The Daily Mail has attacked Zack Polanski’s Green Party as “authoritarian”. But considering that’s bullshit, and in light of the Mail‘s long record of cheerleading for fascism, the Mail may be doing its elitist cause more harm than good.

Tabloid desperation and Green anti-authoritarianism

The Daily Mail had desperately picked up on a podcast comment from Polanski. The Green leader was discussing how to bring people together despite the dedication of some right-wingers to endlessly pushing toxic rhetoric. And he asked:

Do we think we can change their minds? Or is it a case of building a society that doesn’t include them?

The rag suggested this meant Polanski was planning to shun all right-wingers from society. And it got some far-right figures from Reform and the Conservatives to call him ‘authoritarian’ to help enrage its readers.

There was no substance to the propaganda, of course.

The Green are the most libertarian of all political parties in the UK.

But don’t let facts get in the way https://t.co/PI22iPR0Fz pic.twitter.com/mpUdV2Kneq

— Harry Eccles (@Heccles94) April 20, 2026

If anything, the ridiculous assertion actually encourages people to reflect on just how anti-authoritarian the Greens are.

In reality, the Green Party has:

• Consistently criticised the authoritarian crackdown on civil liberties and protest freedoms by Tory-Labour governments in recent months and years. In fact, it has pledged to reverse this erosion of rights if it gets into power.
• Promised not just to “always defend our democratic and human rights, uphold the rule of law and tackle political corruption”, but to “push for the UK to become a modern, functional and more representative democracy“. To do this, it would work for a “proportional voting system”, get rid of the House of Lords, let 16-year-olds vote, and give UK nations the right to “make their own decisions about their relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom”.
• Outlined in its core values a commitment to “personal freedom”, “voluntary co-operation”, and working to increase democratic participation by strengthening the decentralisation of decision-making.
• Internal party democracy, with all the challenges that come with it.
• Spoken up for international democracy and against “the rise of authoritarian regimes”, advocating a British foreign policy focusing on “shared commitments to democracy, peace, global solidarity and the protection of human rights”.

Wealthy Daily Mail propagandists again boosting far-right authoritarians

For people like Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine, though, Polanski is basically Hitler.

The thing is, when you remember how the Mail once shouted “Hurrah for the Blackshirts“, you would expect it to support Polanski if that was actually true.

Says the paper that once published this: https://t.co/OVNOnK2Rqw pic.twitter.com/puhE05rUxd

— Ed Sykes (@OsoSabioUK) April 20, 2026

This cheerleading for the violently antisemitic fascists of the blackshirts came from Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere. He was the pro-fascist owner of the Daily Mail when it was the world’s “best-selling newspaper”. And the paper remains in the family today.

But now, the rag is backing the far-right authoritarians of Reform UK (though an official endorsement hasn’t come yet). This is the party that has:

• Worked like a “private company” with a tiny group of people around racist bigot Nigel Farage running the show. Former Reform councillors have called Farage’s unaccountable control “autocratic“. Similar to warmongering imperialist Donald Trump and other demagogues, Farage is all about the ego.
• Backed Trump’s reckless and misanthropic assault on international law, despite widespread public opposition.
• Suggested copying Trump’s brutally aggressive deportation and mass detention campaign.
• “No meaningful internal democracy“, as even insiders have admitted.
• Repeatedly questioned election results on false grounds.
• Tried to silence opponents.
• Pledged to do away with human rights and equality legislation, in part to protect UK service personnel from prosecution.

While Reform doesn’t like people calling it far-right, it clearly is. Just as Margaret Thatcher began the transfer of power from ordinary people to a wealthy few, Reform’s neo-Thatcherites want to take that even further. And they absolutely will ignore ordinary people’s views and interests to serve their powerful donors.

The Daily Mail has no interest in combatting authoritarianism. Quite the opposite. It craves it, and has dedicated many decades to the cause. But by trying to put the ‘authoritarian’ label on the most anti-authoritarian mainstream party out there, it really has scored a pretty embarrassing own goal.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

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