Mick Hartley

There’s no need for satirical joke candidates like Count Binface when we have the Greens. Meet Sarah Wakefield, their candidate for the Makerfield by-election.

A charity run by the Green Party’s Makerfield by-election candidate called on Britain’s farming sector to be “decolonised” and shared guidance suggesting perfectionism and a sense of urgency were examples of “white supremacy culture”.

Sarah Wakefield, who is the executive director of the environmental charity Eating Better, was announced as the candidate on Tuesday….

The Eating Better charity regularly carries out workshops encouraging “decolonial decision-making” and creating “intentionally inclusive spaces” in farming….

Last year the charity shared a report that listed “ defensiveness”, “perfectionism” and “a sense of urgency” as examples of “white supremacy culture” and suggested ways to challenge “colonial power and legacies” in the food system. 

A section on “decoloniality” — defined as a movement that “de-centres western knowledge and celebrates the knowledge of indigenous, racialised and marginalised communities” — included a graphic setting out the characteristics of “white supremacy culture”.

Oh boy.

In 2024, Wakefield wrote the foreword for the charity’s “Nourishing Justice” report, which accused the UK’s food system of being entrenched in “racial oppression and exclusion”.

“In the UK our food system mirrors and entrenches racial oppression and exclusion where it exists in society. It’s why race has a huge influence on people’s experience of the entire food system, from food access, to food sector work, to inclusion in food policy spaces,” the report said.

What does it even mean? – de-centring western knowledge and celebrating the knowledge of indigenous, racialised and marginalised communities? Give up tractors and plant by hand? Turn our farms into Bangladeshi-style rice paddies, or cotton plantations nourished by the life-giving waters of the Nile? It’s just a word salad of progressive clichés.

Still, she’s probably an improvement on the previous candidate:

A local party source insisted Wakefield was a “squeaky clean” choice after its previous candidate, Chris Kennedy, apologised for sharing social media posts that described an attack on ambulances run by a Jewish charity as a “false flag”. He resigned hours later, citing “personal and family” reasons.