by Tom Slater, spiked
The Greens’ sectarian politicking reveals a democracy corroded by multiculturalism.
They say you campaign in poetry and govern in prose. On current form, the Green Party of England and Wales seems intent on campaigning in Urdu and governing in Lahore.
What else could explain Green leader Zack Polanski’s decision to make a video in Pakistan’s official language? He’s barely been his party’s candidate for Holborn and St Pancras five minutes and already he’s decided to dust off Google Translate and take to social media.
Truly, Zack is a man of many talents. In his latest viral video, the all-singing, all-dancing, bap-boosting eco-bore makes his pitch to the voters of this Central London seat, left vacant by the resignation of Keir Starmer, in some very (and I’m no expert) ropey Urdu.
What’s he saying? I’ve no idea. But nor will almost all of his would-be constituents. The most commonly spoken ‘main languages’ – other than English – in hyper-diverse Camden are French, Bengali and Spanish. According to the council, ‘Other South Asian’ languages are the main language of 575 people in the entire borough. In other words, only a tiny handful of them would be incapable of understanding Zack if he had simply spoken in English.