I had a life membership of the Green Party. For the planet. Then the rot started to emerge, then set in....There was no place for me in this version of the Green Party. I became tired of pretending to be someone I wasn’t. I gave up my Green Party life membership. No one cared. No one asked me why. I’m a 69 year old woman, a retired SRN and cancer nurse specialist, a vegan and animal advocate who thought the Right Thing to do for all of our futures was to join the Green Party.Now the only green you will see on me is the green of the suffragette colours on my scarf.
Every mainstream party in the UK is been g torn asunder by these fanatics who know perfectly well that it is a path to oblivion. These parasitical idiots have used every party as their vehicle to colonize politics. They are an ever-present danger to us all.
I understand why party members would be so disgusted, they want to leave. But what other party could you vote for? TRA-extremists have also contaminated Labour, Lib-Dems, SNP, Womens Equality Party (yes- really! They say TWAW are W, wtf). And KJK's new Party For Women is being stalled by the Electoral Commission last I heard. Electorally, our only hope is- maybe local Independents... Conservatives ??.. Reform Party ??.. I prefer to stay in the Green Party and try and help restore sanity there- why should we be forced out by gender-zealots (many of whom only joined in 2014/5, in order to subvert the party)
At the time I felt very alone. I confess I couldn’t find a link or contact for Green Party Women. I felt very alone, and I’m still keeping quiet on local political issues. I very much doubt if I will rejoin the Green Party. I have joined a women’s rights group now.
It's led by a cult. I finally got around to meeting my local party late last year, and they were fine. Just need to get the cultists out of the top jobs.
I am so so sad that the Green Party is not a place I can be anymore and not in a fit state to fight for our planet at a time when it is needed most. That Greens will become a laughing stock and punching bag for the right wing press makes we want to weep. How can we do what is so urgently needed for the climate crisis with a party in this state and most ordinary people yet to find out what a mess it is in?
There is a wider political problem that apparatchiks within political parties can control debate on certain topics. This is not just within the GPEW and not just about gender issues.
It is worrying that political parties do not allow democratic debate within their own parties, what hope do we have if they get into power?
Under Sturgeon the SNP has taken power AWAY from the branches and controls what is discussed at conference. They cut branch representation at national level and the NEC is stuffed with appointees. They also ignored two public consultations where the people of Scotland overwhelmingly rejected two bills pushing genderwoo.
It is not just the SNP. The Green Party, the Labour Party and probably others have moved towards more 'centralized' control. Even the Socialist Workers Party moved away from a 'branch' structure to more centralized control when some branches went against central diktats.
This has been a particular problem for GPEW since it was not long ago that they could get most members in one conference hall.
Electorally, this can be successful since we are told that we need 'strong leadership', however, this means that any democratic control of the party is lost.
I'm not surprised to hear it's happening in other parties too. There seems to be a general shift away from democracy. It's worrying. Nowadays when some get into power they want to dictate their views to everyone and suppress other opinions.
Ordinary people need to come together to fight this. I'm glad that's happening in GPEW. It is easier for democracy to be reclaimed by members internally, and that's why I stayed in the SNP, but they have lost 32,000 members so there aren't many sane people left to fight.
I'm hoping that a term in opposition after the next Holyrood election will purge the SNP of the woke mob. They only care about power and their ideology, so they will move to whichever party that wins. We can then restore power to branches and members.
I completely agree with your closing statement: in general Scotland seems to me, among younger people particularly, to be fast becoming a society of cowed, 'progressive' flag-waving neoliberals, "kindly" looking away and being sure to say nothing of consequence while women and children are endangered.
If you're willing to lie to my face about a simple fact that can be verified with my own two eyes, why on earth would I believe you about intricate science that must be taken on trust?
At this time of environmental crisis, they'd rather make themselves ineffective - all in the service 6 ft beardy rapists who want to go in a women's jail.
