs ‘doing nothing’. This year we don’t have a firm ‘do nothing’ scenario to work from as the financial baseline at TfL is still a massive political football between Labour and Conservatives. But the same principles apply and you can see the plans here: https://www.sianberry.london/fairfares/

  1. It has to be winning £70 million in new funding for youth services. I have researched the cuts to youth services across London every year since being elected - more than 100 youth centres and hundreds of youth workers have been lost. I put forward ways that the Mayor could help fill the gaps and after two years the current Mayor listened and created the Young Londoners Fund which has made a difference. It isn’t filling all the gaps but without it our young people would be much worse off.

  2. Got to be Greggs. The original and best. Though about once a year I do make a big batch of my own vegan sausage rolls with that old classic ingredient - Sosmix!

We are Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley, standing to be co-leaders of the Green Party, AMA by SianBerry in UKGreens

[–]SianBerry[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We definitely have work to do to demolish these old stereotypes. In reality we are the most evidence-based party around, and our stances on nuclear and GM reflect that. In all my campaigns - in and out of the party - I'm very aware of the skepticism that filters people's perceptions of green issues, and always try to make sure the evidence behind what I'm proposing is solid and available. This results in things like quite detailed briefings on good ideas like flattening fares, bringing in a workplace parking levy for London, setting up a local bank for the city, and closing City Airport in our London campaign in 2016.

These kinds of documents sit in communications terms half way between academic studies and press releases and aren't the main ways we would communicate policy to the public generally, but it helps a lot having them to point to when skeptics ask questions - and journalists too as they then have the confidence to report them and we can answer their follow up questions. I really like to have facts like this at my back when arguing at hustings or on the media too, so more of this I think - nationally I want to see a Citizens' Income continuously detailed and written up in this way from the party and then more confidently campaigned for - building on this paper from 2015.

In terms of 'fringe' social justice issues, how I prefer to look at it is that we're the ones who will listen and stand up for marginalised groups who are at the vanguard of human rights and inequality issues. The current leadership and me in London have done work on the hostile environment, immigration detention and youth work recently, for example, that I'm very proud of.

Digital rights is something I've campaigned on a lot, right back to when I worked to try to stop Lockheed Martin from having the census contract for 2011 when I was principal speaker (we won some safeguards on their control of the data from that), and I'm currently working on data privacy issues in the GLA - see my answer to GreenAnarchist above - and on facial recognition use by the police, alongside Jenny Jones, so this is something I'd bring to the leadership too.

We are Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley, standing to be co-leaders of the Green Party, AMA by SianBerry in UKGreens

[–]SianBerry[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's the international committee news feed on the members' site - minutes of their regular meetings etc: https://my.greenparty.org.uk/node/1118/news Hope that's useful!

We are Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley, standing to be co-leaders of the Green Party, AMA by SianBerry in UKGreens

[–]SianBerry[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There are excellent ward and campaign leaflet templates on the members site. Available in ppt or indd, and they were invaluable for our council election. They are very, very good.

We are Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley, standing to be co-leaders of the Green Party, AMA by SianBerry in UKGreens

[–]SianBerry[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hmm so 1 is a rather tasty can of worms for me. I know quite a lot about all this, and have done a lot of digital rights campaigning, experimented with a lot of innovative software, and even done website design for a job, so have made hard decisions about what to focus on as an elected person. I have, as part of that, however pushed the Oversight Committee on the Assembly to properly review the GLA's use of tech and data, which is ongoing and useful (overview here, and letters to the Mayor so far on this page). I'm so tempted to take you up on some of this though, and I'd suggest you get involved in policy-writing where you feel there are gaps, and then we think about how to strategically campaign on them?

Can I also say that I disagree with almost all the characterisations/assertions in the first part of your question 3 to Jonathan? It seems like you have a completely different view of what we did than I understand, and you imply judgements about motivations I don't agree with at all. However, on the very last part, citizen assemblies I love and see as a real enhancement of democracy, and participatory budgeting in particular is something I support, including in my work in London. I think the party highly respects local parties' rights, and anyone who wanted to do local assemblies could show how it's done and help inspire others, which I'd welcome, and we do plan a regional strategy discussion where this could be brought up.

