Jennifer Helen Jones, Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb, (born 23 December 1949) is a British politician who served as
Deputy Mayor of London
A Deputy Mayor is a member of the London Mayoral cabinet, in the executive arm of the Greater London Authority. They serve as political advisors with responsibilities and powers corresponding to portfolios delegated by the Mayor. One of them mu ...
from 2003 to 2004. A member of the
Green Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW; cy, Plaid Werdd Cymru a Lloegr, kw, Party Gwer Pow an Sowson ha Kembra, often simply the Green Party or Greens) is a green, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla ...
, she was until September 2019 the sole Green Party member in the House of Lords.
Jones represented the Green Party in the
London Assembly
The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject ...
from its creation in 2000 until standing down in 2016. She was the Green candidate for
Mayor of London
The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...
in the
2012 election, coming third with 4.48% of first preferences. She served as
Deputy Mayor of London
A Deputy Mayor is a member of the London Mayoral cabinet, in the executive arm of the Greater London Authority. They serve as political advisors with responsibilities and powers corresponding to portfolios delegated by the Mayor. One of them mu ...
from May 2003 to June 2004. She was also the sole Green councillor on
Southwark Council
Southwark London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London.
History
There have previously been a numbe ...
from 2006 to 2010.
''Southwark Greens'' Stop paying council cleaners poverty wages.
On the London Assembly, Jones's prime areas of interest were transport, housing and planning, and policing, "with a strong emphasis on sustainability and localism".
[ In addition to her period as deputy mayor, Jones served as Chair of London Food, Green Transport Advisor, and Road Safety Ambassador.] It was announced at the beginning of August 2013 that she was to become the first Green life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...
in the House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
since Tim Beaumont
Timothy Wentworth Beaumont, Baron Beaumont of Whitley (22 November 1928 – 8 April 2008) was a British politician and an Anglican priest. He was politically active, successively, in the Liberal Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party ...
. She was introduced to the House of Lords on 5 November 2013.["Introductions"](_blank)
''Democracy Live'' (House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
; published by the BBC), 5 November 2013
"Introduction: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb – in the House of Lords at 2:38 pm on 5th November 2013."
''They Work For You''. 5 November 2013.
Early life and career
Jones mainly grew up on the Moulsecoomb
Moulsecoomb () is a suburb of Brighton, Sussex, England, on the northeast side around Lewes Road, between Coldean and Bevendean, north of the seafront. The eastern edge adjoins Falmer Hill on the South Downs. It is often divided into smalle ...
estate in Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
, with brief periods of time abroad in Lesotho
Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...
and Seychelles
Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...
. She attended the co-educational Westlain Grammar School (now Falmer High School
Falmer High School was a community mixed-sex non-denominational comprehensive school for pupils aged 11 to 16 in Brighton, East Sussex, England. It closed on 31 August 2010 and was replaced by Brighton Aldridge Community Academy on the same ...
). Before entering politics, Jones worked as a financial controller
A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level execut ...
in London. She studied environmental archaeology
Environmental archaeology is a sub-field of archaeology which emerged in 1970s and is the science of reconstructing the relationships between past societies and the environments they lived in. The field represents an archaeological-palaeoecologica ...
at the Institute of Archaeology as a mature student
An adult learner or, more commonly, a mature student, is a person who is older and is involved in forms of learning. Adult learners fall in a specific criterion of being experienced, and do not always have a high school diploma. Many of the adult ...
, graduating with a Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
(BSc) degree in 1991. She spent approximately 10 years as an archaeologist in the Middle East, studying carbonised plant remains, before embarking on a career in politics.[
]
Political career
Jones joined the Green Party (UK)
The Green Party, also known as the Green Party UK, was a Green political party in the United Kingdom.
Prior to 1985 it was called the Ecology Party, and before that PEOPLE. In 1990, it separated into three political parties:
* the Green Par ...
in 1988, which splintered two years later into three devolved parties, one of which is the Green Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW; cy, Plaid Werdd Cymru a Lloegr, kw, Party Gwer Pow an Sowson ha Kembra, often simply the Green Party or Greens) is a green, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla ...
. She has held several posts within the party, including the position of chair on the executive from 1995 to 1997.[
]
London Assembly member
In the 2000 election, Jones won a place in the inaugural London Assembly
The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject ...
as part of a three-strong Green Group, including Councillor 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 saw the Greens lose the seat held by Lynch, leaving Jones and Johnson as the two remaining members of the Green Group.
