I agreed to be a Green Party candidate in the May elections based on a judgement that my chances of getting elected were about the same as the likelihood of the Virgin Mary appearing on top of my garden shed. Not absolutely out of the question, but a definite long shot. Now, I am starting to feel a bit like a Bolshevik who’d planned a weekend of vodka and recreational expropriation and has been told that there is some nasty work he has to do at Kronstadt.

This sense of unease has not been helped by two things. The first is a Times poll which shows the Greens at 21% in England in second place behind Reform (23%). Labour and the Conservatives are both on 16%.   Hannah Spencer hasn’t helped matters by demolishing a 2024 Labour majority of 13,413 and winning 40% of the vote in Gorton and Denton. The Greens won 13% of the vote there in 2024, about the same as the two paper candidates in Tower Hamlets.

The other thing is how dynamic the party has become. Less than a year ago I was complaining about how inactive it was locally. Now it is having all sorts of meetings and, as is the case with all organisations, some meetings are more useful than others. And Jesus! The WhatsApps. Hundreds every day. I am not convinced that someone needs to message twenty people to let them know that they are on the bus. The only circumstances in which that is permissible is when it is a coded instruction to seize the major transport hubs and set up roadblocks, and we are not quite at that stage yet.

Mothin Ali, the party’s deputy leader, came electioneering on Sunday. This report and video gives an idea of the day. What was striking was the number of people, the majority in their 20s and 30s, most of whom had never done anything like this before. With the exception of Mothin and one party employee, it was an entirely volunteer event. Have a look at photos of Labour Party canvass teams and you see that they are mainly comprised of councillors, party apparatchiks and the occasional pressganged family member. It is the contrast between a party that is visibly decomposing and one that is insurgent.

It is noticeable that none of the attacks on the party are landing. For a while the right wing press had an obsession with Zack Polanski’s teeth then Labour started telling lies about the Greens wanting to give drugs to kids and force women into prostitution. This week they are exercised by the fact that Mothin is a Muslim and does not support an imperialist war against Iran. This is feeble stuff.

My sense is that many, many Green Party candidates who said “oh, alright then, I’ll be a paper candidate” are going to find themselves elected. This will throw up all sorts of problems as they find themselves making up the official opposition, or even running councils. A theme we will return to.

 In last year’s piece when I quoted comrade Guevara talking about the need to “look optimistically into a future that has to be viewed through a gloomy present”, I did not expect things to change so quickly or so totally.