The absurdities of being green
13/02/2026
The absurdities of being Green
In two weeks time the results of the Gorton and Denton by-election will have been unveiled, and, no matter your political persuasion, it has to be acknowledged that there are really only two parties in this fight: Reform and The green party.
The latter, under leader Zack Polanski, has remained in the headlines almost daily since the by-election was announced to take place on February 26th.
Polanski, a native of greater Manchester, has surprisingly opted not to stand in this election. Although this not too long ago was a labour stronghold, the Greens appear to be sweeping up support from constituents that would previously voted Labour had the NEC not blocked Andy Burnham from standing in this election. Instead, the candidate the Green party has selected is Hannah Spencer, a 34 year old plumber and Green Party councillor who intends to beat Reform candidate Matt Goodwin through “hope v hate”.
Hope is a key feature in any Green Party communication. Their 2024 election campaign signs declared that they were the party of “Real hope.” and “real change”. They now have 4 MP`s elected to Parliament, Zack Polanski is not one of them.
Any potential voter may look to The Greens mantra of hope and question if they will say anything else or should we all just hope to see any well thought out policies before February 26th. So far the biggest talking point from the Green Party is their decision to back the legalisation of all drugs - including heroin and cocaine. Polanski recently admitted on Laura Kuenssberg`s BBC programme that he had never taken any drugs himself, but still wholly supported the legalisation of any and all class A drugs, insisting later that drug taking and any policy concerning it should be “led by public health experts, not politicians”.
When looking through the Green Party 2024 election manifesto there fails to be any mention of the plan to introduce legislation to legalise drugs. Instead the manifesto - which resembles more closely a children's picture book and not a serious political party document - is filled with statements on “what we will do” but not how they aim to achieve any of these policies.
One example of this being their vow to “tax people who fly a lot” but there is no expansion on this. What is the threshold for “a lot” of flights? More than one? And what new data capturing system would the green party introduce to track how many flights each person took before they reached this illusive figure that would see them paying more tax?
For the Greens, the 2024 general election result was the best that had ever achieved. They had a total vote share of 6.7% which in turn put Sian Berry MP , Ellie Chowns MP, Carla Denyer MP and Adrian Ramsay MP in Parliament. Nationwide, in the 19 months since the general election their popularity has risen again and according to a YouGov poll on Voting intention updated on February 9th, the Greens would receive 16% of the vote share. Reform, however, are still leading in the polls with 27% of the expected vote share.
For now it seems that in spite of their lack of realistic policies, the Greens are still managing to capture the public's attention. Whether this is due to a true support of their political ideas or a desire to diminish Labour`` s integrity in a protest vote, will likely not mater to the Green Party if it means a chance to gain a fifth seat in Parliament. Their core supporters will maintain steadfastly that they are the best party to govern the country, but this claims legitimacy will hinge on the results of the Gorton and Denton by-election, and from there the local elections on May 7th.
