Members loved hearing from a leader who boldly reflects their views and isn’t afraid of the rightwing press. How far can he take the party?
T
he Green party members in Bournemouth at the weekend were, largely, exuberant. More than one person I spoke to used the word “joyful”. “The energy is amazing,” said Jean Lambert, the former London MEP. “It’s exceeded my expectations,” said the new leader, Zack Polanski. “Even the most unfriendly journalist can’t find anyone that isn’t fired up and ready to go.”
Polanski himself contributed to this feeling. He has a talent for expressing members’ views clearly and without fearing how the rightwing press might respond. The recent boost he’s brought to the party’s profile combines the gnawing anxiety produced by rising Faragism, the experience of watching a genocide in real time, anger at inequality, Keir Starmer’s move to the right and profound climate anxieties, with an overwhelming feeling of relief: “thank God someone’s saying this.”
Where once there was a nervousness about defending controversial but internally popular policies such as drug decriminalisation or denouncing Israeli “apartheid”, the party has now abandoned this caution – and members love it. Standing ovations used to be a rarity at Green conferences. Polanski got multiple.
