Jenny Jones (Green politician)

For other people named Jenny Jones, see Jenny Jones (disambiguation).

Jenny Jones AM
Jenny Jones being interviewed in Norwich in 2010
Deputy Mayor of London
In office 16 May 2003 – 14 June 2004
Mayor	Ken Livingstone
Preceded by	Nicky Gavron
Succeeded by	Nicky Gavron
Member of the London Assembly for the Green Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 May 2000
Preceded by	Constituency Created
Personal details
Born	12 November 1949 (1949-23-12) Brighton, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Political party	Green
Alma mater	University College London

Jenny Jones (born, 23 December 1949) is an English politician and prominent member of the Green Party of England and Wales. She currently represents the Green Party in the London Assembly, having been successful in all three elections since the assembly's creation in 2000. In March 2011, Jones was selected to be the Green Party candidate to be Mayor of London in the 2012 elections. She served as Deputy Mayor of London from May 2003 to June 2004. She was also the sole Green councillor on Southwark Council from 2006 to 2010. In 2008 the council passed a motion introducing a London living wage policy which was proposed by Jones.

On the London Assembly Jones's prime areas of interest have been transport, housing and planning, and policing, “with a strong emphasis on sustainability and localism.” In addition to her period as deputy mayor, Jones has served as Chair of London Food, Green Transport Advisor, and Road Safety Ambassador, during which time the number of people killed and seriously injured on London’s roads decreased by over 2,000 with 20mph zones and incread traffic policing.

Early life and career

Jones grew up mostly in Brighton, with spells abroad in Lesotho and The Seychelles. Before entering politics, Jones worked as financial controller in London. She attended the Institute of Archaeology at University College London as a mature student, studying archaeology. . She spent about ten years as an archaeologist in the Middle East, studying carboinised plant remains, before embarking on a career in politics.

Political career

Jones joined the Green Party in 1988. She has held several posts within the party, including the position of Chair on the Green Party Executive from 1995 to 1997. Jones features in the Evening Standard’s list of London’s 1000 most influential people and in 2004 was named as one of ‘200 women of achievement’ by Buckingham Palace .

London Assembly member

In 2000, Jones was elected to the inaugural London Assembly as part of a three-strong Green Group, including Cllr. Darren Johnson AM and Victor Anderson (who resigned in March 2003 and was replaced by Noel Lynch for the remainder of the term). The 2004 GLA elections would see the Greens lose the seat held by Lynch, leaving Jones and Johnson as the two remaining members of the Green Group. Jones is now the Green Group's Convenor.

In May 2003, the Green Party accepted an offer from the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, to nominate a Deputy Mayor and chose Jones, who held the post until June 2004. The London Green Party had originally been split on the decision before eventually agreeing to nominate Jones. The offer was part of Livingstone's pledge to rotate the position of Deputy Mayor, although he later declined to offer the post to the Conservatives and had an offer to the Liberal Democrats turned down.

As a London Assembly Member, Jenny Jones has promoted the issues of road safety, food, sustainable transport, social justice and the police and civil liberties.

She is a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, and has issued a report on traffic policing . She sits on both the MPA’s Strategic and Operational Policing Committee and Civil Liberties Panel. Elsewhere she has put forward a motion and has put questions to the Mayor calling for progress on women’s issues, specifically in relation to violence against women and support provision.

Jones currently chairs the Planning and Housing Committee, which issued a recent report on food growing and planning in London, Cultivating the Capital. It concluded that "London has only three or four days stocks of food should there be any disruption to supply". Jones issued an individual report in January 2010 on affordable housing in London, which determined that "the cost of buying a home [in London] has risen twice as fast as incomes".

She is also a member of the Confirmation Hearings and Transport Committees.

She has previously held roles as the Mayor’s Road Safety Ambassador and Green Transport advisor, focusing on road safety and cycling respectively, as well as being the former Chair of London Food, a mayoral commission which "aims to give Londoners fresher, healthier and more affordable food while reducing the environmental impact of our current food supply". As Chair, Jones was responsible for drawing up the Sustainable Food Strategy for London and chaired the Food Implementation Group overseeing the strategy More recently she also issued a report on the subject of food security in the capital.

Southwark Councillor

In the 2006 local elections, Jones was elected as a councillor for the South Camberwell ward in the London Borough of Southwark, the Greens' first councillor in Southwark. She came third in the ward, polling 1014 votes. In the 2010 elections she lost her seat, coming fifth with 1282 votes

Mayoral Candidate

In March 2011 Jones was selected as the Green Party’s candidate for the 2012 London Mayoral election winning 67% of the votes, stating "At this time of savage cuts to essential services, London needs a Mayor who will create a fairer city and reduce the gap between rich and poor. These are hard times for people who care about quality services, local businesses, and protecting the most vulnerable members of our communities. I promise to make fighting cuts to housing benefit, the NHS and youth services a key part of my campaign to be Mayor.” .

Parliamentary Candidate

In the 2005 General Election, she stood in the Dulwich and West Norwood parliamentary constituency, coming fourth with 2,741 votes (6.5%).

In the 2010 General Election, she stood in the Camberwell and Peckham parliamentary constituency, coming fourth with 1,361 votes (2.9%).

Political Views

Police

Jones was a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority from its creation in 2000 “and has worked on a wide range of policing issues, with a particular focus on road safety, violence against women, civil liberties and neighbourhood policing” until it was disbanded in 2012. She was outspoken about numerous issues including Mayor Johnson’s demonisation of the youth through use of “baseless” rhetoric on “soaring gang-membership and rising knife-crime”, suggesting the mayor created an unhelpful climate of fear. Jones now serves as a member of the MPA’s replacement body, the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee.

