Labour Finds a Socialist Policy Too Extreme for Labour
Greens Turn Out to Have Policies


LONDON, England — The Labour Party has discovered that forming alliances with the Green Party can involve encountering Green Party policies, a development that has Westminster demanding clearer warning labels on coalition agreements.


Labour Ends Green Cooperation in 11 Councils


Labour officials are reconsidering cooperation with the Green Party in 11 councils after a row over a resolution concerning Zionism. The argument has exposed a danger of progressive politics nobody had flagged: sometimes the other progressives are more progressive than you.

"We thought we were working with people who wanted more bike lanes, community gardens and expensive recycling bins," said one party strategist. "Nobody told us they might also have opinions about international politics."


Local Government Meets the Middle East


Councillors who used to spend meetings on pavement repairs now find themselves in diplomatic disputes. One committee abandoned a discussion about broken streetlights when members could not agree on the ideological implications of electricity.

Council officers are exhausted. Their work covers bin collections, planning applications and keeping playground swings attached to the ground. Nobody warned them they would be asked to settle centuries of religious, national and political disagreement before approving the annual budget for dog bins.

The minutes of one committee, seen by this publication, record the following. "Cllr A moved to discuss the pothole on Mill Lane. Cllr B moved an amendment to discuss the Middle East. Cllr A asked whether the amendment was in order. The Clerk said it was not, but that it was happening anyway."

At the heart of the dispute is political language: the difference between criticising the policies of the Israeli government and hostility toward Zionism, and the real danger of antisemitism. Those distinctions deserve careful treatment. Westminster's political machinery is not known for it.

A transcript of a group call between two council leaders, passed to this publication, reads in part: "So are we still in coalition?" "I'd say we're in a place." "What kind of place?" "A place with a lot of statements."

Labour now has to look morally principled without alienating every faction capable of organising a protest outside party headquarters. The Greens are learning that environmental politics does not guarantee agreement on everything else.

A Labour councillor compared coalition to a difficult marriage. "At first you agree on the important things, like stopping climate change. Six months later you're arguing about foreign policy at a meeting that was supposed to decide whether the village needs another roundabout."

A screenshot of a message from one councillor to another, since deleted, reads: "Did you read the resolution before you voted for it?" The reply: "Did you?" Neither message has received a further reply.


Progressive Coalition Syndrome: Symptoms and Treatment


Political scientists have named the condition Progressive Coalition Syndrome. Symptoms include increasingly complicated statements, emergency meetings, resignations from committees and the sudden appearance of phrases beginning "We unequivocally condemn." It usually progresses until somebody suggests that disagreement is itself an act of ideological aggression.

Conservatives have enjoyed the spectacle, though their own recent record on keeping a party together suggests some modesty. Reform UK offered a simpler fix: stop councils discussing international politics and stick to local matters. That met resistance from councillors who consider every local issue an international one. Even recycling has acquired a foreign policy dimension.

Residents are confused. A pensioner in Manchester said he contacted his council about a pothole. "Three weeks later I've had statements about the Middle East, national sovereignty and moral responsibility. Nobody's mentioned the hole. It's now big enough to qualify for statehood."

Labour says the dispute shows its commitment to responsible government. The Greens say principles can't be dropped for administrative convenience. The pothole has taken no position. It has swallowed two bicycles, a delivery van and most of the council's credibility.


Five Observations on Labour, the Greens and the Pothole

- You get into a coalition for the bike lanes. Six months later you're negotiating the Middle East. It's like going to IKEA for a lamp and leaving with a hostage situation.


- They couldn't agree about streetlights. Think about that. It's a light. It's on or it's off. And somehow that's a conflict.


- "Did you read the resolution before you voted?" "Did you?" That's every marriage, every committee and every Terms and Conditions page in history.


- Three weeks of statements and nobody mentioned the hole. The pothole is the only one in that building doing its job.


- A pothole that has swallowed a delivery van. At some point it's not a road problem, it's a landlord. https://prat.uk/?p=54899

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