Sexism/other issues in the Green party England & Wales - Discussion Thread 2

[fromorbit]

Zack Polanski is making things bigger again.

We need a new thread to discuss all his antics and the ongoing situation in the Green party which is getting more ever more bizarre. While it is getting ever strident in denying biology it also has Mothin Ali as deputy Leader who clearly doesn't believe in trans thinking, but cleverly sidesteps round talking about it.

The fight back from Green Women's Declaration,(https://www.greenwomensdeclaration.uk/ ) continues and the court cases against GPEW from Emma Bateman and Shahrar Ali are developing.

In Bristol the Women of Wessex are causing panic amongst the ruling Green council just by turning up and asking questions. This may result in another court case.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5455053-bristol-council-is-about-to-be-sued

With local elections in May and elections in Wales incoming lots more to discuss and call out.

First thread - where you can follow the rise of Hypno Boobs:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5328986-greens-internal-drama-warms-up

Note the Scottish Greens which are a separate party to the Green Party England/Wales have their own thread for all their drama. They split off because GPEW didn't hate biology enough at the time.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5313420-scottish-greens-being-sexist-again?page=1

Yep. I'd been worried about Reform. I hadnt expected the turbo charged idiocy of the Greens to be so popular.

Its not''solve the climate problem' people are voting for. Its 'we're different from the other parties, and we will take money off of rich people and give it to YOU'.

Yep, 100%. That's what I'm hearing from my newly invigorated Green friends. The billionaires and the bankers have plenty of money, take it from them to solve all our problems.

With a side order of The Greens are the party that cares about people so whatever policies they have decided on must be policies of caring, and anyone they decide to punish/disempower must deserve it.

Worth remembering that GPEW doesn't have the financial resources of the more established parties and isn't going to attract corporate donations.

The only way I can see the party attracting large donations is via Islamic interests, which still seems very unlikely, even if I doubt the rules and scrutiny of foreign donations are all they should be (definitely not my specialist subject). Investigative journalists will start digging if this does become a more plausible scenario.

Whilst lack of money is less of a handicap to a party that can reach its target voters online, digital content still has to be paid for.

GPEW has learned a lot from fighting and winning G&D and that's going to make them a credible threat in more seats come the next GE. Yet there are still new recruits from Lab who're unhappy about their new party's lack of ambition in the forthcoming local elections. Not even standing paper candidates, struggling to muster enough activists to contest all the wards where GPEW could be competitive. These elections are a massive data gathering opportunity for GPEW and if they don't organise smartly and get people on the ground they will miss out.

Someone from Reform was saying that the Green campaign in G&D was run out of the back of a car, a ragtag army of activists with more energy than organisation, and it very much looked like an old-style Ukip campaign. That's meant as a compliment.

That thing about the lack of ambition rings true - GPEW might have high poll ratings and (on paper) a mass membership, but probably still have a lot of the small party mentality. It wouldn't surprise me if lots of these new members treat party membership a bit like a Patreon, where you donate a few quid a month if you like Zack and want to support what he's doing.

This is why I'm not sure about their ability to work at scale. It's one thing to swarm G&D with 2000 volunteers for a short exciting campaign, it's another to get a critical mass of people willing to do the boring stuff.

Maybe lots of paper candidates will be elected off the back of national momentum, but you have to convert that into a long term base. I have a friend who's a Labour member, who was once talked into standing as a paper candidate for Camden council, ended up getting elected and hated being a councillor. A serious party has to declare war on short attention spans.

I think the reason many Labour fans are happy is that they see it as a path to some kind of progressive coalition. The thought leaves me cold.

The huge expanded membership base will help to some extent with funds . Plus Like Farage Polanski generates a lot of free publicity by going on media and being good on tiktok.

One big problem for Green funds long term is they keep being taken to court for denying biology is a thing. Could cost them a packet.

Plus their internal drama over Gaza is only going to get bigger.

We will see in May how good the Greens election machine is now as you say.

One additional factor for people to consider that while the Green surge in Gorton has been motivated by fear of Reform in other seats fear of the Greens actually doing really well could possibly motivate reluctant Tories, and others to vote Reform to stop them.

It could also push big donors to spend more on any party to stop them.

It is a whole different board game in UK politics if the Greens under ZP actually look like they have a credible chance of winning. It is way scarier than even Corbyn winning if you are moderate at all.

...if the Greens under ZP actually look like they have a credible chance of winning. It is way scarier than even Corbyn winning if you are moderate at all.

