The Greens Must Stand Down

Ben Wildsmith

To be ‘of the left’ is to face constant disappointment: at the willingness of voters to fall for right-wing lies and, most painfully, at the unending capacity that our leading politicians have for self-sabotage.

‘Your Party’, the still officially unnamed vehicle for Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn’s new socialist enterprise has experienced a birth so difficult that the viability of the project is seriously in question.

What could have been a modern, grassroots operation with member-led policies and an egalitarian structure seems to have disintegrated into factional squabbling over control before any potential members even had a chance to open their mouths.

Recently forced to retract the offer of paid membership over data procedures, the Corbyn end of the operation, which features leading figures from his time as Labour leader, has had another go today.

The revised offer, which seems to sideline Sultana, includes a rule forbidding membership of other parties. Anyone dreaming of a progressive coalition existing under this umbrella will be dismayed by that news.

The immediate beneficiary of this nonsense is the Green Party. Zack Polanski’s leadership has attracted a lot of positive attention for a party that has traditionally seemed rather timid in its campaigning style.

If I was a betting man, I’d wager that the disaffected Labour vote in England is likely to swing substantially their way.

Bridgehead

Here in Wales, however, we have urgent electoral matters at hand. Nobody should underestimate the importance of October’s by-election in Caerphilly.

Victory for Reform UK would act as a bridgehead to success in next year’s Senedd elections, providing the party with legitimacy, visibility, and momentum. The party’s popularity in England is such that Nigel Farage’s path to Number 10 is looking clearer than anybody could have imagined even a few weeks ago.

This is reflected in the bullishness of his statements of late. Until recently, Farage had seemed to be tacking towards the centre, calculating that too few voters shared the hardline positions favoured by party activists.

Now, flying high in the polls, he is unconstrained. Yesterday, he made the preposterous Trumpite claim that immigrants are eating swans from royal parks. Swans are elegant substitutes for the ‘cats and dawgs’ that Trump claimed were feeding Haitian immigrants during his election campaign.

MAGA

It is reasonable to assume that a Reform UK government would ape the MAGA agenda in most respects, rolling back gun restrictions and attempting to impose a monoculture on an overwhelmingly peaceful and diverse nation.

This week’s threat to revoke indefinite leave to remain status is a direct attack on people who are contributing to a country that needs their labour.

The stakes, then, are extraordinarily high for people who don’t want to live in a militarised ethnostate with a decimated public sector.

Farage’s accession to power in Westminster would likely follow a period of chaotic opposition in the Senedd, and the prospect of Welsh democracy being the first scapegoated casualty of his rule is very real.

I was caught between fury and disbelief yesterday when I learned that the Greens intend to stand veteran journalist Gareth Hughes in the Caerphilly election.

Polling has Plaid Cymru a single vote clear of Reform, with Farage’s outfit papering the constituency with dishonest leaflets misrepresenting Plaid’s position on immigration.

Political home

The candidate has justified his decision to stand, despite the clear danger of splitting the vote, by claiming that unionist Labour supporters need a political home that doesn’t support independence.

Firstly, Green Party policy supports the right of self-determination for Wales, so this doesn’t stand up.

More importantly, though, on the environment, public services, and, yes, immigration, the distance between the two parties is so slight as to be bridgeable by any reasonable and competent politicians.

Mr Hughes should not be standing in this election. Anthony Slaughter’s Welsh Green Party should recognise the electoral realities on the ground and stand aside to prevent an outcome which could have catastrophic consequences for decades to come.

There are months in which to hammer out cooperation agreements for constituencies next year, but not so for this event.

Vanity

If the Green Party’s vanity is responsible for Reform UK winning in Caerphilly, much of the left in Wales will never forgive it.

If the Welsh section of the party is intransigent, then its UK leadership ought to recognise the potential PR disaster that this candidature throws up.

Mr Polanski, you’ve impressed many of us, don’t blow that goodwill now. Stand down your candidate and recognise the gravity of this moment in Welsh life.