In response to the riots in August 2011, Jones and Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas MP co-authored an article in The Guardian, arguing that all cuts to policing should be postponed until December 2012 when a sufficient review of the events has occured and the lessons from the London Olympics are learned, “In the meantime, the police should focus on spending money wisely, and ensuring that police officers are not burdened with administrative tasks which take them away from frontline policing.”

After herself being kettled at a demonstration, Jones was vociferously critical of this police tactic, telling the BBC the police used Kettling to "imprison peaceful campaigners and have shown they can't be trusted with such a powerful tactic", suggesting "The Met's reputation sinks even further every time they abuse their powers and it's time to stop this particular mistreatment" .

Healthy Eating

Jones has argued for big changes to London’s current food culture as Chair of London Food during Ken Livingstone’s second Mayoral term. During her time as chair, London Food released its ‘Food Strategy’ aiming to “help improve food in London’s schools, hospitals and other public institutions” and “offer people on low income better access to healthy and affordable food” . Some of the reports key points were:

"Consideration will be given to the role that the public sector can play in helping to facilitate more producer collaborations and logistics and distribution partnerships, to help smaller producers to compete in the market, and to encourage new entrants"

"Directing better the existing resources available for business support for specialist food manufacturers and processors, particularly on consumer market trends and collaborative working, and particularly for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that reflect London’s diverse communities"

"Promote and expand opportunities for small-scale food production for individuals and communities through gardens, orchards, schools, allotments and parks and open spaces"

"Continue to increase the amount of organic and local food provided through public sector services in London in response to growing consumer demand"

"Research and promote the positive benefits of nutritious food for children."

In 2008, Jones released a report ‘Why London Needs to Grow More Food’ stressing “The Mayor of London has planning and development powers, which could be used to support widespread urban agriculture in London through the commercial and voluntary sectors, community-led social enterprises, and by engaging the unemployed, elderly, and lower skilled groups”.

Transport

Jones commissioned the initial TFL report into promoting cycling that paved the way for the London Cycle-hire scheme . Ashok Sinha, Chief executive of the London Cycling Campaign, said of Jones “In 2008 the London Cycling Campaign gave Jenny Jones a Special Award for her Lifetime Services to cycling. This was in recognition of her success in helping to push cycling into mainstream politics, her efforts to deliver many cycling projects on the ground, and her energies as cycling champion in general.” . In a confrontation with the Mayor over cycle safety, Johnson said:

“

(it is) your duty as an honest politician to tell people the truth that cycling is actually getting safer, when you consider the number of people on the roads.

”

Mr Johnson’s advisor wrote to Jones claiming there had been:

“

…a reduced number of cycling collisions in the last ten years

”

Which turned out not to be true. In a written statement Jones said, “we know that cycle safety is the big problem which puts Londoners off jumping on their bikes. There are a growing number of deaths and injuries of cyclists and trying to cover that up by issuing factually inaccurate statements won’t change the reality,” continuing, “We urgently need to fix the most dangerous junctions and reverse the Mayor’s policy of giving priority to motorised traffic. The Mayor needs to stand his policy on its head and give legal priority on many local roads to pedestrians and cyclists.” Jones has also been critical of Johnson's neglect of cycling in outer London , stating "given that 70% of the potential new cyclists identified by TfL are outside of inner and central London, it is shocking that the Transport Strategy has no clear plan for cycling in the suburbs and outer London."

Jones has spoken against Mayor Johnson’s transport policy of “making motoring cheaper in London, whilst public transport fares are raised above inflation”. At Mayor’s question time, Jones highlighted a “promise” Johnson had made in 2008 to make all new busses hybrid by 2012 when in reality less than 10% had met this criterion Jones wishes for a reduction in the burden for Londoners felt by Mayor Johnson's price increases and proposes a reduction in fares of about 4%. Jones is a supporter of the congestion charge as a way to lower pollution and road casulties and spoke against the mayor's cancellation of the Western extention, arguing that it made London dirtier, more crowded and less safe.

The City

In her statement of policy for the 2012 election, Jones proposes several ideas to bring “a renaissance of micro, small and medium businesses” in order to spread “wealth to all Londoners”, seeking “a financial services sector that works for them”.

London's financial district

She argues for a system that rewards good long term investment “instead of trying to make a fast buck” and proposes a good financial example to be Sweden’s Handelsbanken which gives “good basic pay and no bonuses.” One of her candidacy’s most distinct positions is with respect to The City with ambitions to “Abolish the City of London Corporation and replace it with a democratic London borough”, “support new institutions like local community banks focused on lending to small businesses and social enterprises” and “Promote building societies and credit unions and lobby the Government to put its remaining nationalised banking assets into one of these models rather than a bank”. Elsewhere Jones has been critical of excessive top-level remuneration, stating, “It's difficult not to feel enraged” by statistics showing the average FTSE CEO earns 565 times the national average.

Fair Pay Ratio

Jones and the Green Party, alongside others , are deeply critical of the inequalities in pay between rich and poor. Jones supports calls by the New Economics Foundation to introduce a 10:1 pay ratio, whereby the highest earner in a company or institution should earn no more than 10 times the lowest paid employee. Jones’s policy indicates that, if elected, this would be instigated in “City Hall, Transport for London, the fire brigade and the police”, and she claims “more equal societies tend to be happier and healthier as well as experiencing lower levels of violent crime.” This is a high priority for her candidacy and she states that “this would mean that no City Hall cleaner could earn less than a tenth the Mayor’s salary, and the Commissioner of the Met Police couldn’t earn more than ten times a young recruit.”

External links

• Campaign web site for London 2012 Mayoral elections
• Biography from the London Assembly
• Southwark Green Party

Preceded by Nicky Gavron

Deputy Mayor of London 2003–2004

Succeeded by Nicky Gavron