Green Party

Zack Polanski Has Started a Fight in the Green Party, and That’s a Good Thing

Spread the love

https://novaramedia.com/2025/08/18/zack-polanski-has-started-a-fight-in-the-green-party-and-thats-a-good-thing

Green party deputy leader Zack Polanski speaks at a protest in London, September 2023. Vuk Valcic/Reuters

No more Mr Nice Guy.

The Green party leadership contest, which began in May with deputy leader Zack Polanski announcing he was contesting the top job, is rumbling to an end. Most observers agree that Polanski will win on 2 September. Whatever happens, he will have transformed his party in the process, turning a slow-moving, conflict-avoidant political vehicle into a battleground of ideas.

This has unquestionably been a bruising leadership campaign. Things got off to a testy start, with Polanski’s rivals Ellie Chowns and the incumbent Adrian Ramsay insinuating that Polanski’s leadership bid was an ambush (responding to this, Polanski told Novara Media: “I think people need to be careful that there’s not an entitlement that they deserve to always hand the leadership to the next person waiting”). One anonymous senior party member accused Polanski of launching a “hostile takeover” – quite an allegation against the current deputy leader. Ramsay suggested that Polanski didn’t know how to win elections, an accusation Polanski described as “rude and disrespectful”. Pressed by LBC’s Iain Dale on whether or not he liked Polanski (with Polanski sitting right in front of him), Ramsay struggled to answer. In the Guardian, Chowns criticised Polanski for being “polarising”. Though generally avoiding bad-mouthing his rivals, Polanski has offered occasional barbs of his own, implicitly accusing his rivals of “briefcase politics”.

Some in the party see all of this as embarrassing or even divisive and damaging. But this squeamishness about internal conflict is a mistake. In fact, having a barney has been great for the Greens.

Firstly, for shallow reasons: it has generated a hell of a lot of media attention. In fact I’m not sure the Green Party has ever had so much coverage, particularly from the mainstream media. The Greens’ obsessive niceness has historically made the party boring to journalists. Polanski – the charismatic outsider running against the party establishment – is TV gold, and clips of his broadcast appearances do not infrequently go viral. Unsurprisingly, multiple broadcasters have held leadership hustings. The Today Programme aired a debate between Ramsay and Polanski in a slot usually reserved for grilling government ministers. National newspapers like the FT, the Times and the Telegraph have been forced to stop ignoring the party.

This media coverage has ratcheted up interest in the party among the wider public. July 2025 saw more Google searches for “the Green party” from UK users than any month in the previous 20 years. Meanwhile, the party’s membership has surged: while we won’t know exactly how much until the end of the contest, my educated guess based on information leaked to me from regional officers is that it’s passed 70,000. For a party that’s heavily reliant on member subs for its income (unlike the Tories and Labour, who have big donors and unions to fall back on), membership growth is likely to significantly increase the party’s resources and therefore its activities, likely leading directly to electoral gains.

…

Article continues at https://novaramedia.com/2025/08/18/zack-polanski-has-started-a-fight-in-the-green-party-and-thats-a-good-thing

Continue ReadingZack Polanski Has Started a Fight in the Green Party, and That’s a Good Thing

One in five Britons would consider voting for a new left-wing party, rising to one in three young people and Labour voters

Spread the love

https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/one-five-britons-would-consider-voting-new-left-wing-party-rising-one-three-young-people-and-labour

A new Ipsos in the UK poll reveals that the left-wing political party recently founded by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and MP Zarah Sultana could capture a significant segment of the British electorate, particularly among younger voters and those who supported the Labour and Green parties in the 2024 General Election. 

Overall, 20% of British adults say they would be ‘very’ or ‘fairly likely’ to consider voting for a new left-wing party. This figure, however, masks a sharp generational divide. A third (33%) of those aged 16-34 would consider voting for the new party, a figure that drops to 22% among 35-54s and just 9% among those aged 55 and over. 

The potential for this new party to disrupt the existing political landscape is most evident in its appeal to voters of other left-leaning parties. One-third (33%) of those who voted Labour in 2024 and 43% of 2024 Green party voters would consider lending their vote to a Corbyn-Sultana-led party.

