Back in July, I made the tragic mistake of feeling optimistic about the prospects of Jeremy Corbyn’s new party. I’ve always liked him, and despite his many, many unforced errors, I truly believed that he and Zarah Sultana might bring some hope back into the dire state of UK politics.
Of course, what followed was immediate disappointment. Although their launching of a party without a name should have clued me in to the insanity that was to follow. The rapid descent into infighting and the double-whammy of allying themselves with the Gaza Independents (whose social views are totally incompatible with any self-respecting progressive) and the fake online membership portal fiasco have completely disillusioned me with Corbyn and his movement.
It seems that despite being booted from Labour, Corbyn and Sultana must’ve caught whatever brain-eating parasite has afflicted the rest of the party during their time in government, because I cannot attribute the magnitude of shameless incompetence on display since Your Party was announced to anything besides partial brain death.
Alas, for a time, I was bereft of hope… that is until I saw the results of the Green Party’s leadership election. They had elected Zack Polanski to be their leader, a man I’d never heard of before. However, once I’d read about him, I was genuinely shocked at what I saw: a charismatic, focused, and above all else competent leader in waiting.
His short time in charge has already done more for the Greens than the infrequent rotations of Mr and Mrs Nobody that came before him ever did. In under two months, his left-populist rhetoric has seen his party rise from polling an average of 8% to the heady reaches of outer space (15%), their highest ever recorded numbers and neck-and-neck with Labour.
Zack gives a firm, unapologetic voice to the left — which a modern-day Corbyn never could. His recent appearance on BBC Question Time is undeniable proof of this. He was articulate, he was lively, he called Zia Yusuf a fascist to his face! I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t show up again for several years after having actually challenged Reform. To me his appearance was pure catharsis. Keir Starmer could never.
Green Party membership has risen so sharply that, for a time, its social media was unable to keep up with all the milestones it had to announce; its numbers have already surpassed that of the Conservative Party (the ex-most successful political party in history) and seem poised to go much higher. If that doesn’t scream momentum, I don’t know what does.
What pains me is that this could have been Your Party, but they fell at the first proverbial hurdle. And in doing so, have proven themselves to be little else but ineffective left-wing puritans. I strongly believe that political parties are no different from tools, insofar as they derive their right to exist from being effective at doing things. Your Party has already blunted itself beyond practical use, and if anything, it should be disbanded.
There are of course those who still have faith, which is genuinely understandable. But they must eventually face the simple truth that Your Party is nobody’s party. It will never be anybody’s party because it will never win power. And it can’t win power because it is led by self-aggrandising, politically incompetent frauds who in their long and storied parliamentary careers have achieved nothing materially significant besides name recognition. That alone will never be enough to lead.
The Greens, as of now, are the only viable route forward for the Left. Polanski is a good leader, and that alone is sorely needed in the age of Populism. His beliefs are the antithesis of far-right savagery; his party’s platform can be described eloquently by a single phrase, which Polanski himself has taken to repeating often on social media, “Let’s make hope normal again.”
As it always does, it will inevitably fall to the Great British public to choose our nation’s path at the next election. Our voting system will make it necessary for anti-Reform voters to consolidate around the most viable candidate in each seat, a winning formula demonstrated in the Welsh Senedd’s recent and highly anticipated Caerphilly by-election. In which the centre-left Plaid Cymru placed comfortably ahead of Reform due to tactical voting.
This strategy, as it seems with all sensible things, is something I imagine Your Party and Labour will stubbornly refuse to accept (although I hope I am wrong). So it is best to let them wallow in the hole of irrelevance they will surely dig for themselves, and to move on from them entirely.
