Politics
I first got involved in politics in 2001, when I helped the Green Party with their website for the general election. I joined the party soon after and, the following May, found myself standing for Camden Council and coming within 40 votes of being elected.
I've been hugely busy at both a local and national level ever since, standing for the council, Parliament, London Mayor and Assembly, being Campaigns Co-ordinator on the national executive and spending a year as national Female Principal Speaker.
I'm not currently a member while I try out some non-party campaigning for size, but I'm still helping out with some of the party's target constituency campaigns and hoping for a historic Green breakthrough this year in the General Election.
General Election 2010
The Greens' two best chances for winning seats in Westminster are in Brighton Pavilion and Norwich South.
I've been helping both the campaigns, putting together a new website for Caroline Lucas in Brighton, and making a 'winning here' style video for Adrian Ramsay in Norwich.
See the results of my efforts and find out more about why you should vote Green in Norwich and Brighton via the links below.
Why Adrian is the best choice to beat Charles Clarke...
European elections - June 2009
In this election, the Greens had both Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert re-elected with much higher votes than in 2004, and increased their national vote by more than 40%. But they failed to gain MEPs in two more regions, the North West and the East of England, both by tiny margins.
I worked mainly for Peter Cranie in the North West, who was in a particularly important race - fighting BNP leader Nick Griffin head-to-head for the eighth and final MEP seat in the region. A separate Stop Nick Griffin website and a short YouTube video and advertising appeal helped to make the case, but in the end we were 0.3% short of the BNP's total and lost the seat to Nick Griffin.
Peter Cranie's campaign in the North West:
How the Greens can stop Nick Griffin:
Read more about our sitting MEPs:
London Mayor and Assembly campaign 2008
In the 2008 London elections I was the Green candidate for London
Mayor and number four on the party list for the London Assembly.
The campaign centred on showing that green policies also lead to a more affordable city, with lower transport fares, more affordable housing, free insulation to reduce bills and living wages for the lowest paid workers. We aimed to reach beyond the usual ‘green' issues and to increase our vote on the London Assembly, while improving on our previous seventh place in the race for Mayor.
Coming fourth behind Boris, Ken and Brian, was an excellent result - more than one in six London voters gave me one of their two votes, and my candidacy won the endorsement of both the Independent and Observer newspapers for first choice votes.
Our Assembly vote also stood up extremely well to a high turnout and a major Ken/Boris squeeze, and we increased the number of Green votes by 43,000, keeping our two Assembly Members (unlike the LibDems, who lost two of their AMs).
Press highlights:
- Independent leading article: "If newspapers had a vote, this one would put its cross beside..."
- Observer leading article: "London's unenviable choice points to Ken"
- AA Gill gives me a thrashing - not literally
- Q&A with the Guardian
- You ask the Questions in the Independent
- Campaign backed by the Federation of Small Businesses
- Influence of the Greens in London - John Vidal looks at the environment and the election
London election results in detail from London Elects
Lots of campaign videos on my videos page here too.
Campaign website: www.sianformayor.org.uk
Local politics in Camden
In 2006 I stood for the Council twice in my new home of Kentish Town ward (once in a by-election), while Highgate ward, where I was a candidate in 2002, now has a clean sweep of three Green Councillors.
As well as helping run our local effort in the 2004 London and European elections, I was press officer for Camden Greens for several years. I was also the general election candidate for Hampstead and Highgate constituency in 2005, where I retained my deposit with 5.3% of the vote.
Check out the work of the Camden Greens here:
National Green Party
I joined the Green Party national executive in 2005 as Campaigns Co-ordinator, after the party noticed my work for the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s.
A year later, Caroline Lucas suggested I stand for Female Principal Speaker while she took a year away from the role. A very exciting 12 months followed as I was thrown into the deep end of being one of two national spokespeople for the party - the closest thing we had to a leader before a party referendum changed the constitution last year.
Highlights included appearing on Question Time and several times on Newsnight, arguing our case on issues from bins to prostitution, and I also worked hard to make sure our social policies got more attention. I stepped down in September 2007 to concentrate on the London campaign.
From July to November 2008 I also worked as Press Officer in the national party office, where I organised a project to deliver new websites for the national and regional parties, in preparation for the European elections.
Press clippings:
- Election profile in Independent
- Profile in Harpers Bazaar magazine - Jan 07, and named by them as one of Britain's most influential women - Mar 07
- Channel 4 Political Slot - Feb 07 (video link)
- Keynote speech at party conference on BBC (video via link)
- Number 82 on the Indy's list of influential environmentalists - higher than Lily Cole and the Queen - phew!
- Green Party website
Me
