Greens internal drama warms up

[fromorbit]

New long article looking at the drama inside the Greens over biology suddenly existing again despite their best efforts.

How the Green Party forgot the environment and was torn apart by trans rows
It was a party united by a single mission – to save the planet. But now the gender identity debate has left it divided and in chaos

https://archive.is/TOlNx

The article is already out of date as Zack Polanski of hypnotic breasts fame has just launched a leadership bid against Deyner and Ramsey.

Emma Bateman
It's no secret that big boobs Polanski wants the top job. He is a student politics slogan churner, a self server who distains women and wants misgendering misdemeanours to be grounds for expulsion from the Greens.
He is "LGB with the T"
Still NO DEBATE!

Pro-women Greens article on his background:;
https://concernedgreens.uk/watchlist/zack-polanski/

The existence of biology is likely to be a significant part of the leadership contest for sure so interesting to watch .

Ali Shahrar has launched another legal challenge against the Greens. Gardening needed.

May 27th is the date for Emma Bateman's legal hearing against the Greens.

On May 27th I am in court against Green Party in a case which will expose the contorted lengths the Greens go to in order to shut women up.

It isn't going to go well for the Greens given the Supreme Court ruling. This could be key moment in seeing the ruling's effect on politics and directly impact the leadership contest. It will also be probably be infuriating and hilarious in equal measure.

Alas, Sionnach, that's true. I used to love the Libdems. 😔

It's also interesting to see how a party that has wrestled with internal divisions caused by 'gender' ideology will look once it comes out the other side.

I had expected the party to be destroyed, tbh; it would be good to see if this instead leads to more awareness of weaknesses within the party structure and policies.

I think I might just get the popcorn and watch them thrash it out. I hope their differences don't escape the sunlight. I struggle to think of a single achievement of the Green Party and I couldn't give a monkey nut if they self detonated.

TAs on X are already attacking Ramsay and Chowns. Ramsay for his interview on the ruling and Chowns for standing as partner.

Whatever happens the open debate is helpful

For those wondering about Zack Polanksi's infamous hypnotic powers - the hypnoboob scandal - the Sun article from 11 years back is here:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/798031/can-you-really-think-your-boobs-bigger/

Can you think your boobs smaller? (Asking for a friend)

are you fucking kidding?

Wtaf

Lets look at the numbers for the election there are now around 60,000 Green members. Up from 50,000 in 2021.

The leadership election Results then were interesting. It is a transferable vote system.

2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election

Candidate First pref. Final round
Carla Denyer and 5,062 (43.9%) 6,273 (61.7%)
Adrian Ramsay
Tamsin Omond and 3,465 (30.1%) 3,902 (38.3%)
Amelia Womack
Shahrar Ali 2,422 (21.0%)
Martin Hemingway 342 3.0%
and Tina Rothery
Ashley Gunstock 212 1.8%
Re-open 22 0.2%
nominations
11,525 10,175
Turnout 11,525 (21.7%)

So low turnout is normal. The final round was won with a 22% difference but only 1200 votes. Note Ali had a solid vote in first round, most of his voters went to Denyer and Ramsay in last round though it seems some didn't vote for anyone else . It also show the strength of the reality based community in the party. A minority but a solid one.

So some uncertainties if the 10,000 new members all vote it will be a very different election. However Ramsay/Chowns likely have a solid lead amongst long standing members with a good track record of success.

There is an influx of new members from the left/Corbynista types to vote for Polanski in the last few weeks. However they have a problem. The niceness factor. There is infighting amongst the Greens, but the party internal image/ethos is base around niceness. This has been a problem for biology knowers in the party because apparently knowing biology is not nice. This party ethos could now screw over the Polanski supporters though.

The Hypnoboobs scandal for a start is going to be an issue. It is not nice, it is kind of sordid and unpleasant.

A lot of the recent members will have come from the left where you allowed to be pretty obnoxious without much push back. If they bring that approach to this election they could undermine themselves. They are going to claim that Ramsay/Chowns are basically identical to Reform/Tories because they are not be left wing enough. The sort of purity spiral which the left love. Thing is denouncing everyone as nazis isn't very nice. Claiming Ramsay/Chowns are basically EVIL because they think like JKR when in reality they are gender moderates is going to look absurd and will strengthen the biology knowers position.

That the Biology Knowers - longstanding members who basically are typical Greens - are the real NICE people and the TAs are crazy and unpleasant - which also happens to be true.

The fanaticism of the TAs could push more and more people into the reality camp during the election. Ramsay/Chowns are in UK terms pretty left wing anti austerity/pro Gaza they would feel uncomfortable in Starmer's Labour. Polanski who seems nice enough in approach is not going to run a nasty campaign, but some of his supporters will and this could undermine him.

With the recent success of the Greens and the general political climate this contest is likely to be way more competitive and will be closely watched. There will be hustings etc. I think it is possible longstanding members will be more likely to vote. Lets see what happens. Get the popcorn.

That’s hilarious. I wonder if he believes you can also achieve a sex change via hypnosis.

It makes one wonder, why the necessity for all those hormones and surgical interventions, which after all, are not very Green.

I don't understand how you can have a position on factory farming and veganism (surely a core issue for many Greens) without acknowledging the sex binary in livestock. How many male chicks are culled every day because they can't lay eggs? Why don't they just identify as lady-chicks?

Don't look for logic or depth of thought where there is none.

"Is one position the 'right' position to have to signal my membership in TRSOH? OK, that's the one I think then. Down with the wrongthinkers!"

