The Green party welcomes new members from all walks of life and it is becoming all the more common for people to join us after being members of other political parties. One of our newest members of the Swansea and Gower Green party, Peter Jones, was formerly one of the Labour councillors for Sketty ward. Peter resigned his position before the last council election in 2022 in protest at Labours failure to take the climate crisis seriously, and decided to join the Greens. We caught up with Peter to find out more:
Tell us a bit about your background
I am 74 years of age, married to Patricia – a citizen of Colombia – since 1979; we have two adult children and two grandchildren, ages 10 and 7. My principal private activities are reading – politics, histories and novels – and gardening, together with walking; I used to run – completed the Great North Run a few years ago, together with other half-marathons and 10k’s – but my knees now prevent this!
I grew up in Swindon, Wiltshire, where I attended a state comprehensive secondary school. Subsequently, I studied at the University of Southampton, obtaining in 1969 a First-class Honours degree in Politics and International Studies. Following this, I spent a number of years researching both Chinese and Russian Communist politics for a PhD but sadly, for various reasons, was unable to complete.
I worked in university administration from 1973 to 2001 – Reading and Leicester Universities – including a three-year secondment to the Universities Funding Council, where I designed and delivered the 1989 Universities Research Assessment Exercise (over one million piecesof paper!).
We moved to Swansea, my father’s hometown, in 2001, and from 2002 to 2016 I worked for RSPB Cymru, based in Cardiff, in the newly created post of Environment Policy Officer. My remit was to focus on the causes and consequences of global climate change, with a particular focus on wildlife impacts in Wales. During this time, I contributed to the thinking behind and wording for the Welsh Government’s first Climate Change Strategy, published in 2010; the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act, published in 2015; and the Environment (Wales) Act, published in 2016. I also served for seven years as a member of the WG Sustainable Development Commission, under the Chairmanship of Jane Davidson.
From May 2017 to May 2022, I was one of five elected Councillors for Sketty Ward, having topped the poll and focused in my campaigning on green issues, especially biodiversity and green space. As the only elected Labour Councillor for the ward, I learned to cooperate on matters of shared ward concern with two Lib-Dem and two Conservative representatives, which, somewhat to my surprise, proved remarkably easy.
On a positive policy level, I am a strong advocate of electoral proportional representation for the HoC; a strong believer in the necessity for UK membership of the EU; an opponent of the possession and use of both nuclear weapons and nuclear energy; and, of course, a strong advocate of tackling both the climate and biodiversity catastrophes, which threaten to overwhelm all life on the planet.
What first got you interested in politics?
It can be seen from all of the above that politics has been my central interest – I can recall from 1956 both the Suez ‘crisis’ and the Soviet Russian suppression of Hungary’s bid for freedom as my political ‘awakening’ at the age of eight. I joined the Labour Party in March1966 and was an enthusiastic admirer and supporter of Harold Wilson. In the 1970s and 1980s, I chaired my constituency Labour Party in Reading, and from 1981 to 1985 was an elected Labour member of Berkshire County Council. I would define my politics as ‘green social-democrat’.
You previously served as Labour coucillor for Sketty ward – what were your proudest acheivements in that time?
My proudest achievements as a Councillor were: persuading the Council to adopt a new sixth wellbeing objective into its Corporate Plan, to provide for Natural Resources and Biodiversity (2018); setting up and conducting a successful Scrutiny Inquiry into the Council’s management of its environmental responsibilities (2018-2019); setting up and chairing thesubsequent Scrutiny Panel for the Natural Environment (2019 onwards); and helping to draft and subsequently move Council motions declaring respectively, a climate emergency (2019) and a Biodiversity emergency (2021). I believe that I succeeded in bringing the climate and green policy agendas to the fore of Council thinking and priorities.
What made you decide to stand down as a Labour councillor and join the Green party?
I resigned from the Labour Party in July of last year and subsequently, of course, joined the Greens. This decision was for a number of reasons. I found that some members of the Swansea Council Labour Group were unreceptive of my green thinking, including more than a small number who were frankly unpleasant and even obstructive (unlike the Lib-Dems,incidentally).
Swansea council previously declared a climate emergency. Do you think they are taking enough action to follow through with this? Is there any more they could be doing?
The current Swansea Council Labour administration is endeavouring toaddress both climate and biodiversity issues that come within its scope, notably with its housing policy, electrification of Council vehicles and with greening the city centre. However, the measures so far taken only scratch at the surface of what is truly needed and much more, in particular, is needed to address biodiversity maintenance and enhancement; air quality improvement, especially outside of schools; and retrospective housing insulation, including for the private sector. Of course, finance and public awareness and willingness to comply remain significant obstacles. Much more could and should be done to raise public awareness, and the Council should stop treating the environment as an optional add-on for finance and personnel.
Tell us one thing the people of Swansea can do today to help in the fight against climate change?
There is much that the citizens of Swansea and beyond can do for themselves: reduced car use, and instead cycling, walking and/or using buses; gardening for wildlife, especially insects and birds, and growing vegetable plants for domestic consumption; reducing/ending consumption of meat and fish products; reducing home energy consumption; using rail rather than air transport for European trips; exercising more; reducing alcohol consumption; buying second-hand clothes and passing on unwanted clothes; the list is endless!
At the 2020 autumn conference, the Green Party of Wales elected to campaign for Welsh independence in the event of a referendum. How do you feel about Wales’ position as a part of the UK?
I am undecided about the case for an independent Wales: I do not sense that Wales has sufficient identity as a nation, unlike both Scotland and Ireland. The economic basis for an independent Wales is also unclear to me, although the potential for generating electricity from renewable energy sources, especially wind – both on- and off-shore – and tidal is stilllargely untapped and considerable. Ahead of the independence option, I would prefer to see electoral reform for Westminster and with it an end to perpetual UK far-right Tory government. I sense, of course, that support for an independent Wales at present is born from an understandable desire to get away from English Tory governments.
And finally, what is your favourite thing to do on a day out in Swansea?
I like Swansea for its beaches and for the Gower, but I wish that some of its life-long residents were less parochial!
Thanks for your time Peter, and welcome to the Greens!