In May 2003, the Green Party, after some internal dissent, accepted an offer from the Mayor of London
The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...
, Ken Livingstone, to nominate a deputy mayor
The deputy mayor (also known as vice mayor, assistant mayor, or mayor ''pro tem'') is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official that is present in many, but not all, local governments.
Duties and functions
Many elected dep ...
; they chose Jones, who held the post until June 2004. 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
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
and had an offer to the Liberal Democrats turned down.
As a London Assembly Member, Jenny Jones promoted the issues of road safety
Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, horse riders, and passengers of on-roa ...
, food, sustainable transport
Sustainable transport refers to ways of transportation that are sustainable in terms of their social and environmental impacts. Components for evaluating sustainability include the particular vehicles used for road, water or air transport; th ...
, social justice and the police and civil liberties.
She was a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority
The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) (2000–2012) was the local police authority responsible for scrutinising and supporting the work of the Metropolitan Police Service, the police force for Greater London (excluding the City of London Polic ...
,[ and has issued a report on traffic policing.] She sat on both the MPA's Strategic and Operational Policing Committee and Civil Liberties Panel.[Strategic Operational Policing Committee](_blank)
, part of the Metropolitan Police Authority Elsewhere she 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
Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), are violent acts primarily or exclusively committed against women or girls, usually by men or boys. Such violence is often consi ...
and support provision.
Jones chaired the Planning and Housing Committee, which issued a 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
Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on af ...
in London, which determined that "the cost of buying a home n London
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
has risen twice as fast as incomes".
She was also a member of the Confirmation Hearings and Transport Committees.[
She previously held roles as the Mayor's Road Safety Ambassador and Green Transport advisor,][ focusing on road safety and cycling in London][''The Independent'', 4 September 2007 ''Stop Your Engines With the Bike Rental Scheme''](_blank)
/ref> 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
Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross.
Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This e ...
ward in the London Borough of Southwark
The London Borough of Southwark ( ) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas ...
, the Greens' first councillor in Southwark.[ She came third in the ward, polling 1014 votes.][Southwark Council , Your Council , Your Vote , Results of Borough Council Elections 4 May 2006 , Local Election Results 2006]
In the 2010 elections she lost her seat, coming fifth with 1282 votes.
Parliamentary candidate
In the 2005 general election, Jones stood in the Dulwich and West Norwood
Dulwich and West Norwood is a constituency in South London created in 1997. It has been represented by Helen Hayes of Labour since her election in 2015.
In the 2016 EU referendum
The United Kingdom European Union membership referend ...
parliamentary constituency, coming fourth with 2,741 votes (6.5%).
In the 2010 general election, she stood in the Camberwell and Peckham
Camberwell and Peckham is a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since its 1997 creation ...
parliamentary constituency, coming fourth with 1,361 votes (2.9%).
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 against prominent Green Party members Dr Shahrar Ali and Farid Bakht, 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."
At the election, she came third with 98,913 first preference votes (4.5%), but lost her deposit due to scoring less than 5% of the vote.
House of Lords
On 20 September 2013, Jones was created a Life Peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...
taking the title Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb, of Moulsecoomb
Moulsecoomb () is a suburb of Brighton, Sussex, England, on the northeast side around Lewes Road, between Coldean and Bevendean, north of the seafront. The eastern edge adjoins Falmer Hill on the South Downs. It is often divided into smalle ...
in the County of East Sussex
East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...
. She was nominated for this appointment by her party after a ballot of members. She was introduced to the House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
on 5 November 2013. She became the first Green Party peer since the death of Tim Beaumont
Timothy Wentworth Beaumont, Baron Beaumont of Whitley (22 November 1928 – 8 April 2008) was a British politician and an Anglican priest. He was politically active, successively, in the Liberal Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party ...
, in 2008. Jones was joined in the House of Lords by Natalie Bennett, Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle, in October 2019.
Political views
Climate and ecological crisis
On 17 November 2018, Jones joined the demonstration organised in London by Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk o ...
. She told ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' that "We are at the point where if we don’t start acting and acting fast we are just going to wipe out our life support system" and that "Basically, conventional politics has failed us – it’s even failed me and I’m part of the system – so people have no other choice".[
]
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". 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
Svenska Handelsbanken AB is a Swedish bank providing banking services including traditional corporate transactions, investment banking and trading as well as consumer banking including insurance. Handelsbanken is one of the major banks in Sweden ...
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.]
