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Tag: Siân Berry

  • New Green Party transport policy aims for 75% cut in carbon emissions within ten years 

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    The Green Party’s revised transport policy, approved at its Autumn Conference, sets out a radical programme to transform transport in England & Wales. The proposed measures would aim to reduce carbon emissions by around 75% within a decade by reducing travel and expanding electrification of all modes. The party says the measures would also hugely reduce transport’s impacts on road danger and health while delivering a more equitable society. 

    Among a raft of ambitious initiatives, the policies include: 

    • Transforming road and public transport – A step change away from car dependency, with major investment in better buses and rail. It aims for a 50% increase in rail travel and more frequent and reliable bus services, connecting homes with jobs, education, shops, healthcare. The policy also opposes almost all new road building. 
    • Making Active Travel the natural choice – Safe, high-quality walking, wheeling and cycling networks, using road space reallocated from private motor vehicles. The policy aims for at least half of journeys in England’s towns and cities to be by active travel within five years, compared to a third in 2025. 
    • Fairer and cleaner aviation – Reduce demand for passenger and freight flights, halt airport expansion, and ensure those who take the most polluting and unnecessary flights contribute the most. The policy specifically targets private jets, premium-class travel, and frequent flyers, while supporting cleaner alternatives and sustainable aviation. 

    Green Party parliamentary spokesperson on transport, Sian Berry MP, said:  

    “For too long transport policy has focused on moving vehicles rather than enabling people to get where they need to go. Our new policy is about giving everyone genuine choices – reliable and affordable public transport, safe walking, wheeling and cycling, and communities where owning a car isn’t a prerequisite for participating fully in society. 

    “We also need to tackle transport’s contribution to the climate crisis in an equitable and fair way. That means providing attractive alternatives to car and air travel, moving more freight onto rail and electrification.  Those responsible for the most polluting and unnecessary journeys, including users of private jets and frequent flyers, will make the greatest contribution.” 

    Co-convenors of the policy, Jeremy Drew and Mark Strong, said: 

    “We have worked hard with an expert team of professionals and academics to revise our policy. It sets out measures to achieve a 75% reduction in transport carbon emissions within ten years, while making it easier for people and businesses to choose cleaner and healthier alternatives, which will improve not just transport but wider society.” 

  • The only target for the number of people killed on the road should be zero, say Greens

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    Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.
    Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Responding to the government’s new Road Safety Strategy, which was announced on 7th January, Green MP, Siân Berry, said

    “The only target for the number of people killed on the road should be zero. With this strategy, the Government has massively overlooked key actions to cut traffic and achieve safer and slower vehicle speeds, which are truly effective at saving lives and essential to reaching this goal.

    “The Government should follow the example of Wales, where the national default 20mph limit reduced road casualties on 20mph and 30mph roads by 26 per cent in the first 12 months of its introduction. That represents 630 people in Wales who made it home safely.”

  • ‘Zack is a phenomenal leader’: Siân Berry on the Green party’s next steps as membership doubles

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    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/dec/30/zack-is-a-phenomenal-leader-sian-berry-on-the-green-partys-next-steps-as-membership-doubles

    Siân Berry has a long history in politics and success was sweet when she took the Brighton seat. Photograph: Ian West/PA

    Since Zack Polanski took over as leader, the party has doubled its membership and its four MPs want to take on Reform’s anger and build community spirit

    “Someone has to be out there making the narrative for social security. Someone has to fight the corrosive attitudes to people on benefits,” says Siân Berry, who has just finished her first year as a Green MP in the House of Commons.

    She is speaking to the Guardian in her Brighton constituency office, formerly occupied by the legendary Caroline Lucas who flew a lone flag as the only member of parliament for the Green party for 14 years.

    Now, however, there are four MPs including Berry, battling together, she says, to hold the space for the left at a moment when it feels the far right has hypnotised the entire political body. “Often Adrian [Ramsay, MP for Waveney Valley] is the only one bringing up animal welfare in Defra questions, or Carla [Denyer, MP for Bristol Central] will be the only person arguing for a refugee’s right to work to the Home Office.” They have all, at different times, been the only party to raise the need for taxes on extreme wealth.

    “Caroline was a lone voice in parliament,” she says. ‘But there are four of us so we can share responsibilities. We each shadow six government departments.” Berry’s portfolio covers crime and policing, justice, transport, work and pensions, culture, media and sport and democratic standards. “We absolutely have to be ready if an issue comes up. There are some issues where if a Green isn’t in the chamber asking a question, that question won’t be asked.

    ‘There are four of us so we can share responsibilities’: from left, Siân Berry, Carla Denyer, Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns. Photograph: Ian West/PA

    …

    Most of all, Berry longs to see strong action on climate. “The climate situation is awful. A two degree rise is within sight. We are on a knife-edge of whether we can protect this ecosystem. It’s our only home.”

    Original article at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/dec/30/zack-is-a-phenomenal-leader-sian-berry-on-the-green-partys-next-steps-as-membership-doubles

    Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
    Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
    Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
    Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.

  • Scrapping juries risks ‘damaging politicisation’ say Greens

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    Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.
    Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Responding to the announcement from the Justice Secretary, David Lammy, that jury trials in England and Wales for crimes that carry a likely sentence of less than three years are set to be scrapped, Green Party MP, Siân Berry, said:

    “The focus on victims’ rights is appreciated, but this Labour Government is taking the wrong steps to try to serve us better, and laying the groundwork for further crackdowns on dissent, whistleblowing and protest if it removes juries from so many charges that have state or corporate victims.

    “Juries are also a safeguard against creeping bias and discrimination. Judges are not currently representative of our wider communities and, under these plans, individual decisions will be at risk of damaging politicisation, while individual judges who are women or from minoritised communities risk attacks from the far right.

    “More than fifteen years of continuing austerity has caused a backlog in the courts, not juries. Instead of dismantling a centuries-old fundamental legal right, the Government must reverse the neglect and cuts that created this mess in the first place.”

  • Greens react to proposals to scrap jury trials

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    UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government's support for Israel's Gaza genocide and the UK government and military's active participation in genocide.
    UK Justice Secretary and formerly Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.
    Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.
    Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry. Image by Kelly Hill, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Reacting to proposals from the Justice Secretary, David Lammy, to massively restrict the right to a jury trial, Green MP Siân Berry said:

    “This is yet another assault on our rights from an increasingly authoritarian government. This proposal would scrap a fundamental cornerstone of our justice system which has been in place for 800 years. 

    “For David Lammy to describe the right to trial by jury as ‘not a right’ is a disgrace. The Government must fund our justice system properly – not make people pay for Labour and Conservative austerity with their fundamental rights. The Green Party will fight these proposals all the way.”