Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

'Unrestrained capitalism' biggest threat to culture and language in Wales, says Welsh Green leader

Andrew Slaughter, the Green party’s leader in Wales, is speaking at the conference now.

He says Labour promised change at the last election, but the defining emotion people feel now is fear, he says.

After promising change, this Labour government has snuffed out every hope people had for it. People were desperate for that hope when they voted last year. But Labour lied.

I meet diehard Labour voters every day who tell me, never again. A common refrain is that what this government is doing is even worse than the Tories. Their longtime voters can see this clearly now, and they are rightly furious.

Slaughter says the Greens should be taking on “the corporations and the billionaires that are robbing us blind”.

We always thought the Tories were ones who shovelled public money into the hands of the rich, but Labour wanted to be even bigger corporate sycophants.

Slaughter says “unrestrained capitalism” is the greatest threat to language and culture in Wales.

The brutal logic of austerity has decimated our social fabric across the board, but it’s also undermining the very foundations of who we are.

But unrestrained capitalism is the same hostile force that working people have fought for centuries.

Slaughter says he has seen this in the housing sector, and that is why the Greens will fight for renters’ rights.

Andrew Slaughter Photograph: Green party

Labour claims Polanski's speech shows he is sowing 'division and grievance'

The Labour party has put out this response to the Zack Polanski speech from a Labour spokesperson.

It is no surprise that Zack Polanski, a man who said he wanted to learn from Nigel Farage, has done so in his speech today – using his platform to sow division and grievance.

Labour firmly chooses the path of national renewal. Only our Labour government is driving forward the change working people voted for, to renew our country, keep Britain safe, and make sure people across all corners of the UK feel better off.

This is interesting because it shows that Labour does not a strong line of attack against Polanski – or, at least, not one that it is willing to use in public. Polanski was critical of his opponents in his speech, but it did not stir up “grievance” any more than Keir Starmer’s did. (Like Polanski, Starmer talked about people being let down by the prevailing economic model.) Polanski did criticise the wealthiest 1% for not paying their fair share, but not in a way that went beyond the class war rhetoric that is fairly normal at a Labour conference.

In its news release, Labour also highlighted four areas where it thinks Polanski’s record is problematic. For the record, I will post them here.

NATO – Zack Polanski wants to take the UK out of NATO, declaring that “the age of NATO is now over”. Polanski told Byline Times that “I think our NATO policy is out of date…the idea that we can reform NATO…is an idea that’s on its last legs”.

Comments on Nigel Farage – Zack Polanski wants to learn from Nigel Farage. He said that the Green Party should learn from the Reform leader, arguing that Farage “tells a really powerful story…I do think we’ve got to learn from that”. He previously suggested that the Greens should deploy “clickbait”.

Breast enlargement by hypnosis - Polanski once offered hypnosis sessions to a journalist and suggested he could enlarge her breasts. Polanski has since claimed that this “does not represent my work…does not represent me.” However, at the time Polanski appeared to praise the possibilities of hypnosis, telling a Sun journalist that “this is an extremely new approach, but I can see it becoming popular very quickly, because it’s so safe and a lot cheaper than a boob job”.

Comments about natural birth – The Green Party previously criticized life-saving medical interventions for women in childbirth, stating that “we will work to reduce the number of interventions in childbirth” expressing particular concern about ‘the rate of caesarean sections, which are expensive and, when not medically required, risky’. Polanski told Sky News that despite the policy not appearing in the Green Party manifesto, “it’s not that we have changed our minds”, suggesting that an anti C-section approach remains Party policy.

YouGov has just published some polling on the views of Green party members. It is based on a survey of 508 members carried out in August. There aren’t many polls about the views of Green party members because polling such a small group is not easy.

The poll suggests that in August Carla Denyer, who stood down as co-leader, was even more popular with members than Zack Polanski.

It also suggests that, even though Polanski did not mention the environment much in his speech, members view it, by a wide margin, as the most important issue facing the country.

Polling on Green party members Photograph: YouGov

Michelle Mone says she has ‘no wish’ to remain a Conservative peer

Michelle Mone has said she has “no wish” to return to the House of Lords as a Conservative peer after a company linked to her was ordered to repay millions of pounds for breaching a Covid-19 PPE contract, Eleni Courea reports.

And these are from my colleague Peter Walker, who was listening to Zack Polanski’s speech in the conference hall in Bournemouth.

Polanski did describe himself (sort of) as an “eco populist”, but he’s a curious sort of populist - quite gentle, without the very obvious ego and brazen public front you’d normally associate with the idea. But he’s a very good public speaker.

