Downstream: British Politics Is About to Collapse w/ James Meadway
Novara Media
Novara Media
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2026
⏱️ 132 minutes
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Summary
The two-party system has defined British politics for centuries, but the status quo is under attack from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and an insurgent Green party – both looking to clean up in the local elections on 7 May.
This week Aaron Bastani speaks to economist James Meadway about the disruptive new progressive party on the block. Meadway was an economic advisor to John McDonnell during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of Labour, and is now chief economist of Verdant, a new think tank set up to craft the Green party’s strategy for 2029.
But who are the Greens? What is their vision for Britain? How can they build a broad coalition of voters, big enough to win elections? And what mistakes can Zack Polanski learn from the Corbyn era?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In the 2024 general election, the Green Party of England and Wales had their best ever result. |
| 0:12.7 | They quadrupled their Westminster representation from one to four MPs. |
| 0:17.5 | Now, that might not sound particularly impressive, but bear in mind, they had no MPs before 2010. |
| 0:24.1 | But it's in the last six months in particular, under the leadership of Zach Polanski, that the party |
| 0:29.0 | has really gone from strength to strength. They've regularly featured in the top three when it comes |
| 0:33.6 | to national polls, even sometimes coming second, even on one occasion coming first. |
| 0:39.4 | They've surpassed 220,000 members, and they even won a by-election in Gorton and Denton at the end of February. |
| 0:46.9 | This feels like the national arrival of the Green Party as an organisation able to compete, |
| 0:53.3 | not just with nearly Rans and also Rans, but the Tories and the Green Party as an organisation, able to compete not just with nearly Rans and also |
| 0:55.9 | Rands, but the Tories and the Labour Party too. |
| 0:59.2 | Dare I say, some are even talking about them replacing the Labour Party in parts of the country |
| 1:04.6 | as the party of the centre left. |
| 1:07.2 | But alongside their rise, of course, is the rise of reform as well. |
| 1:10.9 | It's a mixed story for those on the left, centre-left and progressives generally. |
| 1:15.8 | But who are the Greens? |
| 1:17.3 | We know who Zach Polansky is. |
| 1:18.7 | He's clearly a very good media operator. |
| 1:20.3 | He's very talkative. |
| 1:21.8 | He's very affable. |
| 1:23.4 | But what would they actually do in government? |
| 1:26.2 | What drives them? |
| 1:27.1 | What's their theory of change? |
... |
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