…

Commenting on the findings, Keiran Pedley, Director of UK Politics at Ipsos said:

These figures show that a new left-wing party led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana has the potential to shake up British politics. A significant number of younger people are at least prepared to consider voting for it and a majority of those aged under 35 say they would consider voting for some kind of alliance between the new party and the Greens. Clear policies around change, the NHS, poverty and wealth taxes could be popular. Time will tell if the new party can turn this hypothetical appeal into real votes on a significant scale.

Continue ReadingOne in five Britons would consider voting for a new left-wing party, rising to one in three young people and Labour voters

Green Party councillor arrested at Palestine Action protest

Spread the love

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/25398626.norfolk-green-party-councillor-arrested-city-protest

Green Party Norwich councillor Amanda Fox gets carried away by police officers at a protest (Image: Claire Bullion)

A city councillor was among 13 people arrested during a protest supporting the banned group Palestine Action. 

Footage from the incident this weekend shows Amanda Fox, a Green Party councillor representing the Mancroft ward, being carried away by a group of about 10 officers on Saturday (August 16).

In the video, shared on social media, Ms Fox can be heard saying: “I oppose genocide, when a people is being slaughtered, it requires us to stand up against that. We cannot just stay silent.”

Ms Fox also said she was a “peaceful protestor, a Christian and a pacifist” while being searched by officers.

…

“I oppose the perversion of our legal system, by our government, to facilitate their continued complicity in genocide.”

…

Original article at https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/25398626.norfolk-green-party-councillor-arrested-city-protest

Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Vote Labour for Genocide.
Continue ReadingGreen Party councillor arrested at Palestine Action protest

Heathrow expansion is a “flightmare on Downing Street” say Greens

Spread the love
Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire. CC image Wikipedia.
Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire. CC image Wikipedia.

Responding to the release of detailed proposals for Heathrow Airport expansion, Green Party MP, Ellie Chowns, reiterated the Green Party’s opposition to airport expansion, saying,

“Heathrow Airport expansion is a flightmare on Downing Street for people and planet. On one hand, this government is saying they’re taking the climate crisis seriously, and on the other, they’re backing a project that will release a reported 4.4m tonnes of CO2 a year. These expansion plans would see the number of flights at Heathrow Airport go up to 720,000 from their current capped number of 480,000 a year.

These expansion plans are, at their heart, aimed to deliver profit for shareholders to enable a small group of people to fly more and more. In the UK we have a few frequent flyers that make up less than 3% of the UK population but take 30% of all journeys. On top of this, they seem oblivious to the impact that these plans will have on the communities currently living around Heathrow. Government must be grounded in reality and look hard at the climate science. No credible net-zero plan can include rampant airport expansion, and it’s time Labour looked to the many, many alternative ways to create high-paid green jobs.”

Continue ReadingHeathrow expansion is a “flightmare on Downing Street” say Greens

Green reaction to Starmer’s ‘bargaining chip’ on Palestinian statehood

Spread the love
Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire. CC image Wikipedia.
Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire. CC image Wikipedia.

Reacting to today’s emergency cabinet meeting on Gaza and Keir Stamer’s statement, Green Party MP, Ellie Chowns, the party’s foreign affairs spokesperson, said:

“What Starmer has said today suggests Palestinian statehood is a bargaining chip, only to be awarded if the Israeli government fails to end the genocide in Gaza and agrees to a range of other conditions such as allowing the UN to restart the supply of aid and ending annexations in the West Bank.

“While these conditions are welcome and essential steps towards a ceasefire and a peaceful solution, they must not be an alternative to recognising Palestinian statehood. This is a cynical political gesture ahead of the outcomes of the UN Conference and suggests that if Israel were to comply with the demands, Palestinian statehood would be kicked down the road again, disenfranchising the Palestinian people.

“The Green Party calls on Keir Starmer to immediately and unconditionally recognise a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution, just as Labour promised to do in their election manifesto.”

Continue ReadingGreen reaction to Starmer’s ‘bargaining chip’ on Palestinian statehood