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

To be fair to Hamza, although fighting racism is his main priority, he is also aware of the sexism and attacks on GC members.

He used to be EEDI manager of the Green Party. He went to an in-person Green Party Conference not long after he was appointed and had a target on his back from that point onwards because he was seen talking to GC women from the Green Party Women committee.

There"s really a place called 'havering'?! 😁

You are obviously right. Currently there is no organised system. To make it work I suggest they use a colour coded system, so everyone knows who is the most important. .

The Canadian left wing party NDP had such a system with coloured cards in its conference. There were no downsides and everyone was happy :)
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5510597-conference-plunged-into-turmoil-over-priority-equity-cards-eg-trans-woman-furious-a-biological-woman-allowed-to-go-first

Green Party’s race chief: ‘This party has a racism problem’

Which group of people is he talking about in terms the Greens being racist?

Yeah it's sounds like he backs the Zionism is racism motion.

Egal describes this as the suppression of democratic business through procedure, arguing it was not accidental but a coordinated attempt to block a vote on race and Palestine...

“This is what tokenism looks like when it becomes institutionalised, Muslim and Black communities welcomed for their votes, their credibility, and their presence at marches, and failed when they ask the institution itself to change. That is not solidarity. That is extraction.”
Claims of exclusion and retaliation
At the centre of the letter are serious allegations about internal governance.

Egal says that after raising concerns about a House of Lords selection process, later ruled by the party’s own Standing Orders Committee to be “severely flawed”, he was excluded from a key meeting discussing the issue, despite being a candidate directly affected.
The exclusion was later found to have no constitutional basis, and the party’s CEO apologised. However, Egal says no one has been held accountable...

You can see it both ways. This is what Your Party would likely also face. They want Muslim votes based on Gaza but don't want their views on say assisted dying, or legalisation of drugs. Or if you're a Naice progressive, you'd see it as attempted entryism to "weatherwax" the party to their aims

The Green Light can confirm that 0.4% of the membership took part in this on-line Spring Conference. Participants are self-appointed with no mandate and no accountability to anyone.

Woah!! I didn't realise that the GP Conference was open to all and any members who happened to fancy turning up. I had assumed that they were delegates or representatives of some description.

Some members have called for a delegate conference but at the moment, any member of the Green Party can register, join Conference and vote. One member, one vote - those voting are expressing their personal opinions rather than representing their local party.

This means it's very unrepresentative. Those who turn up are going to be committed activists with the time and the money to be able to attend Conference.

This means it's very unrepresentative. Those who turn up are going to be committed activists with the time and the money to be able to attend Conference.

At the moment, are all those who attend self-funding rather than being funded or subsidised by their local parties?

If so, that makes it so much more likely that GP policies reflect the preoccupations of a well-heeled elite.

As it's not a delegate conference, members have to pay for themselves. There is a hardship fund you can apply to which will help with the costs of tickets, transport and accommodation but you have to pay first and then reclaim the money.

Great article looking at some the ideas floating round in the Greens now. No mention of biology though.

Zack Polanski, the Green Party ‘sponge’ with Corbynites in his orbit
Polanski is also ambivalent about economic growth, at least until inequality is tackled. “Growth is just not the thing that matters most,” says Meadway. “If you think this economy is a zero-sum game, you’re kind of right.”
In a zero-sum economy, the only real way to improve living standards is to reallocate wealth, and a wealth tax is Polanski’s “day one priority”. He’s proposed a 1 per cent annual levy on wealth over £10 million and a 2 per cent tax on wealth over £1 billion, which would, in theory, raise an estimated £15 billion a year.

https://archive.is/Ajtyr

Green Party plans to reduce speed limit on motorways to 55mph
https://www.joe.co.uk/news/green-party-plans-to-reduce-speed-limit-on-motorways-to-55mph-528229

Not sure how effective these tactics from Labour will be. The Hupnoboobs story is already well known. What might work better is a a combo attack mentioning that ZP doesn't know whether women or their breasts are actually exist at all so the whole hypnoboobs thing is even more crazy.

Labour launches campaign against Zack Polanski to defeat Greens
Starmer’s strategists test anti-Green messaging, including leader’s former job as a breast enhancement hypnotist

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/04/06/labour-launches-campaign-against-zack-polanski-green-party/

Thanks for the Times link @fromorbit

"....In fact Polanski may even be looking to slash spending in some areas, not least defence procurement. Meadway has started a “Green-aligned” think tank called Verdant which just published a paper calling for a “Doge of the left” (a reference to President Trump’s Department for Government Efficiency), arguing that the state could save £30 billion a year by rooting out waste, fraud and tax avoidance.

