I listened to a podcast interview with Zack Polanski this week, the News Agents one. I had no preconceived ideas – I’d heard him speak before, but this was my first time listening to an in-depth interview with him as Green Party leader. And I was so impressed as to be worried.
One of the biggest difficulties we have as a party is getting the public to understand what we exist for. First-past-the-post (FPTP) has given us the popular perception of a half-way house between Labour and Conservatives – politically useful but not something I was ever comfortable with. Now that Reform is threatening to smash the main party duopoly, and there are rumblings to the left of Labour, the need for us to present a vision of Liberalism that the electorate can grasp – and identify with if they’re on our wavelength – is paramount.
So to hear Polanski speak like a coherent and credible Liberal was both uplifting and worrying. I know he used to be a Lib Dem, and while he claims to have felt more comfortable with the Greens once he got to know them, he has to say that to have credibility within his new party. So it’s perhaps no surprise that his broad pitch is generally Liberal, and as a very fluent and convincing speaker, much of what he said was music to this Liberal’s ears.
My worry about him was that he might be taking our clothes, but the more I think about this, the less there is to worry about than I first thought.
For a start, he’s still very new in his post, and people are still getting to know him. The questions in interviews will get harder from here on. Secondly, he’s thought of as very ‘left-wing’, which will alienate many people who are attracted to the Lib Dems. I don’t like terms like ‘left’ and ‘right’ anymore, because they’re largely meaningless (you could make a case that Boris Johnson’s government was economically left-wing). But Polanski has a lot of the old left’s views about defence and the role of the state. He sounds very like Corbyn, in fact his impressive start should worry the Corbyn/Sultana ‘will-they won’t-they’ party more than us.
Irrespective of Polanski or any other figure, we Lib Dems do need to ask what our role is now that Reform seem to be taking over from the Tories, and Labour seem less and less progressive. We clearly need to work out a handful of policy objectives for the 2029 general election that define us in the eyes of voters. That should include a new economic model, so we tackle inequality with a mechanism that allows us to show where the money will come from to spend on Liberal projects such as reviving local government, improving education, investing in overseas development (which will reduce demand for immigration in the long run), and spending more on defence (an issue on which Polanski is very vague).
But above all, our broader role should be to hold the space for hope, optimism, compassion, and basic decency amid the current turmoil. We live in a time where echo chambers reinforce prejudices for which there is no justification, where anger rises up at the mention of a scapegoat, where listening to another person’s point of view is uncool or even a sign of weakness. It is a hostile world for many people, the kind of cycle developed nations go through from time to time.
But after winter comes spring, and after spring comes summer. One day there will be an appetite again for basic decency, for meaningful relationships between neighbours, for a non-exploitative relationship with nature, and the return of the ability to disagree without being disagreeable. Liberalism is an optimistic and kind creed. It is up to the Liberals in British politics to keep the fire of decency and compassion glowing, so it never goes out, and its very existence hastens the day when people can trust in each other again rather than blaming others in a blaze of angry oratory.
If we ever get our cherished fair voting system, we will have to work with the likes of Zack Polanski. There will be a lot of shared agenda, but we need to know what we bring to the table, whatever he brings to it.
* Chris Bowers is a two-term district councillor and four-time parliamentary candidate. He writes on cross-party cooperation, was the lead author of the New Liberal Manifesto, and is unofficial coordinator of the Yorkists.
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12 Comments
Trouble is Chris is that they lost over 350 deposits at the last GE. They also embarked on the disaffiliation of women’s groups and high profile members. The certainly don’t like ‘listening to anothers point of view’ depending on the subject. It’s doing the progressive left untold harm & a continuing loss of integrity.
Compassion and decency as opposed to anger and hate sounds nice and most will agree but that does not mean they will vote for us. The key issue is the economy and nowadays not the headline position but how people can be empowered to participate better and how its gains can be more widely shared among our people.
Thank you for a relevant, considered, timely and encouraging article!
Might it be a suitable starting point for a policy of cooperative competion with which political parties combine on policies which clearly benefit the whole of our society rather than gain party our group advantage?
The House of Commons Library report on the 2024 election says that we lost 229 lost deposits (36.3% of the total) and the Greens 258 (41% of the total).
Thinking about the Greens in an England and Wales, is it not time for us to do a deal over which seats we contest at the next election to prevent us damaging each other’s chances of getting elected? This is the kind of step that makes sense when faced with the First Past the Post voting system. Scotland is different because the Scottish Green Party is pro-independence so we wouldn’t be willing to do a deal with them.
Seat deals are not democratic. They also imply a great deal of agreement between those parties in a deal. Having been on a Council with Green Councillors, I know they are out to destroy us. We should not do seat deals with such people. Non-Aggresion Pacts are a completely different matter.
Compassion is important but so too is toughness in law and order matters. Blair used to say tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime but that sounds like excusing behaviour leading to crime. The victims of crime need to be considered and if we have to punish a bit more and build more prisons then so be it. Also we do have to crack down on illegal migration, that is not being harsh but protecting the rest of us
Whereas in the past, as in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide where Radio Mille Collines spewed out hateful propaganda, its reach was largely confined to one country. Nowadays media outlets which do the same reach all over the world. They want to make people hate each other in order to gain power and money. So, yes we need to stand up for compassion and decency.
Polanski has two policies which resonate with younger voters. He has consistently supported the Palestinians and he is advocating that the wealth of the super rich is taxed more.
Yes, the economy is important because the extreme right thrives when the economy collapses.
Wonderful expression of our Liberalism, thank you, Chris. And you are right in this to say we must ‘keep the fire’ of our beliefs glowing. Yes, it is a fire, and we should let it blaze out: this is no time for blandness and mediocrity. The policy objectives we bring out in these crucial years must offer strong solutions, in keeping with our social liberal objectives: you are so right to demand ‘a new economic model so we tackle inequality’. Yes, if the number one priority for our people is to raise the standard of living at last, let it be so as to unambiguously tackle poverty and the deep divide between the richest and poorest of our society.
Yougov poll:
Tories 17%
Labour 17%
Reform 27%
Lib Dems plus Greens 31%
Food for thought?
https://www1.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2025/10/29/soon-we-could-see-the-greens-second-in-the-polls-to-reform/
@ David Allen,
If you’re going to add the Lib Dems in with the Greens, you should also add the Tories and Reform together.
Just what electoral alliances, if any, will be forged in the next few years remains to be seen. The prospects for Labour look worse than ever. The You Gov poll was taken before the managed leak of 2p on income tax rates. An unpopular budget could cost them another 3 % or so. Who knows how much support the new Corbyn/Sultana party will further take away from them?
It’s quite possible they’ll be down to single percentage figures in the New Year.
To me, what we bring to the table is a belief in the inherent power and wisdom of the individual. So empowering ordinary people is where we differ from the other Parties. For this to be effective it must be accompanied by more public education at all levels of our politics and democracy.