Unlike other political figures who tend to cower before the tabloid firing squad, Polanski has welcomed the hysteria with open arms.
Zack Polanski has had a good week. Not least because the Green Party now boasts more members than the Liberal Democrats, despite having 68 fewer MPs, or because of the infectious energy that reportedly flowed through the party’s conference in Bournemouth, which enjoyed a record-breaking attendance.
No, the real feather in his cap came courtesy of Britain’s right-wing media, who seem beside themselves at the mere existence of a confident, unapologetically progressive leader.
Unlike other political figures who tend to cower before the tabloid firing squad, Polanski has welcomed the hysteria with open arms.
“I’m never going to need to write another comment piece again am I,” he posted, “The right-wing shit rags are just going to keep recruiting for us.”
One of the triggers for the latest media meltdown seemed to be the Greens’ proposal of housing reform.
“The party even more dangerous than Starmer’s Labour – UK’s answer to Putin’s Communists,” headlined the Express.
The article takes aim at the party’s plans for a phased reduction in private landlords and a boost to council house building, policies that directly address the UK’s housing crisis. Measures include rent controls, ending buy-to-let mortgages, allowing councils to buy rental properties at a discount, and establishing a state-owned housing manufacturer to produce high-quality council homes at scale.
They would also levy national insurance on rental income, which, according to a report in the Times, is a measure that has also been considered by the chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Green MP and housing spokesperson Carla Denyer clarified that the policy doesn’t abolish landlords, as the headlines hysterically claimed.
“While the motion to conference had an eye-catching name, it does not actually ‘abolish’ landlords,” she said.
“It does, however, address the housing crisis, empowers tenants and improves their wellbeing. It contains a range of policies which, over time, would reduce the proportion of the housing market that is privately rented, and increase the proportion of socially rented homes.”
Instead of debating the merits of housing reform, the Express pivoted to attacking the Greens over their position on Gaza. The piece accused deputy leader Mothin Ali of holding an “anti-Israel doctrine,” claiming the “alliance between the hard-left and Islamists has a long history – both dedicated to replacing our current capitalist society.”
And this wasn’t an isolated hit job on the Greens. An earlier Express article labelled Polanski “thick,” “utterly inept,” and an “eejit.”
Over at the Telegraph, and columnist Annabel Denham wrote a piece entitled:
“There is a terrible creeping threat to our society, but it is not Reform.”
Her nightmare is not Nigel Farage or the Conservatives, but… the Green Party.
“Progressivism is permeating all aspects of our lives,” she warns, before mocking the party’s proposal for open borders as a solution to the small boats crisis.
“These are not cuddly environmentalists worrying about newts. They are people with dangerous ideas.”
Responding to that post, Polanski mocked:
“Our movement is living rent free in the heads of the Telegraph journalists at the moment. Join me in being ‘a threat to the right that they never saw coming.”
And that’s exactly the point. The Greens, under Polanski’s leadership, are daring to challenge the status quo with bold ideas and unwavering principles. And that terrifies a media ecosystem built on upholding the existing order.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, when the right-wing media gets this rattled, you know the politician is doing something right.
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