He has just described how his ancestors arrived in England from Latvia via Ukraine and Poland, fleeing pogroms but still facing antisemitism in the UK. Polanski explains how he thus changed his surname back from the anglicised “Paulden” they adopted.

That speech was quite light on specific Green policies but it’s clear that Polanski is a *much* more effective public speaker than Starmer, Badenoch or Davey, & possibly on a par (albeit v differently) to Farage. It’s no wonder Labour are privately pretty worried about possible losses to the Greens.

(Left to right): Green MP Siân Berry, Mothin Ali and Rachel Millward, the two co-deputy leader, and Green MP Carla Denyer listening to Zack Polanski’s speech. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

Zack Polanski's speech to Green conference - snap verdict

Zack Polanski was elected Green leader, with 85% of the vote on what was (by Green standards) a much higher than usual turnout, because members believed he could turbo-charge the party’s communications. Being more leftwing was undoubtedly a factor too, but mainly Polanski won because, in attention economy dominated by populists, he argued that he could get a hearing for the party, and members believed him. In truth, before today he had already shown he could deliver as a performer, but this speech showed that, in this, the judgment of Green members was sound.

This was not a profound speech, but it was as good one, with clear messages, nice anecdotes and emotional depth. Think Corbynism, but without any of the bad bits (principally, all the baggage from 40 years of leftwing factionalism). Earlier this year, when Zarah Sultana announced that she and Jeremy Corbyn were setting up a new leftwing party, there was a lot of media speculation about how it might gobble up the Green party vote. On the basis of this speech, it would seem more sensible to speculate about Polanski gobbling up theirs.

Polanski did not have anything new to say in terms of policy. The Greens take their internal party democracy very seriously, and leaders are not allowed to announce policy off the cuff, as happens with Labour and the Tories. Polanski was a Liberal Democrat before he was a Green and his reference to environmental issues did not really go beyond tokenism. (See 2.14pm.) On the economy in general, quite a lot of what he said (on austerity and privatisation – see 1.55pm) could have come out of an Andy Burnham speech.

Mostly, though, he was selling a wealth tax. While his language was at times harsh (and inexact – the political class has not been “poisoned” by extreme wealth, because if they had been poisoned they would be dead – he should have said “corrupted” by extreme wealth), his tone was gentle and inclusive, which made him more persuasive.

He mocked Keir Starmer for his comments about a wealth tax at the Labour conference. (See 1.59am.) In fact, Starmer is more right than wrong on this, because most experts think the potential gains from a stand-alone wealth tax, of the kind promised by the Green, are very limited. But the policy is exceedingly popular. At the last election the Greens were proposing a wealth tax levied at 1% annually on assets above £10m (plus a 2% rate on assets above £1bn). Here is some YouGov polling from earlier this year on a 2% wealth tax on assets above £10m.

Polling on wealth tax Photograph: YouGov

Two of the Green MPs – Adrian Ramsay in Waveney Valley and Ellie Chowns in North Herefordshire – won their seats from Conservatives, and they are understandably nervous about this sort of pitch. But the audience at the Green party today seemed to love it.

Zack Polanski giving his conference speech. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

Polanski says Britain at its best when it's 'thoughtful, considerate, kind'

Polanski ends with a story about a visit to a bakery that employs ex-offenders.

Let’s instead look after each other. The Green party’s moment is now. Let’s go.

And that’s it.

Polanski is now talking about his boyfriend, Richie, who works in palliative care.

Caring for people, working for the public - showing kindness and compassion. That’s the most patriotic thing I could possibly ever imagine.

As well as thanking Richie, he thanks everyone in the party for what they do.

Look at next year alone and get ready for some bold politics.

We’re fighting to win our first ever directly elected mayor in Hackney.

We’re campaigning to win more seats in more places than ever before.

And we are on the cusp of winning our first ever seats on the Senedd.

In many areas, the party is ready to win.

Polanski says Greens can't be effective environmentalist without talking about inequality

Polanski turns to the climate.

He says he is often asked if the Green party is an environmental movement or a social justice movement.

We live in one of the most nature depleted countries in the world - and we have just had the hottest summer on record.

Labour made a pledge for £28bn on Green investment before the election. They ditched it before they even got a sniff of power.

And Polanski goes on to attack Labour for its record on civil rights.

This country has a proud tradition of protecting civil liberties - but once again a Labour government is cracking down on our rights.

From terrorist proscription against protesters

To banning journalists from their conference

To diving into a rushed evidence-free plan for digital IDs that are likely to discriminate against minorities

The alarm bells of authoritarianism are now ringing.

And it’s down to us, the Green party, to take a stand and say that our rights and our liberties are not negotiable, and we will do everything in our power to protect both our privacy and defend our juries.