Reaction to BBC Newscast Interview
I interviewed Natalie Bennett yesterday evening and asked her about the recent Adrian Ramsay interview on BBC Newscast
Q: There was an appearance on Sunday. Adrian Ramsay was on the telly, so was he saying perhaps, “Everyone, could you please stop talking about Palestine, all of you new people,” and could it be that the governance structures of the Green Party are going to change and it’s gonna stop being a bottom up member led organisation in terms of policy?
NB: In short, no, and no. And in terms of the future, this was on the BBC Newscast podcast, so it’s readily available freely to everybody. And Adrian gave a very careful, long considered reflection on his personal views, but also on the desire to work with others, which is as always been the Green Party way. So, I’d urge people not to just judge that interview on the basis of a right wing media headline or two, but to actually listen to the whole thing. And what they’ll hear is Adrian in that newscast says very much how he’s deeply concerned about the genocide in Gaza, he’s deeply concerned about British continuing arm sales. He says that we have to all work together, as is the Green Party way; far more things unite us than separate us. And in terms of the future—I mean, we have long been talking about—it’s been a long been a concern of mine going back more than a decade—that the way conferences worked is it’s not a fair and equal access situation. Because yes, we do have financial support for people who can’t afford it, but you still have to be able to have the time, not have the caring responsibilities, not have disabilities that might stop you coming to conference, all the things that the way conference works. So what we’re aiming to do is to increase the democracy to make sure now that we’re so much of a larger party, you know, hugely larger than we were 18 months ago, to make sure that we get the maximum number of voices being heard. This is about more democracy.
Q: And what did you say to people who think that all the new people’s votes, or the new people who have come, perhaps their votes have been taken for granted, because he appears to be saying—and Caroline Lucas also gave off the vibe “I wish we’d concentrate on environmental issues and core values and things like that”—what message is that giving to all the new people who actually voted for the zionism is racist policy?
NB: I again, I’d urge people to listen to the whole newscast, because what Adrian says there is, in not quite my words, but the words that I always say, which is you look at the philosophical basis of the Green Party. I’ve always said that economic and environmental justice are indivisible. He talks very much about how those two things are related together. You know, my explanation of Green Party philosophy is that there’s enough resources on this planet for everyone to have a decent life, for us to look after climate and nature if we share them out fairly. So you cannot separate economic issues and environmental issues, and I don’t think Green Party members do or ever have, and I think that’s something that’s increasingly being well understood.
Reaction to Natalie Bennett interview
The first response on Instagram was that we are being gaslit. Obviously I encourage debate or I wouldn’t post the interview. It’s going to be interesting to see how the green party navigates these waters. In another interview, I asked Natalie Bennett about yesterday’s cancelled Local authority power sharing deals with Labour which was announced yesterday. I will post that shortly.
Both Labour and Adam Ramsay now saying they have a problem with the Zionism is Racism policy begs the question – is Adam Ramsay going to stay in a party that rejected him as leader, and whose ideas he himself now rejects, or is he going to stay and, as Natalie Bennett implies, focus on building bridges with the rest of the party?
