Sexism/other issues in the Green party England & Wales - Discussion Thread 3

Breaking - another huge Green scandal -

A Green party councillor in Leeds is calling on the Greens to suspend Mothin Ali based on, it appears, the misuse of a special responsibility allowance for Leeds Councillors. Seems Mothin was using Leeds money for national Green business for a while probally knowing Mothin I suspect mostly spent on stuff to do with the Midfdle East:

Thread of complaints from other Greens:
https://nitter.net/jwomencount2/status/2090166702919008499

More important news on the Bolton drama apparently Hannah Spencer's mum is involved:

On one side there’s your dyed-in-the-wool party members — among them Liz Spencer, mother of Hannah, who first joined the Green Party when it was still called the Ecology Party, though she tells me she expects to be expelled after what she’s told me for this article. She tells me just how the party has changed in the last few months: “It’s not what the Green party used to be; nice people who wore hemp shoes. That opened the door for lots of less than nice people to enter. And no one was primed for it.”

This article which is mostly paidonly has apparently lots of details on the saga:
https://manchestermill.co.uk/green-party-councillors-bolton-spencer-alli-khan/

Meanwhile the Greens have elected Eli Folan one of the more unhinged male and threatening twitter activists who claims to be female to a women only place. Thread here:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5568787-the-green-party-and-the-word-female?reply=154258080

This is in fact illegal. If parties choose to have women only role they are for women only. It was the whole reason the SNP lost in court.

Unison tried this and just lost.

Union disciplined after man campaigns for woman-only role
https://www.christian.org.uk/news/union-disciplined-after-man-campaigns-for-woman-only-role/

In fact the Greens themselves have been wary of breaking the law they tried to make it clear when they had the last set of leadership elections in 2026 which have provisions for either a male and female leadership or a male and female deputy leadership that they had to respect reality in this matter.

So could be a big fall out from this.

Looks at Green councils across UK facing challenges:

From protests to painful reality: Greens mark 100 days in power

Opposition councillors say the Greens are picking battles they can ill afford. Kings Hall Leisure Centre in Hackney, for example, is undergoing a multimillion-pound revamp and is expected to reopen in 2029. But will it have a space where women can undress out of view of biological males? Or will it not? The architects at FaulknerBrowns will not say.
Garbett has vowed “maximum trans inclusion across all we do”, effectively ending single-sex spaces in the borough. It would potentially expose the council to years of expensive discrimination claims from women’s groups, who will have the national government, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Supreme Court on their side.
Hackney council did not respond to questions around how it would pay to defend those discrimination claims.

Other gnarly problems are looming, mainly financial. Before Tammy Hymas became deputy leader of Haringey council, the transgender councillor and activist spent three years on campaigns and advocacy at Mermaids, the controversial charity that was investigated by the regulator for handing out chest binders to children as young as 13 without their parents’ knowledge. Now, she’s leading a council that remains in dire financial straits after years of spending cuts. Haringey is one of 35 councils receiving “exceptional financial support” this financial year, having to borrow £84 million from government to balance the budget.

https://archive.is/dGrsr

Economist - Long Read
Can Zack Polanski do a Mamdani?
A life of frustrated ambitions has made the hypnotherapist-turned-tub-thumper a perfect tribune of the age
https://archive.is/JWFYn

Development: It seems 4 recently elected Muslim Green councillors in Bolton are planning to break away reportedly due to a poor safeguarding policy regarding social media. It seems they are better aligned with Gaza Independents than other Greens.

Bolton Green Party Councillors threaten to break away
Bolton Labour group leader Cllr Akhtar Zaman said he was “not surprised” by this recent development.
He said: “It has been an open secret that there is serious division within Bolton Green Party as a direct result of these people being elected and attempting to take over the Bolton Green Party.”
"In addition, it was quite obvious to all those involved in the recent Rumworth by-election that Bolton Green councillors were not campaigning for their colleague, Alan Johnson, the official Green candidate, but were instead openly campaigning for the independent candidate.
"It is for the Green Party to deal with that betrayal, but in all likelihood they would have been expelled anyway."
He added: “They have never been Green and have just used that party label to get elected, which represents one of the biggest manipulations of the electorate that we have ever seen in Bolton and voters across Bolton will quite rightly feel conned by these fake Greens."

https://archive.is/QEWDS

Green internal politics are messy so 2027 is going to be interesting - nominations open in June, July is campaigning, and August is voting. The anti-Israel faction obviously want to keep Mothin in place to a degree, BUT the fact he is too random to use on TV and said a bunch of dumb racist stuff over the years is a big drawback. I think there are other ambitious figures who might have similar politics, but are less clunky more subtle in their prejudices and all importantly are even better than Mothin than keeping the trans faction happy as they don't like him and he doesn't like them.

The normal faction of the Greens will probably run some kind of candidate in the male lane for deputy too. Mothin is also vulnerable because he is sexist in the wrong kind of way - more old school sexism than the modern kind. I think in a tough campaign he will blunder and damage himself too.

