Yesterday, Ali intimated he felt Sian Berry, Green candidate for London Mayor, had no policies outside of environmental issues. Actually, his words were:

“Sian Berry’s Green gang have a sensible little set of policies, but they are decidedly narrow-minded. I want a mayor who wants to run London, not just its airspace and green fields.”

This isn’t entirely fair. A brief glance at her campaign website or her blog will demonstrate otherwise. While (as you’d expect of a Green Party candidate) there is a heavy green tinge to her manifesto, a large part of it is concerned with social justice and other policy areas. Thus:

“People who think social justice and poverty are not ‘Green issues’ are wrong. You can’t have one without the other - a Green London is a more affordable London.”

Often, her policies attempt to challenge social problems through green solutions - certainly novel, and expanding the manifesto beyond “airspace and green fields.” Take, for example, her stance on insulation. Berry would, “roll out a massive programme to give free insulation to every home in London.”

The logic behind this is twofold. 40% of carbon dioxide emissions come from energy lost from homes. First off, this is bad for the environment, and so Berry, as a Green, wishes to reduce the amount. By providing insulation for all homes, she would ensure that this happened.

At the same time, it is often poorer households which suffer from heavy heatloss. Unable to afford proper insulation, lower-income families tend to have to devote larger proportions of their incomes to heating their houses - either that, or they simply get cold. Berry thus also addresses a social justice issue, fuel poverty, with this policy as well.

Meanwhile, others of Berry’s policies have, as far as I can tell, no enviornmental content, but much in terms of social justice. From her list of plans for a, “greener, more affordable London”:

Increase the affordable housing requirement in the London Plan to 60%.

All public employers to pay a living wage of at least £7.20 and robust pressure to be put on private employers to match this.

Student discount on public transport extended to pay-as-you-go.

Demand the write-off of housing debt so London can get building social housing again.

Affordable business premises for local businesses in all new large retail developments.

I don’t detect a single environmental policy - what I presume Ali was referring to with “airspace and green fields” - in that section of the list. It’s all social justice related - often to the left of Labour.

If I had a vote in this election (which, despite being a politically aware Londoner, I don’t, being some two weeks too young…) she’d get my second preference, I suspect.

Actually, while we’re on the Green candidate, the same can probably be said of the party on the whole. Of course, they have a heavy environmental bias. They are a Green party, they believe green issues to be the most currently pressing, and were founded to combat them.

But in they are also a socially liberal, centre-left, democratic party with distinctly socialist leanings - and who, for me at least, form an increasingly preferable alternative to the Lib Dems as a left-wing alternative to Labour. A short list of some of their policies that usually don’t make the headlines includes:

• The decriminalisation, then legalisation, of drugs for recreational purposes.
• The “democratisation” of the banking system with the creation of a “network of publicly owned community banks.”
• The creation of a “Citizen’s Dividend”; that is, an unconditional, non means-tested, weekly payment made to every citizen whether they are working or not. This would replace benefits such as Job Seeker’s Allowance, as well as replacing personal tax-free allowances, and attempt to eliminate the “Poverty Trap.”
• Increased income tax and progressive corporation tax.
• Increased trade union rights and renationalisation of the railways
• Removal of the monarchy from the constitution, PR and an elected House of Lords.

See what I mean?

Sian Berry, and the Greens in general, are always going to care more about environmental issues than anything else when it comes to politics. It’s why the party was founded, it’s why (most of) its members join. But to claim that they’re concerned only with, “airspaces and green fields” - or whichever trite phrases a commentator might chose to dismiss them with - is both unfair and grossly ignorant.