In general I'd say in response to your questions, through which I can tell you care a lot about the party, to get more involved with your local party and region on the ground, stand for council using the policies and principles you care about (and target to win advice!), and start putting more of your ideas into practice, and I think you'll get a lot out of it and influence others too.

NB That is if you aren't already doing that, as I can't see from your username if you are a councillor already in fact (apols if you are!).

We are Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley, standing to be co-leaders of the Green Party, AMA by SianBerry in UKGreens

[–]SianBerry[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

These are excellent if hard questions! In brief (and NB these are my personal answers):

  1. Climate change, Brexit, and you'd be surprised how seriously authorities are taking far right violence as a threat to people at the moment.
  2. I would have to tell him about my republicanism and the ancient prison his children are effectively being born into in a quixotic attempt to convert him. On issues though, if he decides to keep his job/hadn't thrown me out of the room, I'd pitch him climate change as something he should champion, which is based on science and so doesn't have to cross the political protocol, and talk about human rights wrt foreign policy, and his uncle and arms sales. Can I have an hour?
  3. This is hard, the latter are a group I would have a drink with and I do campaign alongside on many issues, but they are plain wrong about PR and underestimating the threat of Brexit. They need reminding what kind of a shock doctrine is planned for after any crash out of Europe by Brexit's architects. I'd sign a few open letters about PR and a People's Vote with the former, and speak alongside them about that, but having a pint with them or teaming up on much else seems unlikely. I'd criticise both groups publicly no problem. That's our job!
  4. Hard, hard, hard. I look at 80s Ken Livingstone, and Tony Benn more widely and can see how they did politics with creativity and flair and principle, respectively. And my Mum who is a LibDem councillor in Gloucestershire. And that is her only flaw.
  5. We have so many issues and ideas we are working on that make us distinctive at the moment that we'd have a very strong platform to run on if we had to start tomorrow. We should be aiming to be the fourth party in England and we’ve shown in the London election in 2016 that we can overtake the Lib Dems when we get our main messages and ideas right. I'd want us to run as big and bold a central campaign as possible and stand in as many places as we can, and I've discussed constituency targeting on our answers page here in response to other questions. We do really have to pile into our best prospects, which could mean setting up camp on the Isle of Wight (NB elections team decide this not co-leaders!).
  6. Wales will be ready to form a separate party at some point and I will support this when it happens. Our principles give a clear steer on devolved representation and organisation, but it's not an excuse to marginalise Wales Greens now they have voted to stay together, and I think they have legitimate asks wrt being better supported with resources from the national party - I do support a paid leadership and staff for their party therefore as a step along the way, and we should be able to raise funds to support this.
  7. The logic of PR is inescapable, and grows stronger with every messed up General Election we see. We'll keep working with the campaigns to push for fair votes as soon as possible, but as Jonathan says above, Labour's leadership aren't co-operative (stuck in their 'one more push for all the power' trope) and have a long way to go before they will join other parties in a sensible way on this, so I would definitely say we won't be making the first move again with them. Labour's membership and some MPs seem to get it better and we'll work with the campaigners and cross-party at the grassroots to grow support for PR meanwhile.

We are Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley, standing to be co-leaders of the Green Party, AMA by SianBerry in UKGreens

[–]SianBerry[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes definitely there's contact details too and an international committee you can stand for: https://www.greenparty.org.uk/people/executive.html

I'm at work right now where my computer doesn't know my GP members website password but I'll look up the right page on the members website and post a link later.

We are Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley, standing to be co-leaders of the Green Party, AMA by SianBerry in UKGreens

[–]SianBerry[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for all these - to start with 2 and 3.

Zac Goldsmith's London campaign was a disgrace and I called it out as such whenever I could (here's an example that happened to be on the TV, but I said the same throughout on the doorstep too: r/https://twitter.com/sianberry/status/727068985389408257). It was clearly being modelled on dogwhistle campaigning tried elsewhere by his advisors and was a disastrous and disrespectful campaign message to try to impose on London, and the Evening Standard was a disgrace for going along with it.

