PoliticsJOE live event with Russell Warfield: The Green Socialist book launch

Do you find that daunting, Zach? I mean, you're being asked to lead a move to lead a movement here that is going to turn back the tide on everything that Russell has just said. Is that frightening to you?

But staying on that spirit for one moment because at risk of you sounding a little bit like Jacob Ree Mock during the last election when he when he said that actually he loves seeing food banks pop up around his constituency. I'm going to make a presumption you don't like to see food banks around.

Is that how you see it, Zach? Do you see you're sort of building on the foundations of giants or is this a perhaps you've just come up with an entirely new philosophy that you'd like to take ownership of?

And now I've got to cut that out. Um, no, actually, do you know what? We can pull it in if I if I follow up and ask you what is the intention with standing for parliament? Why? Why now? Why was it not Gon and Denton? Why is it Hullburn? Because I know that you've always wanted to be a London MP. I always imagined that you would stand somewhere in Hackne. I thought you might possibly go to Haring Gay, stand in David Lami's seat. Why Hullburn and why now?

It would benefit the Green Party. You can acrew millions of votes, but the first pass the post system is difficult at best, right? It would also mean that perhaps you have to look at tactical voting and perhaps you might want to stand aside for certain candidates if you think that you might split the vote. Is that where you would be?

so you so so you've had that experience from Hullburn from that perspective, but you liked what Natalie was saying at the time. you liked the way that she was mixing socialism into climate change policy and is that sort of where you modeled where you are at now? Is that the sort of talking points that interested you?

So on PR so with reform can you beat reform? I mean in the current in the current scenario that we have right now with first pass the post do do you feel frightened that you could split the vote? Do you worry about reform? I mean, are there any examples of where you have beaten them before? Very leading question because I know that there is.

Do do you ever find you you talk about ecosism all the time? You talk about the profit motive. Do you think that sort of language tallies well with the media in its current state? I mean can you make the nuanced argument against the profit motive in the current climate that we have?

Oh, well, I do have two because I'm writing my thesis about your first year as leader of the Green Party and in relation to most for a left populism, so I'm kind of fishing for quotes here. Sorry. Um, the first one is Oh, I' I've been recording, don't worry. Um, the first one is kind of a simple one. essentially why eco-op populism or ecoocialism and not just lefting populism or socialism and then the second one is more international because I live in Berlin and on Sunday we have state elections where Dinka are leading quite narrowly over the city and um we obviously have also Milanch in France and Mamani in New York. So I'm quite interested to see how you kind of position yourself within the international context of left-wing populist movements and also how you kind of look to build those connections in the future because they are seem to be quite successful. Yeah, sorry for speaking so fast but yeah. Um

we're going to have to push you for an answer here. Do you see yourself as a Mum Donnie?

Um so I wanted to ask uh in terms of um having seats for um you wanted to stand a member of uh Greens in every seat. um squaring the circle between the eco- populism of for example in Wales where we have the uh blaspheus in Port Talbert being shut down uh and the greater Welsh sort of uh sector sort of lagging behind and voting to um well aligning with Scotland and the um devolved powers sort of move away. How do you square that circle of a lot of these um part constituencies rely on things that aren't necessarily eco-friendly? Do you mean like post-industrial towns? How do you square that like BA and all of those sort of core mining towns? Well, particularly as well because you look at like GMBB union, they represent say they would have represented Grangemouth, but they also represent another, you know, many of the North Sea workers. How do you square that circle? I think that's a brilliant question.

Does that mean that you reopen say for example Port Talbert, do you reopen Tarta Steel?

Sorry. Just to give you an idea, for example, Zach, you're building a rator. Your policies are fantastic, but you could also just be a successful politician in the US or Australia or anywhere else. When I see the states compared to the UK, the states for all of its racism and all of its contradictions has an equal society where everyone's meant to be equal, even if they're not. In the UK, we still have a king. We have aristocrats and dukes and lords. what keeps you here and what keeps you hopeful that we can change this? That's wonderful. Go on.