the brilliantly leaping gazelle

So it turns out that Repulsion failed in his quest to become an MP. Good. But equally, not so good. One reason is that he may be forced to resign as leader of the Greens. More pushed than jumped, probably. Only when one considers the rapid increase of new members to the Green Party that followed his appointment of leader, can one begin to fathom why the party strayed so far from its traditional environmental concerns to pursue a more aggressively confrontational ideology. 

That his usefulness has expired is undeniable. The Greens are now a viable electoral proposition for some. Therefore whoever follows him is likely to be a standard bearer for the new member and their various contradictory nonsenses. They will usher forth an even more regressive notion of ‘progressiveness’. And with it, demand ever greater debasements of tolerance, inclusivity and respect. 

The other problem is more fundamental. The turnout for the  by-election – his bye bye-election if you will – was less than 39% of the electorate. Think about that. Think about what it means, not just for some nebulous imaginings of democracy or for some increasingly outdated concept of a shared civic responsibility. But means about the people who didn’t vote, who couldn’t be bothered enough to tear themselves away from watching ‘The Traitors’ on TV, doom scrolling on their ‘phones but doing anything other than express their willingness to defend a moral principle. A defence that would cost them no more effort than putting a mask on a piece of paper. A defence, which if it were denied them, they’d be sudden lifelong practitioners of. 

39%. Less than a week after the genocidal motion was adopted as party policy at the Greens conference. Less than a week after the mask was finally pulled off and their virulent anti-Semitism was exposed in its full horror. Less than a week during which all of its dangerous implications had been endlessly discussed in the full glare of the media. That was week in which the residents of Pancras and St.Holborn had to decide whether to stand up and be counted or not. 

61% choose not to.

61% gave tacit support to the creed of abnegation. By doing so – by choosing not to express a presence at the ballot box – by default they expressed one. Actually, its worse than the 61%. They’re bad enough. But there were 14 other candidates, most of whom lost their deposit, but some of whom had nonetheless managed to persuade others not in their friendship group to vote for them. Excepting the winning Labour candidate and Repulsion, that accounted for roughly 20% of the votes cast. How much this increases that 61% by is not relevant. The fact is that it did.

This will only embolden those in the Green Party who see the fellow travellers of today could be the voters of tomorrow. Who discern, however misguidedly or opportunistically, that it is only a matter of time before an extreme stance becomes less so the more it is discussed, given credence and eventually respectability.