“The hard reality is that we’re a country wildly exposed,” says Meadway. “We have real constraints. There’s a good appreciation of that.”
Polanski is also ambivalent about economic growth, at least until inequality is tackled.
“Growth is just not the thing that matters most,” says Meadway. “If you think this economy is a zero-sum game, you’re kind of right...."

Christ, James Meadway

It's zero sum game, alright.
National survival versus non survival.
I can't thank Polanski enough for coming out with this stuff.
The voters really do need to know how high the stakes are at the next GE.

Zia Yusuf, who is a lot smarter than James Meadway, thought there were big savings in local government if you just clamped down on waste, corruption and wokery. Turns out, local councils are bankrupt because of the statutory duty burden, because people at Westminster (looking at you Theresa May) legislated for nice things to happen and put the burden onto councils to do the delivery and pick up the tab. SEND, social care, you name it.

There simply aren't serious savings to be made in local government, and council tax will ratchet up year on year, until central government starts to think hard about what local government should do and how it should be founded.

Same goes for much of central government and the quango state. I'm not saying there's no fat to be trimmed, but there are no big savings without unpopular policy decisions.

Both tribes have their voodoo economics, on the right it's "efficiency savings" and "bonfire of the quangos", on the left it's "wealth tax on billionaires" and "green jobs". Any of this rhetoric makes me take them less seriously.

HOW POLITICS WORKS

Theresa May, 2016: I want voters to stop thinking the Tories are the nasty party

Nick Timothy: Anything you say boss, I will go away and stroke my beard and come up with clever policy proposals

10 years later: County councils are going bankrupt because of statutory duties imposed from the centre, and Steve Reed, for reasons obscure, wants to abolish relatively solvent district councils and merge them into bankrupt county councils

And we had North Sea Oil in the 80s to offset the costs of 3.5-4m on the dole for Thatcher to get her revolution done. Now going, going, gone.
Debt as a proportion of GDP well below 50%. Now 97%.
Polanski let loose on the country in 2029 would be more damaging than Tony Benn in 1976-79.

55 mph limit on motorways and having to resit driving tests every five years is a surefire vote loser, though it’s actually a proper environmentally focused idea.

SNP have done the same, while also forbidding LAs from raising council tax.

Yes. Take a bow Eric Pickles who introduced a moratorium on council tax hikes unless agreed at local referendum in the coalition (ah, the era when they thought referenda were definitive arbiters of policy).

There was a sort of arms race that ensued with councils like Swindon, iirc boasting of freezing or cutting council tax year on year during the 2010s, but that are now facing bankruptcy

Well, our LA have just made precipitous rises for two years running. Gotta pay for those massive pensions somehow!

Same here, 10% last year, 9.8% this year. I'm now paying £238/month, small ex-council house, not a mansion.

So true.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/greens-should-be-braced-for-vetting-issues-says-polanski

'Zack Polanski has acknowledged that the Greens may face issues when it comes to vetting candidates due to the speed of the party's growth.

Speaking to PoliticsHome at the party's local elections campaign launch on Thursday, Polanski said that the party was dealing with an "immense amount of people very quickly" in its bid to field candidates in Scotland, Wales and council areas across England next month, adding: "I won't be surprised if we have the odd candidate where we have to distance from them'."

He's not wrong about that, especially with a big set of elections when you're scrambling to find ~5000 candidates, and you're trying to stand in as many places as possible instead of just targeting strongholds as GPEW has often done.

Reform had the same problem last year, and several dozen councillors out of the ~900 elected turned out to be liabilities who had to be expelled. I hear the vetting process this year has been brutal, and it still won't be 100% effective.

Having said that, I'd rather have the problem of rapid growth than the problem Labour has been having of members just being unwilling to stand.

Or whatever the hell process the Scottish Greens use to select candidates.

Just what kind of Green candidate would be "unacceptable" who slipped thru vetting?
Let me guess, one who'd made previous comments online (the Internet is forever) that biological sex trumps gender, and that free speech around these areas should be maintained.
That would the Greens equivalent of a Reform candidate saying David Lammy should be sent "back home" to the Caribbean.

Well, I see Tony Greenstein has been allowed to join GPEW. Party members who are unfamiliar with Uncle Tony are in for some rare entertainment.