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Tag: Zack Polanski

  • The Green Party responds to Rosebank lobbying scandal

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    Green party leader Zack Polanski (Green Party of England and Wales). Image: Bristol Green Party Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
    Green party leader Zack Polanski (Green Party of England and Wales). Image: Bristol Green Party Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

    Shocking levels of access afforded to oil and gas representatives revealed by Scotland’s The Sunday National newspaper have been called out by Green Party leader Zack Polanski.

    Records show the main firms involved in Rosebank and Jackdaw and lobbying for it (Shell, Equinor, Ithaca, Adura and industry body OEUK) met with UK ministers 200 times between July 2024 and June 2026.

    The exposé comes as Jackdaw has been approved and the cabinet are split over whether to give the green light to the highly controversial Rosebank oil field, a decision which is expected imminently.  

    Backbench Labour MPs are said to be furious about the Chancellor’s alleged interference in the upcoming decision, with one MP saying a decision to give the go ahead to the oil drilling project would be “politically explosive.”

    It has been estimated that up to 50 Labour MPs could lose their seats to the Greens if Rosebank is given the go ahead. A new YouGov poll shows that 51% of people in the UK support laws to phase out oil and gas production.

    Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales said:  

    “This summer we saw nearly 3000 people die from extreme heat while wildfires raged across the country. This is the crucial decade for climate action – yet Labour ministers are still holding cozy meetings with oil and gas bosses with alarming frequency. 

    “Budget documents revealed the government is paving the way to greenlight Rosebank which would be catastrophic for the climate. But it’s no wonder this Labour government is making decisions that put the profits of oil and gas giants above the safety of people in this country, when they are constantly rubbing shoulders with them. 

    “The people of this country deserve better. We need to say no to new oil and gas drilling, a tightened-up windfall tax on oil and gas and an end to tax breaks for fossil fuel companies so we can stop backing climate-wrecking polluters and take real action for a safe future instead.” 

     
    The Green Party was the only major political party to condemn the Labour government’s decision to give the go ahead to the Jackdaw gas field last month.

     
    In September over 500 scientists and health professionals from across the UK wrote an open letter calling on Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh to reject Rosebank. They warned that “approval of Rosebank would be ignoring the warnings of scientific research on climate change and would be the wrong decision for the UK, sending a dangerous message on the international stage.”

    In July UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “Every new fossil fuel project approved today makes tomorrow’s heatwaves more dangerous, and our world less secure.” 

    The decision on Rosebank will also be a test of the government’s proposed sanctions on companies involved in illegal settlements in the West Bank. The FCDO has been on notice since January 2026 that greenlighting Rosebank would put it in breach of Articles 49 and 53 of the Geneva Conventions, as an estimated £235 million would end up flowing to the Delek Group, an Israeli based company that has been blacklisted by the UN.  

    Today’s revelations come days after another lobbying scandal involving AI and data centres. An investigation by Spotlight on Corruption showed the UK government met representatives of 137 different businesses about AI data centres between July 2024 and June 2026, but not a single environmental group. Chancellor John Healey announced a data centre convenant in his budget last week which, although welcomed by the industry, was condemned as insulting voluntarism by campaigners. 

    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham says ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him. He says that he's delayed the go-ahead for Jackdaw and Rosebank North Sea oil and gas extraction until after the Holborn and St. Pancras by-election - don't want democracy interfering with Capitalism.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham says ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him. He says that he’s delayed the go-ahead for Jackdaw and Rosebank North Sea oil and gas extraction until after the Holborn and St. Pancras by-election – don’t want democracy interfering with Capitalism.
    Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
    Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
    Donald Trump urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
    Donald Trump urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.

  • End tax relief for datacentres to fund energy bill support this winter, say Greens ahead of Budget

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    Green party leader Zack Polanski (Green Party of England and Wales). Image: Bristol Green Party Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
    Green party leader Zack Polanski (Green Party of England and Wales). Image: Bristol Green Party Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
    • Greens call on government to remove datacentres from full expensing tax relief scheme to bring forward an additional £5 billion in corporation tax across 2027-2029
    • They say this could be used to increase the Warm Homes Discount by up to £500 for those with highest energy needs 
    • Leader Polanski says the government should be prioritising lowering bills over handouts for big tech at Autumn Budget next week

    The Green Party has called on the government to end certain tax reliefs for datacentres and use the money to fund support for energy bills this winter, as households are expected to see bills rise by over £271 in January – the biggest jump in four years.

    The Greens say that by removing datacentres from ‘full expensing’ tax relief, the Treasury could bring forward an additional £5 billion extra in corporation tax across 2027-2029. This could be used to increase the Warm Homes Discount from £150 to up to £650 to support 5.6 million households facing a spike in their energy bills. 

    There are currently around 500 datacentres in the UK but their number is expected to expand by more than a third. Last week, the Chief Executive of Ofgem warned that datacentres could push up household energy bills even further. 

    Earlier this year the Green Party called for an immediate end to the blanket designation of new datacentres as ‘critical infrastructure’ and tighter planning rules to prevent a rash of new datacentres taking precedence over households for water and energy usage.

    Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: 

    “Right now the government is allowing big tech giants and energy-guzzling datacentres to kick their tax obligations down the road while families are being stretched to breaking point by ever-rising energy bills. 

    “This is wrong. The government’s priority at the Budget next week should be supporting families this winter as temperatures drop and bills spike. 

