Mick Hartley

Suzanne Moore in the Telegraph:

There are many issues with the Green Party – and for some people, watching its leader, Zack Polanski, dancing with Gorton and Denton MP Hannah Spencer at the weekend like they were both at Glastonbury instead of an anti-fascist demonstration was one of them.

The dancing doesn’t bother me, however, though it should bother the other mainstream parties. This kind of spectacle, as frivolous as it can look, has long been an effective way to recruit people to the cause. Because after a long, slow trudge, which seems to be de rigueur for most demos, people want to celebrate…..

Because we all need to take the Green Party seriously. The Greens have absorbed all the worst aspects of Corbynism and attracted all the anti-Semitic dregs that were thrown out of Labour. A lot of them are quite barmy. Some are plain nasty.

Social media messages shared by one of its “stars”, Tope Olawoyin, claimed that the burning of the Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green was “an inside job” and a “false flag” operation. Polanski’s constant refrain that because he himself is Jewish, it gives him a get-out-of-jail-free card is the foulest use of identity politics. It doesn’t.

Polanski has done a lot of cramming lately, seemingly picking up economic and defence policies from YouTube. But that won’t make much difference to the dancing demonstrators, or in the local elections, where polls have the Greens riding high.

Glastonbury’s “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” moment may be derided now, but in 2017, he still took 262 seats. Left-wing populism is not to be taken lightly.

Politics is fragmenting – everyone is fed up. Reform offers nothing for the young – it looks backwards, not forwards; it is simply a forcefield of negativity and pessimism centred around an increasingly irritable Nigel Farage.

Polanski may be a chancer, and the Greens may be selling a naive but often noxious form of “hope”, but it is working. Polanski can have his Glastonbury moment; I suspect there are more to come.

Polanski’s appeal to the disenfranchised young is indeed scary. The pied piper comes to mind. And especially with Islamist Mothin Ali lurking in the background as deputy leader. The red-green alliance in full view. Tragedy, or farce? We’ll find out soon enough.