The European Union and Brexit
Jones is a Eurosceptic and advocated the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
. Jones cited lack of democracy, waste and cost as her reasons for supporting Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
. In October 2015, Jones gave her support to Vote Leave
Vote Leave was a campaigning organisation that supported a "Leave" vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. On 13 April 2016 it was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign in favour of leav ...
, an organisation campaigning to leave the European Union in the referendum in the UK. Jones cited the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) was a proposed trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, with the aim of promoting trade and multilateral economic growth. According to Karel de Gucht, European ...
and EU policies of austerity
Austerity is a set of political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three primary types of austerity measures: higher taxes to fund spend ...
as part of a measure to deal with Greece's national debt imposed by the European troika
The troika is a term used to refer to the single decision group created by three entities, the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It was formed in the aftermath of the European de ...
as reasons to support Brexit. She also argued that 'the EU exists on too large a scale for genuine democratic oversight and accountability. The Green party believes that small is beautiful – and the EU is gigantist in its very nature.'
However, on BBC Radio 4's ''Any Questions
''Any Questions?'' is a British topical discussion programme "in which a panel of personalities from the worlds of politics, media, and elsewhere are posed questions by the audience".
It is typically broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Fridays at 8 ...
'' on 8 June 2022, the Baroness argued that Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
had now been seen to be causing economic and other damage, and that people should keep an open mind about the possibility of rejoining the EU in the future if it becomes clear that it would be better going forward for the people of the UK to do s
Fair Pay ratio
Jones and the Green Party, alongside others, are deeply critical of the inequalities in the pay between the rich people and poor people.[ Jones supports calls by the ]New Economics Foundation
The New Economics Foundation (NEF) is a British think-tank that promotes "social, economic and environmental justice".
NEF was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit (TOES) with the aim of working for a "new model of wealth ...
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
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
, Transport for London, the fire brigade
A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...
and the police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). 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."]
Gender issues
Jones's views on gender issues have sometimes attracted media attention for differing from the Green Party's line. She claims that she supports trans rights, but does not support self-identification of gender and, in March 2018, re-tweeted a statement that linked self-identification to cases of child abuse in Telford. In the same year, Jones claims that her crowdfunder leaflets were defaced with "TERF" at the Green Party conference.
At the 2021 Conference, Jones spoke in favour of a motion in favour of sex-based rights (Motion E01), which argued that women were discriminated against "solely upon their biological sex". This motion was defeated, following criticism that the motion excluded trans women.
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
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by international organizations such as the World Bank ...
(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".][
]
Housing
Jones sees tackling homelessness as a key and achievable target and criticised Johnson's poor record: "This rise in homelessness is unsurprising and depressing, but completely avoidable. One fifth of people became homeless just because their insecure tenancy ended, another fifth because they have had to move out of their parents’ home into the incredibly expensive rental market. With housing benefit cuts now biting deep into people's incomes, this is only going to get worse." Jones proposes to "bring all grants for pan-London homelessness services into the GLA to protect frontline services, and work closely with homelessness organisations to ensure nobody needs to spend a second night out sleeping rough on the street."
In her campaign for mayor, Jones has spoken against the inflationary effects of certain businesses, stating, "we want to change the housing market from a playground for speculative investment to a source of secure, affordable homes". Jones has spoken in favour of community engagement in planning, specifically with regards to housing co-operatives.[ To help co-operatives develop, she proposes to "establish the London Mutual Housing Company to help communities set-up Community Land Trusts, which will give them control over the design, development and management of permanently affordable homes."][ In addition to this, she proposes a scheme to build affordable homes and to give communities the means to bring unused buildings back into use.][ For the Greens fuel poverty is a big issue and "Green London Assembly Members worked to secure the city's largest home insulation programme and demonstrated how it could be funded to reach over a million homes."]
Male curfew proposal
On 11 March 2021, following the disappearance of Sarah Everard
On the evening of 3 March 2021, 33-year-old Sarah Everard was kidnapped in South London, England, as she was walking home to the Brixton Hill area from a friend's house near Clapham Common. She was stopped by off-duty Metropolitan Police office ...
, Jones proposed that a 6pm curfew
A curfew is a government order specifying a time during which certain regulations apply. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to ''not'' be in public places or on roads within a certain time frame, typically in the evening and ...
for men is put in place. In her opinion this will help to make women feel safer and also reduce discrimination
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
. Jones' proposals received criticism from the Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
leader in the London Assembly
The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject ...