Great article that look inside the Greens leadership battle including a section on the gender war and their financial issues. The party cannot afford these court cases.

The Other Insurgent Party: Should The Greens Turn Left With Eco-Populism?

Insiders say the party’s finances are in a parlous state, however. The House reported last year that the party had spent £1m over four years fighting legal cases against its own members, who alleged the party had discriminated against them for their views.

“The financial situation is not looking good at all,” says a figure close to GPEx, who blames this predicament partly on the Green focus on “identity politics”. “A lot of the people who’ve been kicked out of the party because of identity politics have been older people who’ve always financed the party,” they add.

The House has since learned that GPEx has withheld membership fees, known as ‘capitations’, from flowing into local parties as is constitutionally required.

The payment of the 2022 and 2023 capitations to local parties were suspended “indefinitely” by GPEx to secure the party’s financial position in light of legal challenges and reduced income. In an email sent to local party chairs and treasurers before the general election, seen by The House, GPEx chair Jon Nott announced that – further to the suspension – these payments would be “cancelled altogether”.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/insurgent-party-greens-turn-left-ecopopulism

The next stage will be opening nominations in June.

I noticed Zack being interviewed on PoliticsJOE, which I find difficult to watch as it's obviously people auditioning to be on TRIP when they grow up. I didn't watch the whole thing so I'm paraphrasing a bit.

Anyway, Zack was explaining his ecopopulism, and he had a few good points about the rise of Reform and distrust of the establishment and how we're in a populist moment.

And then he had to define his populist offer, and it seems to be all the stuff Ed Miliband is already doing but more of it, plus a lot of shouting about Gaza.

It's got him the coveted endorsement of Socialist Worker, for what that's worth.

PoliticsJOE is Novara for straight white people 💀Sorry but it is glaring!

I actually like Ava Santina though. I think she's talented. I'd love to see her and Inaya Folarin Iman on a two hander current affairs show.

the coveted endorsement of Socialist Worker

Coveted?! 😳

Sarcasm I suspect :)

To be fair SWP entryism could be worth hundreds of votes which as I was saying earlier in a Green contest might be useful for Zack. On the other hand it will mean they will drive the party into failure later.

Definitely sarcasm. I think it's a reflex for them to gravitate to the candidate who's most MRA.

Re Ellie Chowns, it appears from her (restfully sparse) Bluesky feed (Gawd you should see Zack Polanski's exhausting stream of reposts of anyone who mentions his leadership bid favourably! He's definitely all about Zack) that she makes vague 'allyish' noises, but is then hectored for hypocrisy, as running mate Adrian Ramsay is apparently a hateful transpohobic bigot, presumably by agreeing that you can be a member of the GP and also agree with the SC definition of sex. In fact he is guilty of "pure stochastic terrorism".

Yeah I had to look that up too - apparently: "Stochastic terrorism is a form of political violence instigated by hostile public rhetoric directed at a group or an individual."

"Unlike incitement to terrorism, stochastic terrorism is accomplished with indirect, vague or coded language, which grants the instigator plausible deniability for any associated violence. A key element of stochastic terrorism is the use of media for propagation, where the person carrying out the violence may not have direct connection to any other users of violent rhetoric" - according to Wikipedia anyway.

In other words, "inciting violence" with nods and winks, but not actually - inciting violence. If it wasn't so reminiscent of the mindset of people suffering from a genuine and horrible paranoid psychosis I would laugh at this, but - I think I will allow myself a small eyeroll perhaps.

Presumably then EC is fine with someone who thinks the SC provided "welcome clarity".

My OH is still a member of GP. Not sure if he'll bother to vote but I am trying to make him uncomfortable about ZP - can't say much though, as fond of him though I am he can be a contrary bugger. Trying the 'Momentum adjacent' line, he's got a bit of the centrist dad about him...

I still find it hard to believe that Zack is a real person, and not a Sacha Baron Cohen character.

😂 Ikr!!

Adrian and Ellie are environmentalists at heart who have turned into effective politicians. They're both decent people and I'm not sure they have got the fire in their bellies to really go for Zack.

Luckily, others have started trolling Zack and it's hilarious.

First off, his slogan is BackZack so he registered BackZack.com but forgot to register BackZack.co.uk so someone else did it for him.
If you go to backzack.co.uk it takes you straight to the hypnoboobs story.

Zack has over 500 endorsements, far more than Adrian and Ellie. But unlike Adrian and Ellie, nobody is vetting these before publishing them. Zack happily retweets everything with the BackZack hashtag without bother reading it. So the trolls are having fun.

There are candidates from 2019 who never actually ran for the Greens; "John Pork: Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales" who lives in Tel Aviv; 2 people who list their local Green Party as Labour; councillor Jim Savul, councillor Mikey Literos and an extreme right wing Czech politician

He want people believe that is competent to become the national leader of a political party but has had no checks and oversight over his own social media.

https://x.com/JackWOates/status/1925619766540091871?t=YUv0t-3QacJiw3PY8vitlQ&s=19

https://x.com/liveraldemocrat/status/1925622745905172757

https://x.com/liveraldemocrat/status/1925667602816291148

BackZack and Crack?!

I've seen that in WhatsApp groups. I'd love to see it taking off on Twitter/X 😂

That was my immediate thought too 🤣

Well, it's the inevitable continuation, isn't it? Did he not give it ten seconds thought?

Quite.

Why does this make me think of layla Moran seeing souls? Lot of snake oil can be sold to this lot