Zack Polanski as new leader of Green Party by a landslide…good news?
I expected him to win as Adrian Ramsay was not the charismatic, media friendly part of the partnership with Carla Denyer. I think tactically they were a brilliant couple, seeing huge electoral gains, but the party needed fresh blood and energy to take it forward.
There is a real golden opportunity to sweep up discontented Labour (and middle of the road Tories in rural areas) right now.
Fingers crossed 🤞
That said, I don’t expect the mainstream media to immediately warm to him. Tbh indifference is par for the course.
#Polanski believes he can make #EcoPopulism a force to contend with…to stand up to the likes of Farage’s Reform. But that will require media acknowledgment that his party even exists most of the time.
Both the Greens and Reform have 4 MPs…but the media coverage is poles apart.
How can he change that situation?
The Ed Davey stunt approach or rallies? My guess is latter.
Both the Torygraph and Indie have immediately decided to go for the character assassination approach on Zack Polanski.
It’s old news that he used to be a Lib Dem and got stung by the Sun when working as a hypnotherapist.
Not points that have held back his popularity with Green Party members.
They see a media savvy person, with ambition to grow the party’s influence at speed rather than taking the slow measured Lib Dem style approach.
Is it running before you can walk?
Is there time to walk?
Meanwhile in leftwing political circles, #Polanski is being seen as a potential threat to #Corbyn…
https://unherd.com/newsroom/zack-polanski-is-a-threat-to-jeremy-corbyn/?lang=us
And there are genuine reasons to think this.
Polanski is 42 and leads a party with MPs and councillors across the country.
Corbyn is 76 and has a few loosely affiliated independent MPs and no name for his party.
Zack Polanski has beaten Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns to become the new leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. Unusually for the Greens, it was a closely fought — and sometimes tetchy — contest, but the result was emphatic. Polanski took a crushing 85% of the vote versus just 15% for Ramsay [...]Read More...
But #Polanski had already set out his intentions as being ahead of beating the old Labour leader in a popularity contest…he wants to replace #Labour as it is now.
Far fetched?
Yes and no.
The Labour majority is big but shallow at constituency level.
Labour have alienated its core vote by swerving to the Right.
Labour have yet to deliver anything in terms of legislation.
Therefore, everything to play for, assuming this approach doesn’t alienate their rural MP constituencies.
Exactly. He's just _said_ they're out to replace Labour. Corbyn's probably more of an ally for that than a rival. But I don't expect mainstream media to cease slagging both of them off.
I think the mainstream legacy media wants to strangle both of these newly insurgent parties at birth.
Can they borrow from the Farage playbook though and make it work for the splintered Left?
I honestly don’t know. The levers you need to pull are different as well as the tolerances.
But Labour (and Tories) appear to be a spent force…so we can’t sit around and wait for a Farage never ending premiership in 2029.
I think it will be interesting to see how the next few days and weeks play out for Polanski in the media. Being Jewish but anti-Zionist and supportive of Palestinians will no doubt lead to questions by some.
I don’t disagree. I think it’s a clumsy phrase he’s chosen to use. He clearly wants to appeal to those outside of the usual environmental circles…and I presume he thinks most people think ‘populist’ just means popular and he’s just trying to say environmental policies can be broadly popular policies that benefit everyone. But your average Green Party supporter is politically educated and knows populism as a derogatory term. But then, he’s assuming they are on board already.
@JugglingWithEggs he's not entirely helped himself on the media front either 🫣
But yeah he's someone who can actually get people excited, and seemingly wants to talk about actual ideas beyond feel good slogans. Press will be tough, but then the press isn't quite so important anymore
Adrian didn't have any of that, he may have been more ‘media friendly’ but that's not exactly done him any good so far, and even without his increasingly compromised politics he's just so dull?
I think there were personal reasons for Ramsay’s approach, but it left him a man in a grey suit without a story. Most politicians wear grey suits…but whilst not frightening the horses worked in rural areas for him, he did not have the spark or youth appeal that Denyer had and that will be needed going forward to take on more traditionally Labour city based seats.
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