We're so sorry to hear this. We are gathering evidence of people leaving the party over this issue. Please email evidence@greenwomensdeclaration.uk with your reasons for leaving so that we can add your story to our ever-growing dossier of #GreensLosingSupport
I believe that the majority of Green Party members are probably lovely people, but they need to realise this issue is destroying the Greens, and just ignoring it in the hope it will all blow over is not an option. This 'being kind' will leave a massive stain of a medical scandal on the bodies of children.
That’s my experience of talking to Greens - they roll their eyes and say they hope the genderist thing will just wither away. It’s good to read some are fighting back.
I think it is unfair to say members are just too lazy or unaware. Those GP members who argue or try to fight back, are the ones being frozen out, put on 'No Fault Suspensions' -or even actually expelled from the party. Many have tried to get gender issues discussed at conference over the last few years, but the motions have been consistently blocked by those who control the process, and not allowed to be debated. The membership at large is deliberately misinformed by the leadership/ head office, so some think things are OK, and others don't even realise there is controversy. I am very glad that a number of legal cases are happening soon, brought by GPEW members who've been treated very badly- this will bring the truth out, at last. (Not that the media will be very keen to report it...)
I am in Australia and watching the strife in the UK Greens with great curiousity.
I voted solid Greens in all elections for 36 years until 2018 when I discovered Aus Greens believe men can become women and are actively engaged in political action to introduce more legislation to further this stupidity intending to impose it on resistant citizens.
After trying to discuss the issue with local reps and being either ignored, dismissed with platitudes or fobbed off with ridiculous assertions like "...what about intersex ppl?" Six years ago I walked away from my lifetime committment to progressive politics. In subsequent elections, despite the dissonance it gives me, I vote for conservative parties or politicians who know what a woman is. I'm a one issue voter into the forseeable future.
There are two in Scotland, Alba and ISP, but none UK wide.
Unless one of them is standing in my constituency (I don't think they will) I'll be spoiling my paper. I hope all disenfranchised people spoil their papers so the parties see that we WANT to vote, but just don't have a party we can support.
The suffragettes got us the vote, we must use it. I'll be using mine to record 'none of the above'.
Likewise. Remember that you can write on a ballot paper your reasons for spoiling it, and - as I understand it - the candidates get to see at least some of the spoiled papers.
This piece is about the Green Party of England and Wales. The Scottish Greens [SG] are a separate party, but they are just as bad. Here the SGs are in a gov coalition with the SNP and every one of their schemes has been a disaster. Their failed Deposit Reurn Scheme cost us millions. Companies spent £££ installing the equipment and then the coalition scrapped it. We told them it was flawed, businesses told them it was unworkable, but the idiots didn't listen.
After the SNP went 'woke' my second option should have been SG, but they are removing women's rights too.
They are also hypocrites. They said they would leave the coalition if the new self-id legislation [GRR] didn't pass. It was blocked by the UK gov as it impacts on UK-wide laws, but the SGs still have their feet under the table. Pathetic.
Fantastic article Mandy. It's just bizarre that the Green Party has been taken over like this. Can't wait to see more members take the party to court. I wouldn't vote Green in a million years.
Mandy, is it not time to accept that the Green Party is a Genderist party with no road back. With Labour similarly captured by the trans lobby maybe it’s time for a new venture. I suggest we call it ‘For the Planet’, which encompasses environmental, social and internationalist perspectives.
Many are suggesting this. But I believe that is because we are getting the word out and breaking through the "no debate" mantra. Yes most of the governance bodies are captured, but gender critical voices in the Party have never been stronger. Over 1300 have signed the Green Women's Declaration. And if Shahrar Ali wins his case...
Well done Mandy and all those of you who have struggled so hard, to get this far. You have organised the Green Women's Declaration, and this is now a focal point for all who wish to fight back against the capture of the Green Party (of England and Wales)
One of the problems is that good activists/campaigners are, by their very nature, questioning of the received ideology. Many of those that have been targeted by the TRAs are excellent campaigners - Emma Bateman, Helen Steel, Alison Teal... They now have to spend their time fighting this warped ideology.
