“This is what GB News considers news.”
The Green Party has just overtaken the Conservatives in membership numbers, becoming the third-largest political party in the UK. It’s a historic milestone in British politics, but you wouldn’t know it if you relied on GB News for your ‘news.’
Rather than report the news that Zack Polanski shared during his appearance on BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, GB News took a different angle, one that’s depressingly familiar.
“Jeremy Clarkson annihilates Zack Polanski as he rips into Green Party leader: ‘Can’t even sort out your own teeth!’” it headlined.
The article was based on Clarkson’s latest column in the Sunday Times, where the multimillionaire farmer and TV personality launched into a tirade against the Green Party’s proposed wealth tax, a policy aimed at the UK’s richest individuals, designed to address economic inequality.
Clarkson, who reportedly has a net worth of around £59 million, didn’t engage with the idea on its merits. Instead, he opened with a cheap personal jab:
“I’m greatly amused by Zack Polanski, who is the newly elected leader of the Green Party.
“He is constantly banging on about how he’s going to sort out the country, and I just sit there thinking, ‘Mate, you can’t even sort out your own teeth’.
“Honestly, it looks like he takes a picture of Shane MacGowan to the dentist.”
He then dismissed Green Party supporters as little more than “pink-haired fans.” And GB News, true to form, eagerly repackaged his insult as newsworthy commentary.
Polanski had just appeared on the BBC, interviewed by Victoria Derbyshire, who was standing in for Kuenssberg), where he faced questions about the feasibility of a wealth tax. Referencing a claim by Paul Johnson, formerly of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), that no country has successfully implemented a wealth tax that raised “serious money,” Derbyshire challenged the Green proposal.
But Polanski didn’t flinch. He clarified that the policy’s aim wasn’t simply about boosting state revenue, but about “tackling the deep inequality in our society.” He added: “The economy is not working for almost anyone at the moment, unless you’re in that top 1% of the wealthiest.”
He also raised concerns about the IFS’s supposed neutrality, citing reports of links between the think tank and banking giant Barclays
Polanski later responded to GB News’ article on Facebook:
“This is what GB News considers news.
“Actual news: The Green Party announced we have more members than the Conservatives, double the Lib Dems, making us the third largest party in Britain.
“Now I wonder why GB News wouldn’t want to report on that?”
Sadly, this isn’t the first time Polanski has faced personal attacks from right-wing commentators. Just last month, Daily Mail sketch writer Quentin Letts mocked his appearance with the headline:
“His jagged, gapped teeth had shades of Hannibal Lecter. Better watch out.”
Even Mail readers weren’t impressed, with one commenting: “What a headline. The best argument against him is a gap in his teeth?”
When serious proposals about wealth inequality are met with attacks on someone’s dental work, it speaks volumes , not about the target, but about those doing the attacking.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: when the right resorts to this kind of playground mockery, it’s usually because someone’s doing something right.
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