    “Ending full expensing tax relief for datacentres would free up £5 billion – money that could be used to fund immediate support for households struggling with their energy bills.” 

    This is part of a broader package of measures the Green Party are calling for at the Autumn Budget, which they say could raise over £60 billion to fund urgent cost of living measures. The Green Party Leadership, MPs and Peers have today written to the Chancellor laying out their full proposals, which include: 

    • Aligning rates of Capital Gains Tax with Income Tax and closing loopholes, to raise an additional £19.7 billion annually by 2030. 
    • Applying National Insurance to investment income, in line with employment income, to raise at least £6.1 billion per year.
    • Introducing an annual wealth tax of 1% on assets over £10 million, and 2% over £1 billion, to raise at least £14.8 billion. 
    • Introducing a proper windfall tax of 38% on the UK’s biggest banks, to raise at least £19 billion. 
    • Ending tax breaks to fossil fuel producers to raise £2.7 billion. 
    • Introduce a three-year emergency brake on rents and lifting the freeze on Local Housing Allowance which would cost £2 billion a year by 2030. 
    • Funding free bus travel for under 22s in England costing £1.9 billion a year.
    • Extend free school meals to all primary and secondary school children to help with food cost inflation costing around £1.5 billion per year 

  • Zack Polanski DESTROYS Israel Smear Campaign

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  • Polanski calls for bold and immediate action on the cost of living in October Budget

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    Green party leader Zack Polanski (Green Party of England and Wales). Image: Bristol Green Party Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
    Green party leader Zack Polanski (Green Party of England and Wales). Image: Bristol Green Party Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

    Commenting on John Healey’s forthcoming budget at the end of October containing a £35 billion funding gap, leaving the government facing a choice between higher spending on public services or deep real-terms cuts later in the decade Green Party leader Zack Polanski said:

    “Economists are telling the Chancellor today that a steady-as-she-goes budget ‘is not an option’. With three in five families already cutting back on spending, and many about to see a £300 increase in their bills in January, we’re challenging the government to take bold and immediate action on the cost of living. For a start, this means moving more costs off energy bills, properly funding a national home insulation scheme, clamping down on profiteering by energy companies, and rapidly scaling up cheaper, cleaner energy.”

  • How the BBC sets a trap to make sure leftwing politicians never get a fair hearing

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    https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/how-the-bbc-sets-a-trap-to-make-sure

    There’s a reason why so few truly leftwing politicians are visible in public life. Because the media’s role is to weed them out, discredit them, place them beyond the pale

    …

    [W]atch this short video of the BBC’s Nick Robinson interviewing Green party leader Zack Polanski and demanding that he affirm “Israel’s right to exist”. It is a classic of the genre. Note Robinson’s heavy framing of the question:

    What we’re talking about is whether a state created by the United Nations, in the aftermath of pogroms and Holocaust, the worst act of racism in the history of the planet, has a right to exist or not. This is a question you have always dodged.

    That’s very much in the “How many times a day do you beat your wife?” tradition of interviewing. In a post on X, Robinson again challenged Polanski: “Why is this a difficult question to answer?”

    Both, let us note in passing, are Jewish. But only one is assumed to accrue moral standing in the exchange from their views about Israel.

    We could easily turn the question around against Robinson:

    Do you think the state of Israel – as a state illegally occupying and oppressing Palestinians for decades and committing the crime of apartheid, as determined by the world’s highest court, and one deemed to be committing genocide according to a consensus of legal and human rights authorities as well as genocide scholars – has a right to exist?

    Did apartheid South Africa have a right exist?

    The answer to Robinson’s question is very simple. States come and go. They don’t have a right to exist, peoples do. And importantly, according to international law, people enjoy the same, universal rights. Which is exactly why Israel as a state committing the crime of apartheid – as ruled by the International Court of Justice in 2024 – has no right to exist as it is currently constituted.

    Polanski responded with the entirely reasonable assertion: “Israelis and Palestinians should have equal rights in a democracy.” Which was the solution accepted by the international community for black and white South Africans, post-apartheid.

    And yet Robinson keeps interrupting Polanski, treating his sensible, moral position – one in line with his party’s new official policy that “Zionism is racism”, as determined by its members – as though it is proof of extremism, of antisemitism. As if Polanski is being slippery by refusing to accept what is, in fact, Robinson’s extreme premise.

    Robinson is arguing that, even after Israel has been judged to be an apartheid state by the world’s highest court and to be committing genocide according to leading authorities on the subject, it should have an inviolable right to carry on exactly as it is.

    Robinson’s implied position is that Palestinians and their supporters should simply shut up and live with the fact that Israel has been slaughtering and maiming hundreds of thousands of Gaza’s people. Nothing to see here, is Robinson’s message.

    So who is the real extremist, who the real racist: Zack Polanski or Nick Robinson?

    …

    https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/how-the-bbc-sets-a-trap-to-make-sure

    dizzy: One thing that I noticed in this biased and unreasonable interview was the repeated references to the proposer having a friend … The answer to that of course is How on Earth is that relevant? It’s the proposal that was voted on, those who voted had no knowledge or interest in who the proposer had as friends. Do I have any interest in who your friends are Nick? How is that relevant to anything?

    Unreasonable interviewers can and should be challenged. Polanski could do some more practice, get a PR minder like other politicians have and maybe avoid interviews or interviewers like this after missing sleep. You’re being totally unreasonable, I’m not willing to being interviewed by someone so biased and unreasonable?