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

Emma Bateman was in court on Monday for the next stage in her important case against the Greens. Her case looks pretty strong.

https://nitter.net/EmmaBatemanGPW/status/2008905815055335872

Emma Bateman

Me v TheGreenParty:
I was in court on 5th Jan for my case against the Greens It was only for a 'strike out and costs application', not the main case. I amended my claim in 2025 after I changed solicitors, and the party say that resulted in them wasting costs of over £13,000
1/4

The Green Party wants me to pay those £13,000 costs now before the case goes further.
My barrister suggested that it appeared the Party was using costs as a weapon against me to try to shut down my case, but I will not be intimidated into silence by the threat of costs.
2/4

The Greens were also trying to strike out bits of my claim, but on 30-12-25 they withdrew a lot of their strike out application.
My barrister will be seeking redress from the Party to cover the wasted costs I spent preparing for parts of the strike out the Greens withdrew.
3/4

The judge was puzzled by TheGreenParty maths, and how they reached the £13,000 figure, and has reserved judgement to a later date.
Whatever blocks the party throws, I have a good team and we will win.
Please support me if you can

Its almost as if self promotion is his main purpose, not winning seats in elections. Its a shame because I know some people in the local Green Party and they are your typical hippy environmentalists of the old Green Party, and really nice people but they have to canvas round local areas trying to justify open borders immigration policies, gender self ID and whatever bonkers economic theories ZP has come up with that week.

A Wirral Green councillor has defected to Reform. Not gender ideology related - more a Brexit thing, it seems. For context, he was one of a batch of 21 defectors (also 15 Tories; 5 independents).

Balancing that Remain voting defector you may have heard of, Bobby J.

Green to Reform is bonkers. I don't think Polanski will take that well

Eh? That is a very odd decision to join the Greens if he was pro Brexit! Where has he been for the last 10 years? I do think the Green have quite a lot of members now who have joined them because they are Pro Pal or because they arecseen as radical socialist, but who have little to no interest in environmental issues ( I suspect Zack Polanski is one of them!)

@Lalgarh, @RainbowBagels
Not as bonkers/unlikely as you might think. The GPEW is (or used to be) a broader church than many people realise and there was a small 'GreenLleaves' group at the time of the EU referendum.

My experience is that Lab has lots of people who think that being green is all about decarbonisation technologies. They claim to care about the climate crisis, whilst not giving a stuff about the environment and completely failing to grasp the entirely uncontroversial point that the climate and biodiversity crises are interdependent.

OTOH, on the ROC - including ardent Brexiteers – the opposite pattern prevails. People who care deeply about the environment, especially their local environment, but think that the climate crisis can only be addressed gradually, so as to avoid economic disruption, and that the threats will probably prove to be overblown.

Obviously both groups are wrong!

I know a long-term Reform voter for whom GPEW was probably second choice until the party began to present itself primarily as a more leftwing alternative to Lab. Not a few people voted for Brexit to reduce immigration, because they don't want more land concreted over for housing.

The young Nigel Farage voted Green in the 1989 European election, because they were the most Eurosceptic party at the time.

Remainers on the left - and the activist class is almost entirely Remainer - forget that about a third of left leaning voters voted Leave. That's a third of Labour voters, more than a third of SNP voters, a fair chunk of Plaid voters. I've even encountered the odd Brexity Lib Dem.

Jeremy Corbyn, who was trained in old school Bennite Euroscepticism, says he voted Remain, but I don't believe him.

I think it's worth remembering these voters exist, just as much as the rump of Dominic Grieve style Europhile Tories exist.

Ah yes good point. The old Socialists were all anti EU as it was seen as a Calitalist enterprise. I don't believe JC voted remain either. If he was that ' principled' as his supporters say, he would have explained why he was a long time Brexiteer andcexplained his position if he thought it now wasnt the right thing. Instead he pretended he wasn't so he could appease Momentum and stay in power and then just didn't do anything for Remain despite leading a party that was pro remain.

Green party call for free bus travel for the under 22s.

https://news.sky.com/story/green-party-calls-for-free-bus-travel-in-england-for-under-22s-13495262

Actually quite a discrete and sensible policy. Though given the state of the fight for left green votes, Zarah Sultana will probably accuse them of being capitalist sellouts because it's not free for under 30's

It would be great if buses were free for under 22 year olds and would reduce the cost of living, and cars on the road, but what is also needed is investment in bus services outside London. Theres no point having free buses and saying it will be covered by increased productivity because that increased productivity needs to be enough to cover running costs and investment in increased services across the country. If you are under 22 and living with your parents in a suburban not London or rural area, a free bus pass will be of no use to you unless you have better bus services too. What ZP is doing is electioneering to University students.

