Siân Berry

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Cllr
Siân Berry
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Principal Speaker of the Green Party
In office
24 November 2006 – 30 November 2007
Preceded by Caroline Lucas
Succeeded by Caroline Lucas
Camden Borough Councillor
for Highgate ward
Assumed office
22 May 2014
Preceded by Maya De Souza
Personal details
Born (1974-07-09) 9 July 1974 (age 49)
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
Nationality British
Political party Green Party of England and Wales
Residence London
Education Pate's Grammar School
Trinity College, Oxford
Known for Green Party Principal Speaker, 2006–07; London mayoral candidate, 2008
Website sianberry.org.uk

Siân Rebecca Berry[1] (born 9 July 1974) is an English politician and member of the Green Party of England and Wales. From 2006 to 2007, she was one of the Green Party's Principal Speakers.[2] She was the party's candidate in the 2008 London mayoral election,[3] and is again the party's candidate in the 2016 election.

Early life and career

Born and raised in Cheltenham, Berry attended the selective Pate's Grammar School (where her father, John Berry, is a teacher). She attended Trinity College, Oxford, where she studied Metallurgy and the Science of Materials. Upon graduating in 1997, she moved to London.[2]

Green Party politician

Berry joined the Green Party aged 28 whilst working as a medical copywriter for large pharmaceutical companies, which she then decided "conflicted" with her principles. She resigned, becoming increasingly politically active and beginning a new career in an ethical temping agency that dealt with a wide range of charitable organisations. She worked as a website manager at Imperial College London but left this job to focus on her mayoral campaign.[4]

In her first major party political role as the Green Party Campaigns Co-ordinator, Berry spearheaded the Green Energy Works Campaign, calling for low carbon, non-nuclear energy to tackle climate change. She also led a campaign against the renewal of Britain's nuclear weapon, the Trident submarine, which saw her travel to the nuclear submarine base in Faslane, Scotland, to protest.[2]

Berry failed to be elected to Camden London Borough Council three times: once during 2002 and twice in 2006. In the 2002 local elections, she came fifth in the Highgate ward with 811 votes, 38 votes behind the third place required to gain a seat.[5] The 2006 Local Elections would see her contest the neighbouring Kentish Town ward, in which she gained 1,057 votes and came sixth out of twelve.[6] A 7 December 2006 by-election in Kentish Town ward saw her come second out of four with 812 votes, behind the Liberal Democrat winner on 1093 votes.[7]

In 2005, Berry was the Green Party's parliamentary candidate for the Hampstead and Highgate constituency (which includes both the Highgate and Kentish Town wards) in the General Election. She polled 5.3% of the vote, coming fourth.

Berry was elected as the Green Party's Female Principal Speaker unopposed in Autumn 2006, succeeding Caroline Lucas MEP and, working alongside male Principal Speaker Derek Wall, served until Autumn 2007 when Lucas resumed the post following an election. She wrote a regular blog for the New Statesman current affairs magazine from November 2006 – July 2008.[8]

On 12 March 2007, the Green Party announced that Berry would be the party's candidate in the 2008 London mayoral election, after she received 45% of the votes in the London Green Party's internal election.[3] Berry recommended that her voters back Labour Party candidate Ken Livingstone as their second preference[9] and Livingstone advocated an equivalent preference for his supporters.[10] Berry was endorsed by The Independent and The Observer newspapers, with Ken Livingstone as second preference.[11][12] Berry came fourth, with 3.15% of first preferences and 13.50% of second preferences.[13] This was the highest placing for a Green Mayoral candidate at the time, later surpassed by the Green's Jenny Jones in the 2012 London Mayoral Elections who came third ahead of the Liberal Democrats.

In the 2014 local elections, Berry was elected to the Highgate ward of Camden London Borough Council, holding the seat of outgoing Green councillor Maya De Souza in a split result for the ward.[14][15][16] On 2 September it was announced that she had won the internal party election to stand as the Greens' London mayoral candidate and first place list candidate for the London Assembly elections in 2016.

Non-party activism

Speaking at the London mayoral announcement

Berry was a founder of the Alliance against Urban 4×4s, which began in Camden in 2003 and became a national campaign demanding measures to stop 4x4s (known in the United States as sport utility vehicles) "taking over our cities".[2] The campaign is known for its "theatrical demonstrations" and mock parking tickets, credited to Berry[2] (although now adapted by numerous local groups),[17] some 150,000 of which have been placed on 4x4 vehicles by campaigners. The group was successful in getting the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, to adopt one of its founding principles when he introduced a higher congestion charge for vehicles with high emissions. The Alliance campaigns further for greater taxes and stricter controls on advertisements for 4x4s. An international '4x4 Network' has now been founded.[2]

In her local borough of Camden, Berry has also campaigned against the Iraq war, genetically modified foods and air quality problems, and supported local services threatened by redevelopment projects. She has advocated "green development" in Kings Cross Railwaylands (the largest brownfield site in the UK) to provide more family-housing.[2]

She initiated the Census Alert[18] campaign to stop Lockheed Martin from running the UK Census, and is a Patron of the Fair Pay Network.[19][20]

In 2009 she was a driving force behind the Reheat Britain campaign for 'boiler scrappage' which secured funding to replace some of the most inefficient boilers in the UK through the 2009 annual Pre Budget Report.[21]

On 15 September 2010, Berry, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.[22]

Since June 2011, Berry has worked as a roads and sustainable transport campaigner for the charity Campaign for Better Transport.[23]

Author

Berry is also author of a number of books, including 50 Ways to Greener Travel,[24] 50 Ways to be a Greener Shopper,[25] 50 Ways to Save Water and Energy[26] and 50 Ways to make your house and garden greener.[27] In 2010 she published Mend it![28] and in 2011 Junk for Joy on upcycling projects.[29]

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Siân Berry's biography, Green Party of England and Wales
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Siân Berry Chosen as London Mayoral Candidate, Green Party of England and Wales, 12 March 2007
  4. ↑ Siân Berry, the Green goddess, The Guardian, 10 February 2008
  5. ↑ Camden local election 2002 PDF (155 KB), London Borough of Camden
  6. ↑ Camdem council seat-by-seat results, BBC News Online, 5 May 2006
  7. ↑ Kentish Town by-election results, London Borough of Camden, 7 December 2006
  8. ↑ Siân Berry's blog, New Statesman
  9. ↑ Vote Berry… and Livingstone, New Statesman, 19 March 2008
  10. ↑ Mayor tries to build coalition in attempt to defeat Johnson, The Guardian, 20 March 2008
  11. ↑ London's unenviable choice points to Ken, The Guardian, 27 April 2008
  12. ↑ If newspapers had a vote, this one would put its cross beside…, The Independent, 1 May 2008
  13. ↑ Results: Mayor, London Elects, 2 May 2008
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Alliance against Urban 4x4s Shop
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Siân joins new attack on poverty pay, Green Party of England and Wales, 25 February 2008
  21. ↑ Reheat Britain website
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Principal Speaker of the Green Party of England and Wales
2006–2007		 Succeeded by
Caroline Lucas
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