Green Party Leader Zack Polanski Rallies Members at Brighton Conference Green Party leader Zack Polanski addressed 3,200 members in Brighton, pushing a leftward agenda as his party's membership surged past 220,000 amid internal controversies. Green Party leader Zack Polanski delivered a half-hour conference speech in Brighton on Friday, rallying a crowd of allegedly 3,200 members with a forceful call to vote Green and push Labour leftwards on issues including Palestine, rent reviews, trans issues, the EU, immigration and Net Zero. Polanski, a shouter whose volume for the first five minutes made ears ache, repeatedly bellowed the phrase vote Green and see Labour move, arguing that the purpose of the Greens is to drag Labour in a leftward direction. Polanski's Rise and Party GrowthPolanski, born David Paulden, is a self-created figure who once worked as a Harley Street hypnotherapist and studied sociology and theatre at Aberystwyth University. He was previously a Liberal Democrat and later joined the Greens, becoming a London Assembly member in 2021, then deputy leader, and finally leader last autumn. Under his leadership, Green Party membership has swollen from 70,000 to more than 220,000. The Brighton conference drew about half of attendees who had joined in the last year. His election coincided with the bungled launch of Jeremy Corbyn's hard-Left Your Party, providing an alternative for left-wing ideologues.Internal Controversies and Antisemitism AllegationsThe party is now debating a proposal at the Brighton conference to classify as racist anyone who embraces Zionism, which may be described as the belief that Israel has a right to exist. Polanski often asserts his Jewish descent, a mention that some see as an attempt to defuse the antisemitism scandal chronicled by the Daily Mail's investigations unit. The party has been sinking into a mire of sectarianism and anti-Semitism, raising questions about whether Polanski is a harmless oddball or something more sinister.Historical Parallels and Political MavericksBritish politics has seen its share of mavericks, from Oswald Mosley and George Galloway to Guy Fawkes and Cecil King, who in 1968 tried to persuade Lord Mountbatten to topple Harold Wilson's government. Parliament has also had eccentrics like George Sitwell, who wrote a history of the fork, and Edward Watkin, who started digging a tunnel under the English Channel and later tried to build the world's tallest tower on swampy ground in Wembley. Watkin's Folly, as it became known, started to lean dangerously and had to be destroyed. Polanski's Folly may go the same way, especially if he loses to Labour at next Thursday's Holborn and St Pancras by-election, where he is the Green Party's candidate. There is talk that he could be toppled if he loses.Changing Green Party DemographicsOlder Greens were largely small-c conservatives with a weakness for balding corduroys, wonky vegetables and Citroen 2CVs. The admission of so many new members has changed the party. Dotty they may be, but the Greens have multiplied like houseflies. Polanski now finds himself one of the most talked-about politicians in Britain, but all is not well as his party faces internal strife and electoral challenges.