Sep 16, 2026 · 32 min · 10 segments
Author, Russell Warfield joins the James Kennedy Podcast to discuss the recent history of the Green Party of England and Wales, Zack Polanski's extraordinary rise, the current Green surge and what the…
Russell WarfieldGuest
James KennedyHost
wow so you've really been in there then you've seen the inner workings through that whole period which you're describing in the book
I mean, one of my proudest contributions was, of course, I was there for the 2017 general election where I played a pivotal role in halving the Greens vote share on that occasion, which is under Corbyn's high point, obviously.
So, yeah, I've sort of seen the high and low ebbs of the Greens over the last 10 years.
And just before the lockdown, I was actually interviewed by Anthony Slaughter, you know, the leader of the Welsh Greens on their YouTube channel.
And one of the things we talked about in that conversation was the need that we felt at the time to address the popular misconception that too many people had at the time.
You know, they had nothing to say about housing or employment or immigration or any of those things, that they were essentially kind of out of touch talking about abstract things like the environment, heaven forbid, which was then, as it is now, you know, completely untrue.
So it's beautiful to see that in just a short few years, that's totally turned around, that, you know, more and more people are really getting the message now that the left alternative is no longer Labour, it is the Green Party.
And it's super interesting to know that during that time period, you know, you've actually been deep within the machinery.
Well, I mean, you've put your finger on one of the key, one of the real, um, one of the foremost manifestations of the thing I was talking about there, which was like the, the accusation against Polanski that, you know, he sort of ditched the environment.
And like, But this imagination that people had that the Greens were this really narrowly interested, quite traditional conservationist group, almost apolitical, basically.
And I think that's a really, really good example of the sort of thing that Polanski's been able to transcend.
And it's not for want of previous leaders trying that that hasn't happened.
There's not some... previous version of the party where it was basically just an apolitical extension of the World Wildlife Fund.
The most recent parallel, which we've just both talked about implicitly, of the surge in 2015, that was under the conditions of there being an insurgent anti-austerity for the party, which had little ostensible connection to the environment at service level.
And going as far back into the history of the party as you want to go, the leadership of the 70s and the 80s always articulated the ecological crises of our time as being contextualized by broader political and economic crises and structures.
The party didn't have conventional leadership in these days, but for the sake of simplicity, we'll call him an early party leadership figure.
wow so you've really been in there then you've seen the inner workings through that whole period which you're describing in the book
I mean, one of my proudest contributions was, of course, I was there for the 2017 general election where I played a pivotal role in halving the Greens vote share on that occasion, which is under Corbyn's high point, obviously.
So, yeah, I've sort of seen the high and low ebbs of the Greens over the last 10 years.
And just before the lockdown, I was actually interviewed by Anthony Slaughter, you know, the leader of the Welsh Greens on their YouTube channel.
And one of the things we talked about in that conversation was the need that we felt at the time to address the popular misconception that too many people had at the time.
You know, they had nothing to say about housing or employment or immigration or any of those things, that they were essentially kind of out of touch talking about abstract things like the environment, heaven forbid, which was then, as it is now, you know, completely untrue.
So it's beautiful to see that in just a short few years, that's totally turned around, that, you know, more and more people are really getting the message now that the left alternative is no longer Labour, it is the Green Party.
And it's super interesting to know that during that time period, you know, you've actually been deep within the machinery.
Well, I mean, you've put your finger on one of the key, one of the real, um, one of the foremost manifestations of the thing I was talking about there, which was like the, the accusation against Polanski that, you know, he sort of ditched the environment.
And like, But this imagination that people had that the Greens were this really narrowly interested, quite traditional conservationist group, almost apolitical, basically.
And I think that's a really, really good example of the sort of thing that Polanski's been able to transcend.
And it's not for want of previous leaders trying that that hasn't happened.
There's not some... previous version of the party where it was basically just an apolitical extension of the World Wildlife Fund.
The most recent parallel, which we've just both talked about implicitly, of the surge in 2015, that was under the conditions of there being an insurgent anti-austerity for the party, which had little ostensible connection to the environment at service level.
And going as far back into the history of the party as you want to go, the leadership of the 70s and the 80s always articulated the ecological crises of our time as being contextualized by broader political and economic crises and structures.
The party didn't have conventional leadership in these days, but for the sake of simplicity, we'll call him an early party leadership figure.
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