I can also see why some people do not want to get involved in this issue since it will damage their campaigning work - we have even advised people in the past to 'not to get involved'. I do not see these few as a problem, but the vast numbers of people who just do not want to stick their head above the parapet.
This is not to say that there are not a few people who do go along with the trans-ideology who do good campaigning work, but in my experience they are few and far between, and I do not know any that are full TRAs.
Re Hatgate, I understand that the ERO who conducted the count made a point of identifying the type of hat used - a classic trilby - as if underlining her mockery of the process
any party is vulnerable to being captured by a group of zealots working together. Cuckoos in the nest. Has happened to most UK political parties. Official party policy 'you can change sex... !?'
I had a life membership of the Green Party. For the planet. Then the rot started to emerge, then set in....There was no place for me in this version of the Green Party. I became tired of pretending to be someone I wasn’t. I gave up my Green Party life membership. No one cared. No one asked me why. I’m a 69 year old woman, a retired SRN and cancer nurse specialist, a vegan and animal advocate who thought the Right Thing to do for all of our futures was to join the Green Party.Now the only green you will see on me is the green of the suffragette colours on my scarf.
Woman~Adult Human Female .
Every mainstream party in the UK is been g torn asunder by these fanatics who know perfectly well that it is a path to oblivion. These parasitical idiots have used every party as their vehicle to colonize politics. They are an ever-present danger to us all.
Well said.
I understand why party members would be so disgusted, they want to leave. But what other party could you vote for? TRA-extremists have also contaminated Labour, Lib-Dems, SNP, Womens Equality Party (yes- really! They say TWAW are W, wtf). And KJK's new Party For Women is being stalled by the Electoral Commission last I heard. Electorally, our only hope is- maybe local Independents... Conservatives ??.. Reform Party ??.. I prefer to stay in the Green Party and try and help restore sanity there- why should we be forced out by gender-zealots (many of whom only joined in 2014/5, in order to subvert the party)
I also left.
Don’t you just love it when the oldies fight back? The trans zealots in the Greens won’t know what’s hit them!
Thanks for all the comments and subscriptions - I guess I'll have to start writing now!
Meanwhile if you are a Green Party member please don't leave. Our fightback is growing. Check out (and sign if you can) greenwomensdeclaration.uk and gcgreens.uk. And come to our webinar on Monday 22nd Jan 7.30! https://greenwomensdeclaration.uk/green-women-speak-out-why-we-need-a-green-womens-declaration/
At the time I felt very alone. I confess I couldn’t find a link or contact for Green Party Women. I felt very alone, and I’m still keeping quiet on local political issues. I very much doubt if I will rejoin the Green Party. I have joined a women’s rights group now.
The Green Party is now a cult
It's led by a cult. I finally got around to meeting my local party late last year, and they were fine. Just need to get the cultists out of the top jobs.
We're working on it! Check out greenwomensdeclaration.uk and sign if you can. Also gcgreens.uk
(and get those expelled or suspended by them back in)
It’s not always the top jobs. It is insidious .
I am so so sad that the Green Party is not a place I can be anymore and not in a fit state to fight for our planet at a time when it is needed most. That Greens will become a laughing stock and punching bag for the right wing press makes we want to weep. How can we do what is so urgently needed for the climate crisis with a party in this state and most ordinary people yet to find out what a mess it is in?
There is a wider political problem that apparatchiks within political parties can control debate on certain topics. This is not just within the GPEW and not just about gender issues.
It is worrying that political parties do not allow democratic debate within their own parties, what hope do we have if they get into power?
Under Sturgeon the SNP has taken power AWAY from the branches and controls what is discussed at conference. They cut branch representation at national level and the NEC is stuffed with appointees. They also ignored two public consultations where the people of Scotland overwhelmingly rejected two bills pushing genderwoo.
Scotland is becoming a totalitarian state.
