Mehdi Hasan on Nostr: RT: @PulaRJS Having made Ep 2 of the Labour Files I thought nothing could shock me ...

RT: @PulaRJS Having made Ep 2 of the Labour Files I thought nothing could shock me but the crudeness of the media’s attempts to Corbyn Polanski is truly breathtaking.

Let’s apply what might be called journalism to this Observer piece.

Firstly – the headline claim – “membership plummets”. Apparently one local party (unnamed) has seen a two-point drop in membership since the Zionism is racism motion was passed. IF replicated nationally this would mean 4,400 people - less than 2% of the membership.

You’ll not be startled to learn the Observer entirely omits one key stat from the Opinium poll, which can be found online. “Over half (56%) of current Green voters think the Green Party were right the pass the motion, while only 13% said they were wrong.”

Most of the other stats involve comparisons with the unprecedented highs Polanski took the Greens to in the spring. At 9% the Greens are simply back to where they were the day Polanski became leader.

Polanski has transformed the Green Party – quadrupling its membership to almost quarter of a million and placing it in a position where it was able to pressure the Labour Party into removing a sitting prime minister – a level of influence Green Party leaders of the past could only dream of.

Polanski is being subjected to this level of vitriol precisely because he represents a threat in a way Caroline Lucas never did.

Green voters and members now face a simple test. Do they trust their own eyes and ears – or do they do what the BBC, the Guardian and the Observer tell them to do.

Since they did this to Corbyn tens of thousands of Palestinian children have been slaughtered. It has transformed the way potential Green voters see the world. In many cases that is why they have become Green voters.

It’s astonishing the degree to which the political/media class remains trapped in the mind set of 2018.