Bold Politics live with Zack Polanski and Caroline Lucas
7pm Monday 23rd February 2026 at Brighton Dome Concert Hall
The biggest ever audience at a Green Party event so far meant a packed crowd for the love-in at Brighton’s Dome with Zack (podcast) Polanski and Caroline (death-doula) Lucas, the former MP for Brighton Pavilion.
Interesting format - a cross between a party political broadcast, a two-hander in a drawing room set complete with aspidistra (or were they cheese plants? Yes, definitely cheesy…), a belated book launch (a big plug for Caroline’s Another England: How to Reclaim our National Story) and a podcast interview studio, the last description being the most accurate.
The basic idea was that Zack was interviewing Caroline as a party grandee, but some people were probably hoping for a little more hard content from Zack, who was after all, the leading party grandee in the room. The evening had the title Bold Politics which sounded a bit Round the Horn to these old ears which half expected to hear Kenneth Williams make a ghostly vocal appearance.
Bold Politics with Zack Polanski…
…is the title of Zack’s weekly podcast which was being recorded at The Dome. The subtitle of the podcast and the event was probably Make Hope Normal Again, which doesn’t have quite the ring of Stops the Boats or Burn the Hotels but it’s the best the Greens’ branding clinic has come up with so far.
To be fair, with a membership approaching 200,000 and some serious work going into campaigning and policy, The Green Party are the only party that can stop Reform leaving its slimy trail en route to election success; Reform so named because Nigel Farage retreads Conservative politicians into fellow slugs.
Lots of questions
A member of the audience asked a very good question about connecting with Reform voters and other right-wingers to hear and understand their point of view, and how to engage with them in a constructive non-patronising dialogue (if that doesn’t sound too patronising…) Caroline has some good form here having carried out a similar exercise post-Brexit.
But what about the difficult issues of defence (in particular), private education, the economic damage caused by demotivating entrepreneurs, refurbishing the Houses of Parliament (you can’t be serious!), illegal immigration, provision of affordable housing – and how much the whole caboodle is going to cost and how it can be afforded?
Each and every one of these policy points – and many more – needs a two or three word summary that makes sense and encapsulates the Green message, that the public can get and like.
Tough love…
The Greens are great on ‘motherhood and apple pie’ – as an American business leader once described actual heartfelt sincerity, even if it was a bit cheesy: the climate emergency and climate justice (that huge hole in other parties’ manifestos), empathy, love, kindness, community building, resilience, kicking Palantir out of the NHS (Yay!)
But the Greens really need to do some serious work on their vision/mission and all that boloney. The Greens must convert all that M&A into a much harder edged communications strategy that cuts through to people who have never been around the campfire with Zack and Caroline. Although Z&C did seem to realise that the only point of preaching to the converted is to persuade them to doorstep by-election voters and man the barricades.
Even more importantly, slagging off patriots and patriotism is not going to prize away Reform voters, quite a few of whom are veterans or have fond or fondly-imagined connections with the armed forces.
Be real Greens. And beware a smug expression…
Thanks, John. Very interesting, particularly the question about engaging in discussion with Reform . I'm reading Helen Landmore's 'Politics Without Politicians - The Case For Citizen Rule' which is a great proponent of deliberative assemblies where such discussions can be facilitated and where, she argues, people with diametrically opposed ideas are able to gain an understanding of each other and each other's views, ultimately reaching some form of agreement. Some startling examples are cited, which really do bring a sense of hope.
Yay! Way to boldly go, Greens!