Jonathan Bartley

Jonathan Bartley
Conservative (circa 1995)
Green Party of England and Wales (present) candidate for
UK General Election 2015
Election date
May 7, 2015
Personal details
Born (1971-10-16) October 16, 1971
London, United Kingdom
Political party Conservative (circa 1995)
Green Party of England and Wales (present)
Occupation Political activist
Website JonathanBartley.London

Jonathan Bartley (born London, 16 October 1971) is an English politician and member of the Green Party of England and Wales. He is the Green Party's national Work and Pensions spokesperson[1] and was the party's Parliamentary candidate for Streatham in the 2015 general election.[2]

Bartley is the founder and co-director of Ekklesia,[3] an independent, Christian think tank based in London, appearing regularly on UK radio and television programmes. He is a member of the blues rock band The Mustangs and lives in Streatham, South London.[4]

Biography

After graduating from the London School of Economics (1994), he worked at the UK Parliament as a researcher and parliamentary assistant for a number of years, and was part of John Major's campaign team in the 1995 Conservative Party leadership election against John Redwood.[5] He founded Ekklesia, a think-tank which "works to promote radical theological ideas in public life" in 2002.[6]

Broadcasting

He is a regular contributor to BBC One's The Big Questions, BBC Radio 4's 'Thought for the Day' and ITV1's 'The Moral of the Story', and is a columnist for The Church Times. He has been a guest on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze and has written for The Guardian newspaper.

Public theology

Bartley has lectured in Theology and Politics at Sarum College in Salisbury, has served on the Church of England Evangelical Council, and is a regular speaker at the Greenbelt Christian festival. He is a supporter of Christian Peacemaker Teams, a pacifist organisation, and acts as press officer on their behalf in the UK.

Bartley has spoken publicly in defence of Dr Jeffrey John's attack on penal substitutionary atonement. He defends the full participation of gay and lesbian people in the church as an outworking of the Christian gospel.

His theological perspective is shaped by a commitment to Christian nonviolence.

David Cameron incident

On 27 April 2010 whilst Bartley was waiting to attend a hospital appointment at the Evelina Children's Hospital with his son Samuel, a Conservative party official asked if he would like to meet Conservative Party leader David Cameron.[7][8] Bartley agreed and party officials then brought the Conservative leader over the meet them, on his way to a car after a General Election campaign event in South London.

Mr Bartley claimed Conservative manifesto plans would increase the segregation of disabled children as it pledged to "end the bias towards the inclusion of children with special needs in mainstream schools.".[8] Referring to his own two-year battle to get his son into a mainstream school[9] Bartley also asked why the Conservative manifesto didn't say that the Conservatives wanted to encourage children into mainstream schools. David Cameron said "It absolutely does say that sir, I promise you.[10] After the event Channel 4 FactCheck said that David Cameron had been wrong.[10]

The Daily Telegraph pointed out that Bartley had been on the Moral Maze and was a regular commentator in the media.[11] Bartley said he was a 'floating voter', that he felt let down by the main parties and criticised the Labour Government over the issues of inclusion.[12] He wrote three days later about why he believed Jesus would not vote for any of the three main political parties in the UK.[13] He subsequently joined the Green Party of England and Wales.[14]

Green Party activity

Bartley is currently a member of the Green Party of England and Wales. He sought to be the party's candidate in the 2016 election for Mayor of London,[15] but was unsuccessful. He is on the party's list of candidates for the London Assembly elections held at the same time.

Books

References

  1. ↑ Green Party Spokespeople, Green Party of England and Wales
  2. ↑ Streatham Parliamentary Candidates, Lambeth Council
  3. ↑ "Jonathan Bartley". London: Guardian. 20 October 2008. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  4. ↑ "Jonathan Bartley". New Statesman. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  5. ↑ David Cameron heckled by parent over special education, The Guardian
  6. ↑ About Ekklesia, Ekklesia (think tank)
  7. ↑ Jonathan Bartley (28 April 2010). "Why I 'ambushed' David Cameron over special-needs schooling". London: Guardian. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  8. 1 2 "David Cameron tackled over special needs in schools". BBC News. 27 April 2010. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  9. ↑ Bartley, Jonathan (28 April 2010). "General Election 2010: my fight to get my disabled son into a mainstream school". London: Telegraph. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  10. 1 2 Lewis Hannam. "The FactCheck Blog – Do Tories encourage special needs children in mainstream schools?". Blogs.channel4.com. Archived from the original on 1 May 2010. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  11. ↑ Preston, Richard (28 April 2010). "Doh! No wonder Cameron's heckler wouldn't let go – he's been on the Moral Maze – Telegraph Blogs". London: Blogs.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  12. ↑ "Father reflects on Cameron encounter". BBC News. 27 April 2010. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  13. ↑ Twiston, Bess. "Faith Central – Times Online – WBLG: Would Jesus vote 'other'??". Timesonline.typepad.com. Archived from the original on 3 May 2010. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  14. ↑ Bartley, Jonathan (27 January 2012). "Capitalism only creates misery – we need a system that puts human wellbeing first". The Guardian (London).
  15. ↑ Jonathan Bartley of Streatham Green Party Puts Name Forward to be London Mayoral Candidate, Brixton Buzz

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 30, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.