Susan Hall
Susan Mary Hall is a British Conservative Party politician who has been a Member of the London Assembly (AM) for Londonwide since 2017. She has been the leader of the London Conservatives on the Assembly since December 2019.
Political career ...
, and former leader of Reform UK
Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded with support from Nigel Farage in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating hard Euroscepticism and a no-deal Brexit, and was briefly a significant p ...
, Nigel Farage
Nigel Paul Farage (; born 3 April 1964) is a British broadcaster and former politician who was List of UK Independence Party leaders, Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016 and Brexit Party#Leaders, Lea ...
. Jones later said that the comment was "not an entirely serious suggestion as I don't have the power to do that" and reiterated that a ban on men leaving their house was not Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
policy.
Police
Jones was a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority
The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) (2000–2012) was the local police authority responsible for scrutinising and supporting the work of the Metropolitan Police Service, the police force for Greater London (excluding the City of London Polic ...
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 what she called mayor Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
's demonisation of youth through the use of "baseless" rhetoric on "soaring gang-membership and rising knife-crime", suggesting the mayor created an unhelpful climate of fear. Jones then served 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
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
leader, Caroline Lucas MP co-authored an article in ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', arguing that all cuts to policing should be postponed until December 2012 when a sufficient review of the events has occurred 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 students 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".
In June 2014, Jones penned an editorial in ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' wherein she criticised the surveillance tactics of police on activists. After going through the process now available through the Data Protection Act to get the police report on herself, she found that she was labelled a potential "domestic extremist". She found that the report contained only publicly available information, such as tweets, and that nothing in it would suggest potentially dangerous activity. Jones has been under surveillance by the police's "domestic extremism" unit from 2001 until 2012, including the time during her attempt to become London's mayor. She viewed the revelation as both a violation of her privacy and a waste of police resources. She is now calling for a re-evaluation of police policies, especially in regards to political activists.
In January 2016, whistleblower
A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
Sgt SGT may refer to
* Sergeant, a rank in many uniformed organizations
* Scotland's Great Trails
* Singapore Standard Time
Singapore Standard Time (SST), also known as Singapore Time (SGT), is used in Singapore and is 8 hours ahead of UTC (UTC+ ...
David Williams claimed that the police's "domestic extremism" unit shredded
Shredding, shred, shredder, or shredders may refer to:
Equipment
* Industrial shredder
* Paper shredder
* Scrap metal shredder
* Woodchipper, or tree shredder
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Shred'' (film), a 2008 film by David Mitche ...
records "related to" Jones in June 2014, the month Jones met with the unit pressing for answers.
Transport
Jones commissioned the initial Transport for London report into promoting cycling that paved the way for the London Cycle-hire scheme.[ Ashok Sinha, Chief executive of the ]London Cycling Campaign
The London Cycling Campaign (LCC) is an independent membership charity lobbying for better conditions for cycling in London. Its vision is to make London "a world-class cycling city". It is one of the largest urban cycling organisations in th ...
, 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:]
Johnson's advisor wrote to Jones claiming there had been:
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 Boris 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 buses hybrid
Hybrid may refer to:
Science
* Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding
** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species
** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...
by 2012 when in reality less than 10% had met this criterion. Jones wishes for a reduction in the burden for Londoners felt by Johnson's price increases and proposes a reduction in fares of about 4%. Jones supported the congestion charge as a way to lower pollution and road casualties and spoke against the mayor's cancellation of the Western extension, arguing that it made London dirtier, more crowded and less safe. Jones favours replacing the congestion charge with a "smart, pay-as-you drive scheme". Jones has also called for more people to use public transport and to reduce "non-essential" journeys, but has been criticised for frequently taking taxi journeys on expenses. Jones opposes High Speed 2
High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...
and states that its budget should be spent on local transport.
References
External links
Jenny Jones' official website
"Green Party’s Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb to be introduced into Second Chamber"
5 November 2013
*
Jenny Jones, Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
Jenny Jones' "Green Leaves" campaign against membership of the European Union
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Jenny
1949 births
Living people
Politicians from Brighton and Hove
Councillors in the London Borough of Southwark
English environmentalists
British Eurosceptics
Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II
Alumni of the UCL Institute of Archaeology
People associated with the UCL Institute of Archaeology
Green Party Members of the London Assembly
Green Party of England and Wales life peers
British women archaeologists
Green Party of England and Wales councillors
Green Party of England and Wales parliamentary candidates
Leaders of political parties in the United Kingdom
Women councillors in England