Simon McGrath makes an interesting observation on Liberal Democrat Voice:
Looking at his statement when he was elected, climate and environment barely feature and his Twitter feed tells the same story: the Green Party has chosen a leader who doesn’t seem especially interested in green issues.
And a glance at Polanski's Bluesky feed does little to change this impression. There is lots of left populism, but rather less about the environment.
Going after the old Corbyn vote - young, urban, left wing - is a perfectly valid strategy for the Greens, particularly as Corbyn's new party is not guaranteed to fly. But you do wonder how it will play in Herefordshire and Suffolk.
If Corbyn or Polanski or both do make serious progress in the cities, that will make it harder for the Liberal Democrats to break out of their redoubts in suburban and Southern England.
This issue doesn't get enough attention- the Greens are the broadest of churches- Countryfile Tories ( two seats) and eco-populists ( two seats). Polanski's overwhelming victory suggests that the activists lean towards the latter, but activists and expanded party membership don't win elections. Its their Corbyn moment, but with a slicker version.
ReplyDeleteDuring the summer silly season, the Green Party leadership election should have been as much a story as the Reform Party migrant narrative. We have two parties with the same-ish number of MPs (I don't have the energy to keep count of who defects to and from Reform) neither of which composes electoral promises on the presumption that they'll have to implement them. I'd have thought it a good opportunity for serious journalists to dig in.
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