Could Zack Polanski be any more of an obnoxious twat?

[HeadDeskHeadDesk]

Just seen him saying this:

'I am concerned about the rise in antisemitism and we know Jewish communities are saying they feel unsafe. There is a conversation to be had over whether it's a perception that they feel unsafe or whether they are actually unsafe.'

WTAF? Can you imagine if a politician said that to Muslims after a series of absolutely awful targeted attacks where people have died?

I think we haven’t heard the depths of his twatishness. He is one of the most obnoxious twats ever.

The Greens are rotten to the core. I can't understand why anyone supports them.

@Puzzledandpissedoff I do think Caroline Lucas was interested in green politics. The party has been hikacked by the far left and student politics. Want the earth but won’t pay! Everyone else running a business or having the temerity to earn money will be paying. Those not paying want everything but students don’t see this. Some voters are very suggestible.

He is a humongous twat.

I don't know. I think at grass roots level the candidates used to be well-meaning, slightly earnest eco-types, and Caroline Lucas used to speak about genuinely green (small g) issues.

Now, clearly, it's an umbrella party for racists, starry-eyed students with impractical ideas, and disaffected members of the hard left (with some considerable overlap between these groups, it would seem. Lamentably)

That all makes perfect sense, @MeetMeOnTheCorner and @BunfightBetty, but to my mind it's the ridiculous student politics which will ensure they'll never get anywhere near real power

Both the Greens and Reform are more shouty pressure groups than proper parties anyway, and as with Labour under Corbyn I sincerely doubt they could ever pull enough votes

I do hope you're right. And previously I thought this too.

The student politics ARE ridiculous. Yet I see so many grown adults falling for them, despite them being laughably absurd, that I do wonder.

I used to have an ex who worked in a government type role, where the brief was to provide financial literacy education to the public at large. One time I expressed surprise at how simplistic/dumbed down one of the awareness campaigns were, and he explained it by saying "what you have to realise is that 50% of the population aren't able to calculate 50%".

If we're really dealing with that level of intelligence/education/skills in the general population it's a worry.

@Puzzledandpissedoff I think the greens can pull off some seats. Let’s be honest, some people voted for George Galloway! A bit of anti Jewish rhetoric snd there’s votes to be won. We all know where and it won’t be that difficult. Reform has a wider disaffected base but we end up wanting quick fix politics and vote for any idiot that promises it. It’s definitely true we have a somewhat dim population at times and of course 50% are below average! We cannot get votes for sensible long term strategies and as a result parties lie about what they can do which is mostly tinker at the edges. The big issues remain unresolved and the country gets poorer.

Slightly off-topic, but a recent study published in Germany reported that the supporters of the German Green Party were the least tolerant of differing political opinions.
I watched an interview with a German journalist discussing said study. He mentioned his own upbringing in a Green-leaning family and how in the 60s political debates were much more common and encouraged in these circles, whereas today dissenting views are viewed increasingly as unacceptable.

We see this here too, especially on the left and especially, it seems to me, amongst younger people. A complete intolerance of views that differ from their own, and a leap to make a moral judgement on the person, and cancel them.

Cf dear Zack and his openly expressed opinion that right-wingers should be shunned.

That would have sounded implausible to me at one time and even now I'm inclined to think it has to be a massive exaggeration. However, my son runs a business and needs to communicate daily with dozens of members of the public via email. He said 'mum, my business partner warned me that the average person is incredibly stupid and I thought he was being unfair. But no, it turns out he's right. I am staggered every day by just how incredibly stupid so many people are.'

He's given me some examples and wow, he's not wrong. 😂

Yes.

It’s not just stupidity.’

Its the militant, unapologetic stupidity that has its roots in the general dumbing down of everything, tolerated, accepted and indulged.

Everything now needs to be brought down to the lowest common denominator.

It's also vile that people either make excuses for antisemitism and violence against Jewish people in this country or pretend it isn't happening. The facts speak for themselves.

What happened in Gaza has sod all to do with British Jews and everything to do with plain and simple hatred. Shame on those who minimise, excuse or whataboutery their hatred.

Absolutely. It's shocking. I can't believe it's happening in this country, with people justifying and minimising it. Those of us who aren't Jewish need to step up and make sure it's constantly challenged.
What's that phrase about evil succeeding because good people do nothing?.

Politics as slogans and chants and badges. Simplistic and foolish.

Green MP Hannah Spencer was on Question Time tonight and, frankly, she comes across as thick.

What an odd and puerile non response.

Why should I be crying?

Being anti-Israel and criticising genocide in Gaza is not being antisemitic

And BNP members being "proud of their country" isn't racist, but we know in both cases members' views are often more extreme than these bland sanitised statements.

There has been no genocide in Gaza. That is a blood libel and it is antisemitic.

Can you link to some examples of these calls for violence @Summerhillsquare

So hold on, antisemitism is bad if reform do it, but it’s ok if the Green Party do it because…. Why? Or are you trying to distract from the absolute sheer disgusting comment of the Green Party by “noooo don’t look at them, look at reform, they’re worse?

Make it make sense!

It's quite straightforward: don't vote Green or Reform if you care about racism.