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

Considering there haven't been any greyhound race tracks in Scotland since the last one in Fife closed last year, it's all a bit pointless.

And now there never will be :)

I believe there was one active in Wales at the time of the bill passing.

From a quick search England currently has 21 licenced operating greyhound racing tracks, so I expect a proposed ban there will be met with more resistance and be more difficult to push through.

If only the Scottish Greens could focus on something that is actually a problem in Scotland, like the SG's plan to cover huge swathes of peat bog (excellent carbon stores) with Sitka spruce or the SG's permission to build a ginormous off shore wind farm (Berwick Banks) right smack bang in the middle of three protected marine areas with not a thought given to the seabird populations there. But no, greyhound racing which isn't even a thing in Scotland unless you count the Edinburgh hipsters with their whippets in hand knitted cutsie outfits strolling down the waters of Leith.

Chris, would you be so interested in greyhound racing if it didn't allow you the opportunity to take a pop at Ash Regan and her Unbuyable Bill?

Please could we not engage with this guy. I won't comment further, because that just fuels the disruption. Can't stop him posting, regrettably, but next best is to ignore him

The coming thing in London, where the Greens will do very well, is this idea floating around that we should concrete over every golf course in Greater London and build HMOs on them. I don't play golf, but I'm not convinced that the capital's housing problem can be solved by concreting over a large proportion of its few remaining green spaces.

And like most bad ideas in London, I suspect our Supreme Leader and Custodian of the Holy Marmalade Sandwich will pick it up and run with it rhetorically as long as he never actually has to do it.

That is what infuriates me so much, we have massive problems to solve and competing demands on natural resources to balance and they just faff about with utterly unimportant shite. And don't get me started on how completely clueless they all are about the most basic relevant science.

I'm female thank you if you're referring to me.

And I disagree the ban in Scotland was a waste of time. Scotland has now joined the other countries where greyhound racing has been criminalised (at this point, almost every country in the world) and the bill has brought greyhound racing and the cruelty that comes with it into the spotlight. People who would never have thought about it are now talking about it.

The next step will be to put pressure on the industry in England with the long term goal being a blanket ban there too covering everywhere in GB.

I agree that Hannah Spencer won't listen, but they both offered good advice.

Spencer will go far being able to be scathing behind a primary school teacher image, as long as she can take criticism well.

On the plus side, we've now got political correspondents - and the parliamentary lobby is not overburdened with people who think about policy as opposed to who's up and who's down this week - regularly commenting that the Greens never talk about the environment any more. Hannah not mentioning any environmental issues in her maiden speech was definitely noticed.

And I think the Greens are very vulnerable - maybe even more than the Lib Dems - to being taken over by cranky fringe campaigners like that woman on X whose neighbours bought a wood burning stove and now she's built a whole online persona about being the campaign against wood burning stoves.

The SGreen councillor for our ward in A&B is currently spending her time raising money for a memorial to the town's most famous cat who recently died at 18 years old. I mean I was very fond of that cat but I'm also fond of the mature trees (often with protection orders on them) that are cut down all over the council area because they are obstructing the views of the other side (equally depleted of trees) of the loch, and the council doesn't care whatsoever.
These people like the idea of being "green" but they have no clue or any seriousness.
Actually, I often think that Greta and the Stop Oil lot have damaged discourse rather than helped. It's impossible to question the efficacy of any proposed "green" policies (like planting spruce on peat land) without being accused of being a climate denier and Trump supporter. But these are the discussions we need to have.

I think she's just defected to the SNP!

https://www.westcoasttoday.co.uk/news/councillor-leaves-greens-for-snp-to-better-fight-reform

Oh geeez, really? Well, the SNP councillor recently left the SNP and is now independent, a Conservative one has joined Reform, now Luna is SNP. It's all happening in A&B.

Musical chairs.

Streamed tunes or a piper, do we think?

Out here, this will involve several pipe bands.

And an aggressive game of shinty.

Zack now manifesting power

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg05xrgkg6o

The humility is amazing.

I was looking for a 'power' gif and this one seems appropriate.

< snerk >

In the comments the newly converted Zackists are duking it out over MSM lies about migration and drugs policies with the Nigelists

Zack talking about his power ambition represents one of the things I hate most about current year politics. Starmer has developed this very weird habit of doing a meta-commentary on how well he thinks he's doing his job, and how he's keeping a cool head while everyone is panicking, and how he performs best when he's under pressure. Sometimes at PMQs he even gives Kemi advice on how to be a better LOTO. And Kemi isn't exactly immune to bigging herself up as a girlboss.

It's not just that they sound like that candidate in a job interview who says "if I have a fault it's that I'm too much of a perfectionist". It's also that they're terribly pleased with themselves when you look at how the political class is actually performing.

God knows Nigel isn't to everyone's taste, but I did like his clip telling Ed Miliband he could sod off if he wants Brits to drink warm lager, because at least it was an example of a politician talking about something other than how amazing he is.

Of course he does 🙄

The lazy fucker doesn’t want to do any of the graft, just chip in from the sidelines and blackmail the PM to do whatever he wants without him having take any responsibility when it all goes hypnotits up.

Great, that'll make a clear contrast to Starmer's sturdy inability to take any responsibility at all. We are going to be governed by fucking Tiktokdiktat.

Starmer's refusal to answer questions in PMQs has reached the point where even Lindsay Hoyle thinks he's taking the piss.

Perhaps Starmer has been watching those interviews that Bastani does with Zack, where Bastani tries to get him to talk about a policy area and Zack just goes off on a tangent and rambles about whatever he feels like.

Not a serious point, but sometimes snippets on Guido can make you smile:

Make a U-Turn: New Green MP Hannah Spencer shared a video of herself strolling along the Thames this week. The caption: “How I walk to work knowing the Establishment are terrified of me xx”. She was walking in the opposite direction to Parliament.