Zack Polanski

Great OP Cossy
It challenges me because Zack Polinski doesn’t seem to me to be the person I’d want as PM in for example, the current illegal war started by Trump. I’m so conventional I’m relieved KS PM
I share concerns abiut trans issues, i would as a so called Terf

I agree drug/alcohol addiction a medical issue. Having worked wuth 13 year olds in County Lines, I’m not sure how remove crime from addiction

My daughter aged 40 and her left leaning friends are all saying Green the way to go

Cossy I dint see the greens a relatively safe bet. Naive
… inexperienced, right ob but detailing with Trump, i think notb

For many years I was in favour of legalising drugs because of the misery I’ve seen particularly involving young women who have to sell their bodies and to add insult to injury give their money to their pimp.
But that was when the drug trade was relatively simple. You knew who had grown the grass. If you wanted heroine it was harder but doable. If you wanted pills you knew where they had come from, more often than not from a hospital🤷‍♀️

Those days are gone and won’t return. The drug barons have this country ( and others) in their grip.
You don’t even have to leave your house now, you have your drug of choice delivered to your door.

We havnt got the money or resources to fix it 😥
Why doesn’t Holland have the same problems as us? Because for eons the Dutch authorities haven’t considered grass/ weed/ puff as the food of the Devil. Whereas this country couldn’t have found a better way to get young people addicted. Just keep tell them it’s bad, it’s wrong, mana from heaven to a teenager.
Rant over 😂

I read through the Greens policies and must admit that many of them are what I’d want in an ideal world. But, even with having no knowledge of economics didn’t think that those aims were easily doable. Some of my gay friends thought the recent by election result was the beginning of something great for them, but I did feel that it was because gay and trans issues were very important to them. Having said that they travel a lot, especially to America. I listened to the The Rest is Politics Leading interview with Polanski and agree with Rory and Alastair in that he was a nice person but wasn’t a one for details. I read up on him on Wikipedia and felt that he was a bit of an opportunist that had left the LibDems because he wanted a higher position in the party. I think my grandsons school friends are looking to vote Green having previously, for some strange reason, favoured Farage. Polanski appeared on The Last Leg and I found him to be a bit of an opportunist showman, probably thanks to his drama background. I also worry about trans issues; trans people in women’s sport etc. I’ve always wanted the Greens to have a voice in parliament but wouldn’t want someone like Polanski as PM. Am I right in thinking they want to do away with tuition fees? A student vote winner but it surely wouldn’t be economically possible? I don’t think Caroline Lucas wanted him to become party leader and I greatly respect her judgement although I must admit to not knowing who any of the recent party leaders, apart from her, have been. If 16 year olds get the vote they’ll vote Green and it worries me that it will allow Reform to get more votes. I have tried to like Polanski but I’m afraid that I can’t. It’s so easy to offer the electorate the world until you’re actually in government.

Basically he doesn’t pass the sniff test.

I think I said elsewhere on this site that the Greens seem to be slipping into the space previously occupied by the LibDems.

What I mean by this is that it seems they will say and promise anything they think people want to hear- covering all bases with their economic, environmental and housing policies etc. However, when it comes to whether they will actually ever have to stand by their promises (remember Nick Clegg?) when they are able to put things into action is another matter.

You asked about Zack Polanski, though and I do admit he is refreshing to listen to, not at least because he is shaking things up a little and at least drawing some attention away from the vile right wing parties who get far too much exposure in the media...

I think Ed Davey has been pushed out of the parliamentary clown spot by Polanski. I’ve always liked the LibDems though, till recently, they always seemed to be the voice of reason until the ill fated coalition.

Apart from the trans issue I'm perfectly comfortable with Polanski.

Most of the Green ideas (I don't think they can be called policies yet) are what many would have expected from a Labour government and, although none of you believe it, his ideas about economics are going very much in the right direction. We need to radically change the economic doctrine which has been dominant since Thatcher and which has brought so many countries as well as the UK to the state they are now in, with huge inequalities and nearly all the money the governments put into their economies being sucked up by the wealthiest.

I like the fact that the Greens look to inclusivity, not division.

I'm watching Polanski with interest.

Zack Polanski reminds me of a final year student. He’s plausible, articulate and apparently well-meaning, but his ideas are of the sort that are attractive on the surface but the bit of the iceberg above the water is all you get.

As others have said, his views on women worry me. They are presented as being ’kind’ to transpeople, but that’s easy. Thinking about how women are affected by it all seems either too difficult for him, or he just doesn’t care. When seen alongside his views on sex work and his previous claim to be able to increase women’s breast size by hypnosis, I am inclined to think it’s the latter.

