We have just held our largest conference ever, but it was overshadowed by a controversial motion that was attacked by the media as racist. Then, when we lost a byelection in a Camden seat that is so Labour it has estates named after Blair-era ministers, the headlines called for Zack Polanski to resign. It does, however, mark the end of phase one for Polanski’s Greens.
Polanski burst on to the political scene in 2025 and ate up attention, enjoying an easy monopoly on hope while Labour was sucked into the black hole of Starmerism. Labour has since escaped, with Andy Burnham giving social democracy with Mancunian characteristics a half-hearted go. But Burnham’s honeymoon already seems to be ending.
John Healey’s budget of “difficult decisions” and “fiscal responsibility” is likely to disappoint everyone but the financial markets, and a winter energy bill crisis driven by a possible El Niño deep freeze is just one of many problems he’ll soon have to face. One school of thought says Polanski can carry on as before, focusing on points of difference with Labour. Healey announces a no-change budget; Polanski calls for a tax on wealth to fund public services.
Angela Rayner sides with landlords over renters; Polanski proposes an emergency rent brake and explores Berlin’s plan to expropriate the properties of corporate landlords. These interventions matter, especially in our attention-driven politics. But on their own they are only tactical manoeuvres in response to the politics of Labour.
If we act like we’re only a Labour pressure group, that’s what we will become. And in doing so, we will neglect to answer the deeper question: what are society’s fundamental problems and what is our plan to fix them? In practice, Burnham’s “radical vision” promises only modest regulation of public utilities, limited devolution and reform of the voting system and of social care after the next election.
Weighed against the crises we face – climate breakdown, bankrupt public services, rampant inflation, runaway rents, an epidemic of loneliness, a billionaire-owned media, a deranged elite of tech oligarchs who literally want the world to end – his vision reads more like the managed decline of a system in crisis. If phase two of Polanski’s Green party is about anything, it should be about breaking this spell. Part of this is naming capitalism as the root cause.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