Plus in the last deputy leadership contest none of the senior Greens went in for it. I think this time someone Like Adrian Chamberlain MP might as it is easier than taking on Zack.

The big question will anyone significant bother to stand against Zack who is flawed but still has a strong internal party base. I think the anti-Israel lot may run someone. Especially as it seems Zack is working behind the scenes to try to block their craziest ideas. Online you see them saying anti-Semitic stuff about him. This is why the conference will be crucial we will see who has power in the new expanded Greens. If the party just votes in anti-Israel, anti NATO, anti women, pro-crime policies, ala like the craziest part of the US "left", after a vicious row it could doom itself further to the margins. At a time of massive heat waves. However if some of the most insane stuff gets blocked we can expect them to start saying ZP is working for Mossad etc and move against him.

Also there will be competitors for Rachel Millward's seat. She is way more competent than Mothin, BUT also is not that crazy so expect to see a left challenge against her, but I don't think they are a serious threat. Her challengers could include Ellie Chowns and Hannah Spencer who would be tough opponents. Millward has the advantage of being posh and sounding reasonable and "nice" she just doesn't want asylum seekers in her neighbourhood a respectable position for many Greens. She has the "correct" takes in general, and the fact she is a public school girl means she has the fall back of being vicious in a nice way which the Greens love. However that won't be enough to stop Spencer if she decides to run as she is way more fun.

I think Zack will probably survive 2027 if he wants to stay in it is only 2 years, barring him making Walter Titty style blunders on scale even larger than ever before, which of course is possible.

The 2029 Green election will coincide with a Parliamentary election year so that will be complex and by then even his hypnotic powers will be very weak so while he could see serious challenges it would depend on when Burnham calls the election and how well the Greens do.

Of course the Greens may have bankrupted itself by then fighting court cases trying to prove women are not real.

Life for the Greens getting messy:

Birmingham Green councillor charged with assaulting five people including three police officers
https://www.gbnews.com/news/birmingham-green-councillor-charged-assault-police-officers

Swapped to Lib Dems in Worcester
Green Party councillor defects with swipe at Zack Polanski
Cllr Martin Allen said it was “unacceptable” that the leader had not expressed sympathy for a police officer injured in the action by "thugs" as he announced he is joining the Liberal Democrats.

Cllr Allen accused Mr Polanski of failing to acknowledge police Sergeant Kate Evans, who suffered a fractured spine when she was hit on the back with a sledgehammer at Elbit Systems near Bristol.
https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/26450500.green-party-councillor-defects-swipe-zack-polanski/

Polanski gaffes turbocharge the Greens’ moderates vs. radicals fight
A left-wing pressure group is pushing for more radical Green Party candidates at the next election.
“The way Adrian and Ellie responded to Zack’s post showed that they were so out of step with the party and the leadership,” said Ashok Kumar, a prominent Green activist. “They represent constituencies that, since the move ten months ago, aren’t part of the growing metropolitan base,” he added.

Adrian Ramsay gives a speech in Manchester, England on Sept. 6, 2024. | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Members of Greens Organise (GO) — a pressure group aimed at expanding the party’s activist base and pushing it to the left — are strategizing how to get candidates who align with Polanski’s vision selected ahead of the next general election.

They are in private discussions with several New York City Democratic Socialists of America organizers who were behind Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rise. Former Bernie Sanders staffer Spencer Reed spoke to GO members last week at a virtual session focused on recruiting socialist candidates. Abdullah Farooq, who sits on the DSA's national political committee, appeared at a meeting in May.

https://www.politico.eu/article/zack-polanski-gaffes-green-party-moderates-radicals/

DAN HODGES: Just six months ago Zack Polanski was lauded as the Great Green Hope. Today he's a busted flush...

All of which means he is indeed reshaping the political landscape. But not in the way he hoped.

‘The Green threat is melting away,’ one minister told me. ‘And that has big implications for how we move forward.

‘We don’t have to flex as much to the Left as we thought we might have to. It gives us more flexibility over election timing. And it means we don’t have to split time and resources defending two political flanks at the same time.’

It’s also having an impact on the ambitions of some of those blocked from Burnham’s first Cabinet. Until recently, the perception was the Polanski insurgency made a Labour victory in the upcoming London mayoral election unlikely. But the Greens’ poor showing in the recent Manchester mayoral by-election, and their decline nationally, means the capital is now seen as back in play.

‘David Lammy’s planning to go for it,’ one minister revealed to me last week. ‘His calculation is that with Polanski going backwards the door’s opened up for him.’

I’m also told former Housing Secretary Steve Reed is considering throwing his hat in the ring.

https://www.dailymail.com/debate/article-16039593/Zack-Polanski-Green-Party.html

It looks like the Green internal discord will heighten with the party conference in September then they have leadership elections in 2027. If Mothin stands again he has a good chance of losing, the party elections could get messy.

If the Green collapse continues it could have significant impacts they could see problems in the 2027 council elections.