The thing is, I'm not moderate. I want a pragmatic but radical deep green government that makes the climate and biodiversity crises central to everything it does. It"s painful to watch what Hypnoboobs is doing. It's a travesty.

My radicalism isn't about sloganeering, I'm interested in serious attempts to engineer radical structural change starting from where we actually are, not in wishing away the inconvenient obstacles and pretending that if we throw an electoral double six we can go straight to global Utopia.

I don't even agree with Hypnoboobs about what an ideal society would look like, but what annoys me most is the facile pretence that if you will the endpoint, you also conjure the means. It's pathetic. It's forgiveable in students, but there's no excuse for anyone over 25.

The fact serious environmentalists are at the front of criticising Hypnoboobs is telling.

HB choice of the lib Dems as his first party is something that is not discussed enough.

There is no solid detail in any of HBs plans. He wasn't lying when he said he admired Trump and Farage.

The thing is with both those guys is they are successful, but they also generated huge counter reactions. I think ZP is heading that way too.

The end of a two party race may end up just being a race between two coalitions.

@ArabellaSaurus The constitutional issue makes any coalition on the 'progressive' side fraught with difficulty (as I doubt you need to reminding - I think you're in Scotland?) I'm not sure how much such a coalition might achieve.

Destruction, absurdity, infighting and mayhem?

There are people who have been pushing the idea of a progressive rainbow alliance for decades, and it's always been one of those things that sounds great until you start thinking about how it might work.

It was bad enough when it was just the Lib Dems, and I'd be scratching my head wondering if Polly Toynbee had ever met any Labour activists and knew how much they hated the Lib Dems.

Less said about the Scottish Greens the better.

I think the Scottish Greens should be a salutary object lesson.

The Green Party will need the subs from all of the new members to fund their court cases. Another one has been announced - they have been given a Letter before Action by the Green Women's Declaration who were told that they could have a stall at last year's Autumn Conference and then had permission withdrawn at the last minute.
https://www.thetimes.com/article/fd000b21-0acb-41c1-9fd6-7434de1b3654?shareToken=4c4d843c2df41c2aa62b0de2d23f5324

Not politics... but I wish to announce that I have sown this year's annual nasturtiums! (I've had an unexpectedly shitty few days which have rather spoilt the start of spring, this was an easy way to do something a bit cheering.)

It's nice to have some good news.

I was going to add a flower emoji but then I remembered it's one of the Mumsnet standard emojis and doesn't just mean flowers!

@NasturtiumsAreUnderrated (and anyone else frustrated that the GP seems to be acting as if the climate emergency has gone away...)
you might be interested in this
https://www.nebriefing.org/
I went to a public meeting about this- it was serious, well informed, had a coherent plan for how to actually seriously address the climate emergency.
It was hosted by the GP and I have to say they seemed like the GP of old, a bunch of committed middle aged, middle class people with no blue hair or omnicausers in sight. The first speaker was a local GP who spoke about the real practical things the Green led council are doing which will save local people money whilst also bringing down our carbon emissions.
The National Emergency Briefing is non party political and very focussed- I think unlikely to get sidetracked.
Check it out!

There's a motion for the Spring Conference about the National Emergency Briefing so there are still some members left in the Green Party who have their priorities right.

good to hear- lets hope it gets debated and passed

There are earlier posts in this thread about the ballot for motions to the GP conference:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5456759-sexismother-issues-in-the-green-party-england-wales-discussion-thread-2?page=17

Are these the final ballot results @cariadlet ?

A105 Zionism is Racism
Synopsis
This motion defines Zionism, recognises its continued harm to Palestinians, and seeks to clarify that the Green Party is opposed to Zionism. It further affirms the right to self-determination and liberation of the Palestinian people and supports the establishment of a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine.

• 332 supporters

A25 End gender-based blanket bans in sport (ie let men compete against women in women's sports)

• 67 supporters.

A16 - The GPEW and the National Emergency Briefing (in support of an education campaign about the severity of the climate and biodiversity crises)

• 24 supporters

A44 - Restrict antibiotic use in agriculture

• 13 supporters

A77 - development of alternative economic indicators

• 14 supporters

@POWNewcastleEastWallsend These are the numbers of supporters (ie co-proposers) in the agenda forum. The results of the prioritisation ballot haven't been announced so we don't know which motions will be debated.

Spring Conference is online rather than in person like the Autumn Conference so will have a very different feel.

single democratic Palestinian State

Do they mean Gaza and the West Bank joining to become a single contiguous country?

My nasturtiums self sow themselves everywhere, taking over my flowerbeds if I let them!

@DrBlackbird