It is not just the SNP. The Green Party, the Labour Party and probably others have moved towards more 'centralized' control. Even the Socialist Workers Party moved away from a 'branch' structure to more centralized control when some branches went against central diktats.
This has been a particular problem for GPEW since it was not long ago that they could get most members in one conference hall.
Electorally, this can be successful since we are told that we need 'strong leadership', however, this means that any democratic control of the party is lost.
I'm not surprised to hear it's happening in other parties too. There seems to be a general shift away from democracy. It's worrying. Nowadays when some get into power they want to dictate their views to everyone and suppress other opinions.
I don't think it's just in politics. Several Unions are now run by self serving cliques, and even charities like the Actors’ Benevolent Fund have ousted long term members in a coup. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/13/actors-charity-vote-to-reignite-dispute-involving-penelope-keith
Ordinary people need to come together to fight this. I'm glad that's happening in GPEW. It is easier for democracy to be reclaimed by members internally, and that's why I stayed in the SNP, but they have lost 32,000 members so there aren't many sane people left to fight.
I'm hoping that a term in opposition after the next Holyrood election will purge the SNP of the woke mob. They only care about power and their ideology, so they will move to whichever party that wins. We can then restore power to branches and members.
I completely agree with your closing statement: in general Scotland seems to me, among younger people particularly, to be fast becoming a society of cowed, 'progressive' flag-waving neoliberals, "kindly" looking away and being sure to say nothing of consequence while women and children are endangered.
If you're willing to lie to my face about a simple fact that can be verified with my own two eyes, why on earth would I believe you about intricate science that must be taken on trust?
At this time of environmental crisis, they'd rather make themselves ineffective - all in the service 6 ft beardy rapists who want to go in a women's jail.
Toast in the elections again then.
#DelusionsOfGreendeur
Green Feminists UK reposted
Green Women's Declaration
@GWDeclaration
We're so sorry to hear this. We are gathering evidence of people leaving the party over this issue. Please email evidence@greenwomensdeclaration.uk with your reasons for leaving so that we can add your story to our ever-growing dossier of #GreensLosingSupport
I want to leave but I don't know how to!
Please stay & join our fightback! Check out gcgreens.uk and greenwomensdeclaration.uk. Come to our webinar on Monday: https://greenwomensdeclaration.uk/green-women-speak-out-why-we-need-a-green-womens-declaration/
They take no notice of how many people leave - only the number that they expell or sanction.
Don't pay your subs (they give you a 'grace' period) and donate to someone who is taking them to court e.g https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/equality-act-investigation-aga/
I believe that the majority of Green Party members are probably lovely people, but they need to realise this issue is destroying the Greens, and just ignoring it in the hope it will all blow over is not an option. This 'being kind' will leave a massive stain of a medical scandal on the bodies of children.
That’s my experience of talking to Greens - they roll their eyes and say they hope the genderist thing will just wither away. It’s good to read some are fighting back.
I think it is unfair to say members are just too lazy or unaware. Those GP members who argue or try to fight back, are the ones being frozen out, put on 'No Fault Suspensions' -or even actually expelled from the party. Many have tried to get gender issues discussed at conference over the last few years, but the motions have been consistently blocked by those who control the process, and not allowed to be debated. The membership at large is deliberately misinformed by the leadership/ head office, so some think things are OK, and others don't even realise there is controversy. I am very glad that a number of legal cases are happening soon, brought by GPEW members who've been treated very badly- this will bring the truth out, at last. (Not that the media will be very keen to report it...)
I am in Australia and watching the strife in the UK Greens with great curiousity.
I voted solid Greens in all elections for 36 years until 2018 when I discovered Aus Greens believe men can become women and are actively engaged in political action to introduce more legislation to further this stupidity intending to impose it on resistant citizens.
