Puja wrote: ↑Tue Sep 02, 2025 3:46 pm
Polanski wins the Green Party leadership and comes out swinging:
That's a hell of a strident first message after winning the leadership of a national political party. I have to say I quite like it. People are legitimately angry about how broken the country is and how everything has been getting steadily worse for ordinary people, but so far the only politicians interested in speaking to that anger have been Reform and their "solution" of blaming refugees/trans people/the woke.
Hopefully Polanski can break through and harness the anger of decent people to shift the political discourse away from it's continual slide rightwards.
Puja
Great stuff, and a real landslide win. Hope they join forces with Corbyn/Sultana (n my dreams, merge with them). Shame Polanski didn't take over 6 months back, maybe the Greens could have taken the purged Labour and independents in . . . now Your Party wants to build momentum of its own and will almost certainly resist a merger.
I don't know whether Your Party will even make it to the starting line. There's a few rifts opening up as they fail to deal with the culture war bollocks effectively - I like Corbyn as an individual MP or a principled protestor, but he's just not competent at media relations, avoiding obvious rhetorical traps, or at the kind of strong leadership/cat-herding required to be in charge of a political party.
"I don't think we're divided; I think we have a really, really strong common cause here - tackling the climate crisis, protecting nature, and also protecting people's human rights. Trans rights are human rights and I'm really pleased that, as a party, we have been through a democratic debate several times now which has been settled in recognising that we're an inclusive, progressive party.
"Now, I'm really aware of a quote that's going around New York at present [coined by Socialist Mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani], which is 'If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 things, let's work together. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 things, please see a psychiatrist.'
"You don't need to agree with me on everything. There are red lines though - we are a broad church party, but broad churches still have walls. And human rights are one of those walls, and actually it's brilliant to quote one of our recently elected deputy leaders [Mothin Ali, who has faced questions over what his professional level of support for LGBTQ+ rights would be, given his personal faith is not supportive] because I love the line - he said, 'The same people who hate the LGBTQ community are the same people who hate the Muslim community.'
"And I'm also aware of this non-insignificant moment, that the Green Party now has a Jewish leader and a Muslim deputy leader and we've had this discussion - we recognise that anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are two sides of the same coin and ultimately, when communities ask for solidarity, including the trans community, the only response - the only authentic response - is to give that solidarity."
Excellent answer - not accepting the divisive framing of "Does everyone in the party agree on this wedge issue and what are you going to do with the ones that don't" and instead reframing it as, "We don't all need to agree and all hold the same personal beliefs - we're all going in the same direction and that direction involves everyone having human rights." I loved the line about "broad churches still have walls" - that's the bit that Corbyn's never been great at.
Puja
Re: Snap General Election called
Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2025 8:48 pm
by Stom
What's going to be interesting is funding, and whether they are capable of using their funding better than mainstream parties (which shouldn't be hard). Look at how Reform have used their funding, for instance.
To put it in perspective, the Tories generated £3.8m in funding last year, while the Greens got £107,000...
(Labour got £1.4m, and Reform £336k).
Re: Snap General Election called
Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2025 9:29 pm
by Son of Mathonwy
Stom wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 8:48 pm
What's going to be interesting is funding, and whether they are capable of using their funding better than mainstream parties (which shouldn't be hard). Look at how Reform have used their funding, for instance.
To put it in perspective, the Tories generated £3.8m in funding last year, while the Greens got £107,000...
(Labour got £1.4m, and Reform £336k).
Given those numbers it is incredible that Labour haven't overhauled political funding. A lot of that Tory funding will shift to Reform over the next few years, if it hasn't already.
Re: Snap General Election called
Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2025 11:08 pm
by Mikey Brown
They’ve seriously called it “Your Party”? Christ.
I like Corbyn as an individual MP or a principled protestor, but he's just not competent at media relations
That pretty much sums up my stance.
Listened to him in a podcast a while back when asked about neoliberalism and he kept saying he preferred to refer to it as “the politics of the sharp elbow”. His explanation made sense, but it was such an idiotic attempt to push a term that could never possibly catch on with normal people.
Re: Snap General Election called
Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2025 11:26 pm
by Son of Mathonwy
Mikey Brown wrote: ↑Wed Sep 03, 2025 11:08 pm
They’ve seriously called it “Your Party”? Christ.
Nah, that's just a placeholder while they decide on it democratically. They're taking suggestions. I have submitted one .
Class. I was planning to post that here too. Is that what Americans call a roast?
Re: Snap General Election called
Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2025 7:01 pm
by Son of Mathonwy
That's Angela Rayner gone. Shame but no choice under the circumstances.
Still it opens up an unexpected deputy leadership election - an unexpected chance for the members to have a say. We'll see if any left-inclined members remain (other than myself). To be honest, the only reason I remained in the party is the chance to vote for leader . . . sadly this is only deputy but that will have to do for now.
Hope Clive Lewis runs. Knowing my luck, Streeting will win.
Class. I was planning to post that here too. Is that what Americans call a roast?
There are still advocates for Civil Rights here. Fuck Farage and his Florida tan.
Starmer, or Badenoch for that matter, now some some perfect ammunition to fire at Farage if they wish to do so. The word traitor is apparently trending on social media after Farage called for sanctions against his own country. That, and his love for Putin, are areas that don’t connect well with general public views.
Re: Snap General Election called
Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2025 10:38 am
by Which Tyler
Just Nigel Farage publicly owning that he really doesn't want to be an MP, shouldn't be an MP, shouldn't be drawing a salary as an MP, and that the best thing for everyone would be if he resigned and allowed a bye-election.
I am still a member of this centre-right, former socialist party. The only reason I'm still here is to vote for Starmer's successor when he eventually fucks off. However, if this deputy leadership election is anything to go by I'll have a choice of Wes Streeting and Yvette Cooper. Or maybe just Wes Streeting.
So I'm tempted to leave. But then that's exactly what Starmer would want, all left-wing members leaving.
Re: Snap General Election called
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2025 1:29 pm
by Son of Mathonwy
This is lunacy. But anything to chase those reform voters who will never vote Labour.
So it isn't just the pro-Palestine marchers who call him a wanker.
Re: Snap General Election called
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 1:20 pm
by Son of Mathonwy
Why do far-right marches get better coverage than Gaza marches? Even from C4 news? Some racists pop down from Essex with their flags and they're putting up a news helicopter. When do we get our news helicopter??
I am a bit torn about the anti-racism counterprotesters. I can totally see why they do it but it makes the whole thing more likely to turn into a riot (it would have if Tommy's bigots had been able to get through the police lines). It's possible that Diane Abbott et al are playing into the fascists' hands. Makes me think of 1930s Germany, which no doubt is also on Tommy Robinson's mind*.
That's your fault for only having 10 times the numbers (or was it 100?)
More to the point, for being peaceful
Re: Snap General Election called
Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 1:53 pm
by Son of Mathonwy
Which Tyler wrote: ↑Sun Sep 14, 2025 1:27 pm
That's your fault for only having 10 times the numbers (or was it 100?)
More to the point, for being peaceful
Exactly. We ain't gonna have a fight to get on the news but I would like pictures of our marches from the sky, stretching across London.
.