Labour’s Grim Election Farce Won’t Bring Real Change

Since the disastrous outcome of the local elections for Starmer's Labour there have been rumblings of discontent in the party including MPs calling for him to be replaced. Now it is beginning to look like there may well be a serious leadership challenge. The front runners are Rayner, Burnham and Streeting. There's a problem here. Firstly, Burnham has to get himself into parliament via the upcoming byelection in Makerfield and beat Reform. Starmer shows no sign of giving way and is looking to sit it out for as long as he can.

The record of all three ‘contenders’ is poor.  Recent articles in the Guardian have shown that Burnham supports Reeves fiscal rules which continue austerity and he now supports Shabana Mahmood's racist immigration policies.  That pretty much rules him out for anyone who has left or progressive values. 

Rayner appears to be keeping her head down for the moment, perhaps hoping she’ll be able to sneak through when the other contenders have managed to make fools of themselves. Streeting has resigned and called for a new PM but his record on privatising the NHS and harming trans people is pretty grim. He appears to be trying to rehabilitate himself now by calling for ‘wealth taxes’.

Excellent cartoon from Roger Latham which sums up the Starmer situation (Private Eye)

We need to take a quick look back to a UK political history over the past half century to get the context here. First neoliberalism started with Thatcher - huge damage to UK with PFI, right to buy, privatisation, underfunding the NHS and education. Then New Labour win in 1997 talking about a national integrated public transport system, bring rail back into public ownership and other progressive policies. Blair didn’t do any of those things introducing tuition fees and continuing privatisation.  Then 14 disastrous years of Tory government leading to austerity and Brexit. So Labour gets elected in 2024 with Starmer lying about supporting Corbynite policies to become leader, and predictably doing nothing to reverse austerity and privatisation or to properly fund the NHS.

This is where we are now in 2026, in the UK, the EU and the USA our politicians are owned by oligarchs and corporations. We don’t live in

democracies anymore - if we ever did. Its worth reading this excellent piece by Jonathon Cook which explains where we are now. here are two quotes:

"The super-rich and their vassals are deeply invested in the system because it richly rewards them. They’ll deploy everything they can – from the media to the 'security' forces – to prevent change”

"Corporations are the main institutions shaping the way our societies function under globalised capitalism. They are soulless, predatory, extractive, polluting, profit-driven business empires seeking monopolistic domination over parts of the economy”.

It’s time for people to wake up and understand that our politicians in the USA, UK, and EU don't work for us.They work for oligarchs and corporations and they have done for decades. It's called #Neoliberalism. We need radical change in our democratic institutions.

WE NEED REAL DEMOCRACY!

REAL HOPE, REAL CHANGE!

Only the Green Party in the UK are offering this.

IF YOU WANT - REAL HOPE, REAL CHANGE - VOTE GREEN!

As we approach the 2026 local elections Greens are campaigning for REAL, HOPE CHANGE! Predictably the right wing MSM are ramping up ridiculous attacks and, in particular, of course, they are targeting the leader Zack Polanski. 

One of the recent ‘classics’ is an article in the Daily Heil which attacks Zack and his ‘Green Utopia’. It’s hard not to laugh when you see these cheap pathetic smears, but no doubt some will fall for them.

The Canary produced an article which summed up the nonsense well:

"The Daily Mail has attacked Zack Polanski’s Green Party as “authoritarian”. But considering that’s bullshit, and in light of the Mail‘s long record of cheerleading for fascism, the Mail may be doing its elitist cause more harm than good.” [link]

And, the headline is hilarious:

Desperation from the Daily Mail

I think we can we can expect the Greens to do well on May 7th but there is no room for complacency. The Zionist propaganda attack machine better known as Israel 'Lobby’ is already targeting the Greens, both its leader and members. Recently two anti-Zionist members have been suspended after antisemitism claims made about them. One of them, Tony Greenstein, is a well known jewish anti-Zionist who has spoken out, condemning the Gaza Genocide. Expect more members to be smeared.

If, as expected, the Greens do well, the attacks will increase. This is the same old stuff which was used to undermine Jeremy Corbyn, and helped to lead to his demise as Labour leader.

So we need to be on our guard and to support the victims of the smear campaign. We can also expect attacks and smears on Zack Polanski to increase. After the horrific attack on two Jews in Golders Green, officers tasered the assailant and then repeatedly kicked him in the head as he lay on the ground. Zack retweeted a tweet criticising this which lead to the Met Chief Mark Rowley writing a letter to him. Zack apologised for the retweet, something I don’t think he needed to do, but it provided the MSM with another opportunity to lay into him. The Times even published an antisemitic cartoon of Polanski kicking one of the police officers in the head.

Times are getting harder for the majority of British people with the cost of living crisis, young people mired in student debt and growing poverty for millions. The Greens have policies which can help to lift us out of the mire we have been dumped in by 50 years of neoliberalism. Including:

• Renationalise NHS • 500,000 Council Homes • Wealth Tax on Superrich • Renationalise Water

• Abolish Tuition Fees

• £15 minimum p/h

• Universal Basic Income • 4 Day Week • Renationalise Energy • Universal Care System • Rent Controls

All of these things are popular with the majority of voters. Now, we need to make them happen. Campaign in your local area if you can and talk to your local friends and your family. We have a real fight on our hands but we can win if we use our agency and strive for a better Britain. VOTE GREEN!