I am not in favour of legalising hard drugs. I think cannabis and maybe some other ‘soft’ ones should be legalised and taxed, but not drugs such as heroin, spice or crack cocaine.

He has no experience in politics, and nor does his party. I agree with Iam that he’d struggle on the world stage, too.

I would like to see more from the Greens at local level, but I don’t think they are ready for national government.

My children (early 30s) like him though. . .

It’s just that, when I see how scruffy he looks it makes me think of Michael Foot’s donkey jacket ( which was a perfectly smart well made jacket and he was an elderly man wearing it on a cool day) and the furore that caused at the time. ( I loved Michael Foot although with hindsight I shouldn’t have voted for him as party leader #lesson learned).

Didn't he used to hypnotise women to achieve bigger boob's

To be fair to him I think it’s something the press have dug up from his days in drama and it’s been sensationalised.

I think if it were a choice between the Greens ‘messing up the UK’ and Reform, who are guaranteed to do the same, I’d go for the Greens. The Greens seem kinder and more genuinely concerned about inequality (and Polanski understands better how to attack this)

As I don’t think either will be in a position to take power after the next GE this is to some extent academic, but they could well be part of a progressive coalition.

Yes MaizieD, if a choice between Green and Reform, it’s Green any day.
My impression is the Greens will take votes from Labour

I tend to agree with most on this thread.

Polanski is too much of a light weight.

We do suffer from a lack of heavyweight politicians - those with intelligence, integrity, and wit.

Remember some of the oh so funny one-liners and put downs in parliamentary debate?

Most seem to be just out of university debating societies and never seem to progress beyond that level.

Iam64

Yes MaizieD, if a choice between Green and Reform, it’s Green any day.
My impression is the Greens will take votes from Labour

That’s because he mostly sounds like the Labour we were expecting.

Can you just step back and look at the mess this disunited kingdom is in after centuries of misrule by mainly TWO parties both of which have their snouts as. far into the trough as they can get them!
Surely change is good?
Polanski is mirroring what Scotland does or wants to do without Tory …red or blue ,intervention.
Doing the same thing over centuries and ending up with the same results shows not just a lack of knowledge or empathy ..it’s mainly men who will always think they know best
They don’t!
We have regular wars support the wrong guys currently Trump and Netanyahu destroy countries and lives while claiming to be doing the right thing
NOT IN MY NAME and not in the name of most clear thinking ,forward thinking people.
What is the saying about the past being a different country?
Maybe it’s time to leave THAT country behind and find a different more progressive way that’s benefits the ordinary folk not just the greedy the mega rich the arms dealers and the politicians themselves.
That’s my hopes for this messed up world and why I,m voting for a party that thinks as I do.
Someone on here ,years ago said voting Tory made her a better class of person,I. Beg to differ .Take a long hard look at what
our generation has ..or is leaving in our wake and it ain’t good!
I,m a 72 year old granny of 6 and I,d like to see better things ahead got THEM

I view him as a grade a misogynist. I don't think of him as kind and inclusive, i think in terms of women his views are much worse than anything I have heard reform say.
Women belong in the kitchen or vulnerable women who have been raped should be in prisons, refuges with men ( and the worst kind of men) I know, which is worse.
I also confidently predict that within a year those who who supported him will be trying to explain that away in the same way as they did with mandelsson.

I don't actually think it is being a lightweight necessarily, I think he will say anything, absolutely anything to gain power. He has many similarities with Farage.

Maybe it’s time to leave THAT country behind and find a different more progressive way that’s benefits the ordinary folk not just the greedy the mega rich the arms dealers and the politicians themselves.

I absolutely agree with you, paddyann.

Apart for a brief period after WWII the world we know has been controlled by the wealthy and it’s not a good place. Time for a change within the parameters of the rule of law (revolutions seeking democracy for the not wealthy usually end messily, so are not to be desired). Whether Polanski and the Greens are the ones to do it remains to be seen…

I also confidently predict that within a year those who who supported him will be trying to explain that away in the same way as they did with mandelsson.
Are you suggesting sexual impropriety, or political corruption?

One thing I think we can all agree on us that we have been very poorly served by our governments and change is desirable.

That is where we part company - on agreeing the sort of change.

Not sure. I wasn't sure what it would be with Mandelsson but I knew it would be something.
You know when you watch those documentaries where someone older ( usually a woman) has met a twenty something abroad, given them their
live savings and then doesn't understand why they are making excuses not to come to live them.
It is as hard for me to understand people falling for polanski as it is for me to understand those stories. To me he us like a walking red flag. Lets hope I am wrong.

Apologies for typos.

And you don’t see that in Farage!!!