Yes, the bus service is so poor here that many workplaces are just not accessible by bus in time for working hours.

Yeah, I think this falls under the category of "government for the UK based on what I observe would be good for Hackney"

Maybe ask Ellie Chowns how frequent the buses are in Herefordshire.

This might be a pattern to watch for with ZP. He throws out an idea that isn't a bad idea in itself if you apply it to urban Green strongholds, but doesn't take anywhere else into account. Because really, he's just trying to appeal to certain constituencies.

We already have this in Scotland, and it gets blamed for exacerbating anti-social behaviour.

news.stv.tv/east-central/call-to-remove-free-bus-passes-from-under-22s-as-anti-social-behaviour-in-edinburgh-surges

Megan Kenyon in the NS on the mayoral campaign in Hackney
Zack Polanski's new fortress - New Statesman

BIG NEWS!

The two brave women persecuted by Bristol Council run by the Greens are taking them to court. Their offence basically knowing biology is a thing, defending women's rights and doing it in a public area.

Gender-critical campaigners launch judicial review proceedings over council chamber ban
https://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/governance/396-governance-news/99477-gender-critical-campaigners-launch-judicial-review-proceedings-over-council-chamber-ban

Bristol Council vs women thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5455055-bristol-council-bans-women-who-raised-trans-issues-from-meetings

Could have big implications for Greens in the run up for the May elections.

If the public realise that Green Councilors don't care as much about schools, roads, bins, but more about using their power to attack women who say human biology is a thing that is a bit of a problem for them.

Glad this is going to court. Shocking that elected representatives were too intolerant of diversity of opinion to listen to the people they are supposed to represent. But I'm sceptical that the case will attract enough attention to 'have big implications for Greens in the run up for the May elections.'

OTOH, anecdotally I know of a Bristolian voter (and former Lab member) who defected to the Greens in 2024 (council and GE) who rapidly became dissatisfied and disillusioned with the Bristol Greens because of their sell-off of council housing. She'll be back in the Lab column in the next council elections, although a national election would be a different story. If my acquaintance is typical the Greens will be in trouble in Bristol - but due to choices on 'core' policy, rather than gender ideology.

Local elections are a farce. Turnout is woeful, most of the few who do vote vote for a party label and have very little idea where the responsibilities of the council begin and end. Or what kind of mess an incoming administration might inherit. Having some experience of working with my council, I would much rather policy on domestic abuse services (the area I know about) was made entirely by the permanent, unelected employees, who actually have relevant knowledge and are far more accountable (through regular consultations with service users and a service user committee that is involved in designing, commissioning and monitoring services) than the effing useless Cabinet member, who has never intentionally met a victim of abuse. Needless to say domestic abuse services have yet to feature in local election campaign.

and anyone who actually worked alongside domestic abuse services would be unlikely to be swayed by TA nonsense

Is this really what it's come to?
Infinity court cases?
From Forstater, to Jo Phoenix, to Nurse Peggie and Darlington nurses, now these Bristol women?
Obviously others I haven't mentioned.
Is this how it will also be, that going to court is always going to happen?
When does the law become settled, unambiguous?
Or will institutions always feel they have another angle to terrorise women?

@1984Now When does the law become settled, unambiguous?
Not under this Lab govt.
Not until enough people start to understand why sex matters and question why society should be organised on the basis of a nebulous, private, sometimes very unstable gender identity that can only be ascertained by direct questioning of the individual concerned.

Every single damn one should be sacked. Astonishing abuse of power and dereliction of public duty.

Good to hear. And yes, we are going to need as many court cases as it takes for organisations to get the message.

From that article on council housing sell offs:

"The current plan we have to reduce our revenue spending includes delaying some works that are non-urgent and aren’t required to meet legal standards."

They're pausing upgrades required as part of the findings after the Grenfell tower disaster FFS. Is that not urgent?

There's an excellent article about Emma Bateman in the Telegraph.
<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20260123170417/www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/01/23/green-party-in-trans-legal-row-over-fairy-pronouns" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20260123170417/www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/01/23/green-party-in-trans-legal-row-over-fairy-pronouns/

Edited to add: I copied and pasted the link from whatsapp but when I clicked to check, it doesn't seem to work. Maybe someone can find a better link.

Here go

https://archive.ph/utG8t

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/01/23/green-party-in-trans-legal-row-over-fairy-pronouns/