UPDATED: Factual errors in this article have been corrected.
Last Friday, the Green Party in the UK secured its second seat in Parliament after winning a Manchester constituency in a byelection. The Green Party came first, followed by Reform UK, the Conservatives and Labour.
The result marked a further breakthrough for the party. With this win, the Greens doubled their parliamentary representation, reflecting a broader rise in support at national level.
The Greens are making headways in the UK due to rising dissatisfaction with the main traidtional parties: the Tories and Labour. They are also making headway because a very large chunk of Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters have moved to the Green Party following Keir Starmer’s rise a leader. The Corbynistas have effective campaigning capabilities in many areas that were traditionally dominated by Labour – including in Bristol West which has also been traditionally considered as a Labour outpost.
The British Green Party is more about socialism than about green policies. They are proposing increased investment in green technology and renewable energy but their main punch lies in their economic policies and they are proposing to create a very aggressive taxation system by significantly raising capital gains tax, corporate tax, social insurance, and also introducing wealth and assets taxes. The Green Party also wants to increase expenditure on social services and reduce the defense budget, give up nuclear weapons and abolish NATO.
The Green Party in the UK is essentially Jeremy Corbyn’s party without Jeremy Corbyn. It has also taken advantage of the rising anger against the British government over weapons sales to Israel and has captured a significant section of the pro-Palestine movement.
For the Green Party, international concerns and foreign policy are mostly rooted in Anti-Americanism, and 1970s-styled anti-imperialist rhetoric rather than on genuine concerns about international rule-of-law and the effects of imperialist belligerence by dictators. Zach Planski is also parroting Russian-propaganda talking points about Libya and Syria, obfuscating facts and spreading lies to augment his anti-NATO rhetoric.
That NATO ruined Libya is the common adage used by Russian propaganda to justify its intervention and support for Libya’s rump dictator Khalifa Haftar. Syrians literally begged for foreign intervention when Assad, Russia and Iran bombed them relentlessly but somehow for Zach Planski, the fantasies and the partisan rhetoric take a priority over actual human life. It’s always the people who know nothing about Libya and Syria that like to repeat Zach Polanski’s talking points.
Zach Polanski comes out as a dangerous demagogue who, like Nigel Farage, is exploiting genuine grievances in the UK to promote extreme politics. He’s the equivalent of Jeremy Corbyn with a sleeker and younger look, but just as dangerous and reckless.
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