After trying to discuss the issue with local reps and being either ignored, dismissed with platitudes or fobbed off with ridiculous assertions like "...what about intersex ppl?" Six years ago I walked away from my lifetime committment to progressive politics. In subsequent elections, despite the dissonance it gives me, I vote for conservative parties or politicians who know what a woman is. I'm a one issue voter into the forseeable future.
I don’t think we have any political parties in the UK who can or will wholly agree to what a woman is.
I’ve voted since I was of voting age. I’m past retirement now. As things stand this will be the first year that I will spoil my ballot paper.
There are two in Scotland, Alba and ISP, but none UK wide.
Unless one of them is standing in my constituency (I don't think they will) I'll be spoiling my paper. I hope all disenfranchised people spoil their papers so the parties see that we WANT to vote, but just don't have a party we can support.
The suffragettes got us the vote, we must use it. I'll be using mine to record 'none of the above'.
Likewise. Remember that you can write on a ballot paper your reasons for spoiling it, and - as I understand it - the candidates get to see at least some of the spoiled papers.
This piece is about the Green Party of England and Wales. The Scottish Greens [SG] are a separate party, but they are just as bad. Here the SGs are in a gov coalition with the SNP and every one of their schemes has been a disaster. Their failed Deposit Reurn Scheme cost us millions. Companies spent £££ installing the equipment and then the coalition scrapped it. We told them it was flawed, businesses told them it was unworkable, but the idiots didn't listen.
After the SNP went 'woke' my second option should have been SG, but they are removing women's rights too.
They are also hypocrites. They said they would leave the coalition if the new self-id legislation [GRR] didn't pass. It was blocked by the UK gov as it impacts on UK-wide laws, but the SGs still have their feet under the table. Pathetic.
Fantastic article Mandy. It's just bizarre that the Green Party has been taken over like this. Can't wait to see more members take the party to court. I wouldn't vote Green in a million years.
SNP falling apart, Labour ditto, now the Greens. Can anyone join the dots? Anyone?
In Scotland I would suggest the Greens are more of a disgrace than any other party and that’s a really competitive group of nutters in each of them.
True, because you expect the Scottish Greens to have some morals, but the SNP put them in power so they are the absolute clowns.
Mandy, is it not time to accept that the Green Party is a Genderist party with no road back. With Labour similarly captured by the trans lobby maybe it’s time for a new venture. I suggest we call it ‘For the Planet’, which encompasses environmental, social and internationalist perspectives.
Many are suggesting this. But I believe that is because we are getting the word out and breaking through the "no debate" mantra. Yes most of the governance bodies are captured, but gender critical voices in the Party have never been stronger. Over 1300 have signed the Green Women's Declaration. And if Shahrar Ali wins his case...
Well done Mandy and all those of you who have struggled so hard, to get this far. You have organised the Green Women's Declaration, and this is now a focal point for all who wish to fight back against the capture of the Green Party (of England and Wales)
Harry, are you on the GWD mailing list to keep in touch? https://mailchi.mp/f4f1a139cde3/green-womens-declaration
Yes I am. Thanks for all you do.
One of the problems is that good activists/campaigners are, by their very nature, questioning of the received ideology. Many of those that have been targeted by the TRAs are excellent campaigners - Emma Bateman, Helen Steel, Alison Teal... They now have to spend their time fighting this warped ideology.
I can also see why some people do not want to get involved in this issue since it will damage their campaigning work - we have even advised people in the past to 'not to get involved'. I do not see these few as a problem, but the vast numbers of people who just do not want to stick their head above the parapet.
This is not to say that there are not a few people who do go along with the trans-ideology who do good campaigning work, but in my experience they are few and far between, and I do not know any that are full TRAs.
I do.
Re Hatgate, I understand that the ERO who conducted the count made a point of identifying the type of hat used - a classic trilby - as if underlining her mockery of the process
And there's me thinking that the Green (formerly Ecology) Party would be all about the environment. Silly me.
any party is vulnerable to being captured by a group of zealots working together. Cuckoos in the nest. Has happened to most UK political parties. Official party policy 'you can change sex... !?'