Full disclosure: Ive only ever voted for the Green Party. I have been a member in the past (and though I never actually left, much less transferred my allegiance to another political party, it has been 10 years plus since I actually paid any subscription), even standing in some elections for them some time ago, so it won’t come as a surprise to anyone that im crossing my fingers and hoping the people of Gorton and Manchester elect Hannah Spencer as their new MP.
The Green Party, to be clear, have, for the 30 years or so ive been following politics, always been the party which offered the policies which would have most improved the lives of working people -which is why they were either ignored or derided by the mainstream media the whole time. They’ve always offered the most progessive of social policies, and have always opposed wasting billions of pound each year on unusable nuclear weapons which only make us all more insecure. That they’ve been light years ahead of any other party when it comes to issues of nature, animal rights and the environment, scarcely even needs stating. And uniquely in British politics -no-one ever joined the Green Party in order to get rich or advance their career.
Twenty years ago, when I really started seriously considering under what conditions a Green government might be elected in the UK, I thought the most likely scenario would be that things have gotten so bad environmentally, that public opinion would have come around to recognising the urgency of a massive overhaul in energy, industry, agriculture, landscape and water management, food, waste and transport, all along the lines that the Greens have been advocating for since as ling as ive being following politics; although I also imagined a scenario where the establishment parties, in order to cling to power and remain relevant, were forced into accepting many of the Green Party´s positions and implementing much of their agenda. I must admit I never imagined the Greens would emerge as a political force as a result of the main establishment parties imploding due to corruption, sleaze, factional in-fighting and poor leadership.
So tonight we have a situation, where if the pollsters are correct, its effectively going to be a two horse race between a progressive left-wing candidate from then working classes, championing solidarity and nature, versus some racist suit from GB news getting bankrolled by the darkest forces in British politics in order to advance a neo-fascist agenda of division and hate, environmental destruction, and extreme corporate greed. Put that way, it’s difficult to conceive why this is any sort of ´race´ at all. But I found my answer to why it does appear that it will be a closely run race on a YouGov poll online asking respondents which issues in the UK were most important to them, and its immigration by a landslide (around 50% of voters citing this as a primary concern) -which of course ultimately testifies to the success in the right wing establishment mediain casting the blame for problems of housing, health care, the cost of living and more, on migrants. Blaming upon the weakest and most marginal members of society, problems caused by the most wealthy and powerful, is as old as organised politics and is precisely how a corrupt elite acting entirely against the interests of the vast majority of the population remains on power. And indeed, if people really did vote in their own best interests, the Greens would have formed the government at Westminster for many years already – because there is no doubt that the prescriptions which they offer would work for the many, not just the few, which is all the Tories, Labour and Reform will ever offer.
With a bit of luck tonight then, we’ll have one more Green MP, and the parties representing the Epstein class in British politics will get the kick in they deserve. They may as well have ´Hope´ and ´Hate´ on the ballot tonight for what the choice between the two leading contenders ultimately represenst. At stake is whether the people of one part of Manchester has enough collected enlightenment to go forward with the Greens or backwards with some pound shop Hitler and some anker from GB news. Fingers crossed they vote for Hannah Spencer, and choose hope.