Sian Berry

It’s amazing how slowly things happen sometimes. This week I visited Pli Design, one of a growing number of green manufacturing companies in south east London, at their workshop in Dulwich. While we filmed a short report on business policy for the local news, the owner, Christopher Pett, told me how he imagined, when they started making sustainable furniture in 2003, that they would be jumping onto the back ... read more

It wasn’t quite ‘within days’ of my last blog, but we have now received the government’s official confirmation that they are planning for a new wave of nuclear power stations to be built across the UK.

The announcement was made by John Hutton on Thursday, but not before we heard from the government’s own Nuclear Consultation Working Group that the second public consultation process had failed hopelessly to ... read more

2008 is going to be another eventful year for green and civil liberties campaigners.

In January we’re expecting announcements on two major campaigns I’m working on. Transport for London will soon release the results of their consultation on new Congestion Charge bands for high and low emission vehicles. By the looks of a recent opinion poll, which will also inform TfL’s decision, charging gas-guzzlers more remains popular amongst ... read more

What do you need to earn per hour to support yourself in London? You won’t be surprised to hear that the national minimum wage of £5.52 per hour is nowhere near enough. In fact, research by the GLA’s Living Wage Unit shows that a wage of at least £7.20 per hour is what it takes to provide enough for the basics of life here in the capital.

Yet far ... read more

So, the votes are in and counted, and the decision of the Green Party members is that we will be choosing a leader or co-leaders at our next autumn conference.

In our first ever party-wide referendum, nearly half the membership cast their votes and the result was 73 per cent in favour of the change from our current set-up of two principal speakers, well above the two-thirds majority ... read more

Today, I'm launching my campaign to be Mayor of London. As the Green Party candidate, you'd expect it to be full of plans for better bikes, more recycling and the usual green stuff. And yes, I do plan to have a lot more of all of these.

However, without an equal measure of social justice, environmental policies alone won't work. A Green London also has to be a more ... read more

It’s far too early to start talking about Christmas, but I’m afraid I have no choice. Improbably snow-bound English villages, 'seasonal' recipes for prawns and this year’s must-have gadgets, are cluttering up every advert break. So, as I too have already been out recording ‘Green Christmas’ specials for the TV, and have been doing my research, I thought I would strike back early too.

Christmas, like the average wedding, ... read more

If you have been on the Victoria Line going south from Euston station lately, you might have noticed the latest innovation in tube entertainment across the platform.

I regularly use this platform on my way from Kentish Town to my job in South Kensington and, a couple of weeks ago, I spotted them: three bright billboard adverts moving about on the other side of the tunnel. My first thought ... read more

So, there’s no election next month after all. I wish I had put money on that outcome a fortnight ago, when literally everyone was telling me it was a dead cert to happen.

This did include several journalists and political forecasters, and some of the shrewdest politicians I know, so I think it probably was at some point ‘on’. But events intervened (not least the genius of whoever organised ... read more

Zac, are you serious? Of course I had read the Quality of Life group's report before I commented. In my piece I quote directly from it, and the main findings had been extensively leaked by your team for weeks beforehand.

I don’t want to become your sworn enemy. We both have scarier opponents to face, so I won’t deny that the discursive parts of the report are an excellent ... read more

Sunday mornings at the autumn Green Party conference are usually a very uneventful business; finishing essential tasks such as ratifying reports, working through policy motions left over from earlier in the week and a handful of fringe meetings. A quiet time after a big Saturday night out.

This year was different. The party-wide referendum on whether to replace our two Principal Speakers with a more traditional sounding Leader and Deputy ... read more

It’s the Green Party conference again. These six-monthly get togethers seem to come around more and more quickly. Come to think of it, most of the policemen I saw at the DSEi arms fair protest last week looked like they should be doing their GCSEs. Must be my age.

We’re the first conference of the season this autumn, so there’s a fair bit of media interest in what we’re up ... read more