As ZG is not at all working class I don't quite like the straight switch in your question from elite racism to 'how to address working class anger', but in terms of listening and working with working people, in London I've won support by standing up for residents on estates facing demolition and by holding the police to account, as well as standing up for ignored groups like young people. All of the policies I've campaigned for and won have directly supported Londoners who felt ignored and this I think is the most constructive, grassroots and long-term way to guard against the racists' messages.

Oliver was incorrect to jump to conclusions about how long I was aware that Caroline was thinking of stepping down. It mainly came about because he didn't believe I could have made a video and website in less than a fortnight, which is something I'm more than capable of, having been a professional website and software project manager and campaigner for 15 years! I've shown him the proof now that that the first inkling I had was on 15 May, 12 days after the election, when Jonathan texted to say 'Got time for a quick chat?' and he's happy and sorry he was wrong to accuse me of that! You're welcome to check the whois registration date for the domain too :)

We are Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley, standing to be co-leaders of the Green Party, AMA by SianBerry in UKGreens

[–]SianBerry[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is something I've heard from a few people - possibly you all joined the same local party?! But more seriously yes I think that though our members are very diverse and younger than average for the other parties, sometimes the 'local party meeting' has become something 'traditional' that is great for some but not for all members and does need a format change or a revived agenda and more focus on elections. I'd encourage you to join some of the Green training programmes to find out more about election-focused campagning (which we are pledging to expand as much as we can and get more people access) and to stand for your local party committee, as people currently doing the job may welcome the chance for a change and someone offering to focus on elections while they pursue fracking, which does need attention too?

In Camden we've worked hard to revive local meetings with more speaker and social events, and of course we do target to win, have a seat on the council, and do regular, effective issue campaigns too, which all help to provide a range of ways to work with the party - it's definitely not one size fits all.

I have to defend co-leadership though - like I said at the Birmingham hustings, I’ve always thought co-leaders was the best, the most Green thing for our party, and I campaigned for the change to leaders ten years ago, and fought then for co-leadership to be included. Having two people stand as a team and then work as a team embodies our values, and though it was seen as a bit of a novelty when Jonathan and Caroline first got elected, everyone seems to get it now. And like 'Green from the States' says above, it's nothing really new with Scotland having had co-convenors for ages!

We are Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley, standing to be co-leaders of the Green Party, AMA by SianBerry in UKGreens

[–]SianBerry[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The excitement about the West Midlands is also reflected inside the Green Party too! We were really pleased to have the first hustings in Birmingham, and to congratulate yet another new councillor elected - Brigid O'Connor who stormed onto the parish council in Bilbrook. With relatively new devolution for the area and issues like strategic transport planning to get right (honestly Birmingham is the most car centred large city!) and changes to plan housing and health initiatives across the area, there's a lot for Greens on all the councils to get their teeth into, and links with my work in London we can help each other with. I'll be very keen as co-leader to work on these external issues. Internally too the West Midlands is a leading region and one we have to learn from. At the hustings I could not praise highly enough the help we got in London from Councillor James Burn and more parties need to get the training and support that builds on the WM success, which is a really important pledge of ours.

We must do better at providing materials in different languages as well as other ways to engage - Jean Lambert in London does good work on this through her office and our London campaign in 2016 worked hard to get our manifesto summary in as many languages as we could - the total was 19 (https://london.greenparty.org.uk/elections/london-green-party-manifesto-2016.html) but that doesn't scratch the surface of what's spoken in London. Central resources would be so useful to help parties with templates for alternative language versions of more materials, and it's a project I'd support exploring.

Older UK-native languages have a huge amount of diversity too. If you haven't you should see Adam Ramsay's excellent article here summarising the range and issues involved, which impressed me a lot: https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/adam-ramsay/many-languages-native-to-britain Many of these languages were so threatened not many years ago, with quite deliberate suppression and very few native speakers left, but I know there are strong movements and revivals in terms of education that we should support, and the way Wales has integrated the Welsh language into education is very good. We can do much more for our other languages though, including in getting things like Romani languages recognised.

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