Travelling across the country in recent week to meet Green councillors, candidates, and campaigners before May’s elections in past weeks, one consistent theme has stood out — hard work pays.
I’ve been hearing repeatedly from ordinary people and those associated with the party that elected Greens are becoming well-known in their consistencies for their hard work. This stands in contrast to the Faragists’ and Tories’ vision of an ever-grimmer, for-profit wage-slavery in ‘alarm-clock Britain’ (to borrow Nick Clegg’s phrase).
In reality, it’s the Greens who are making themselves known for hard work—and without shortcuts.
Sorting out Solihull
Take Solihull Greens’ Deputy Leader and councillor Sesh Seshabhatter, twice-elected (soon, perhaps, three-times) in a council where Greens form the main opposition party in a Tory bastion.
During his campaign trail, Seshabhatter won recognition and (as he reckons) quite possibly a vote from an otherwise unsympathetic voter. This follows Seshabhatter handling a straightforward task long left unattended by the Tories.
That task? Fixing a collapsed fence separating their garden from a public footpath. As it backs onto the path, it’s council domain. But Tories, as their track record tells us, don’t believe in fixing things.
And it’s hardly a surprise, right? Why trust the party that normalised the absurd and dangerous belief that “There is no such thing as society” to make our society better?
We can’t expect the new Con-form party to be any different, since Nigel Farage idolises Thatcher and has embraced former Tory ministers who spent over a decade breaking Britain. Now they whinge endlessly about how bad their erstwhile party is.
Serving the South of Scotland
Or take my recent experience in the rural border region, South of Scotland, which accounts for 30% of Scotland’s new electoral map.
The Greens’ forerunner in the area, Laura Moodie told the Canary that when she chaps on doors of previous Tory or Labour voters:
I’ll always say: “what has your Tory or Labour MSP done for you?” And, almost always, they have nothing. … Other parties are just there to block.
In the last parliament, the Tories had more MSPs than Greens have ever had in the history of the Scottish parliament. Yet I could spend ten minutes on every doorstep talking about the things that Greens have achieved:
Whether that’s under-22s free bus travel, or ending peak fares on railways, or nature restoration projects.
Critiquing the campaign messaging of Labour and the Tories, Moodie seems both parties as pitching themselves to voters as ‘not the [X,Y,Z] party.’
In contrast, Greens have been grafting, securing funding for playparks, transport, and rural community services. Neil Mackinnon is a case in point.
So Greens aren’t just campaigning on a ‘Stop Reform’ platform, Moodie says. They’re pointing to actual, tangible, material achievements and saying: vote for this.
Perks of positivity
This mirrors my first-hand experience covering the historic Gorton and Denton by-election. In the end, the Greens stopped Reform from winning, while delivering a huge blow to Labour’s public image as an unshakeable mainstay in British politics.
That wasn’t all. Greens connected with people on doorsteps. Their people-firstvision won over thousands, addressing the immediate needs of ordinary folk. These include capped rents, lower bills, better and cheaper public transport, cleaner streets, and nicer public spaces.
Reform’s campaign by contrast was about how wickedly evil and “mad” Polanski’s Green Party is. And Labour? They literally copied Reform’s attack-lines, word for word.
While the Greens didn’t muddle their words in condemning Reform’s divisively hateful campaigning, they put forward a positive vision whose actualisation depends on more than cheap words. This accounts for the sweeping success (4,400 margin) of Hannah the Plumber, who whilst training to be a plasterer and working won a very high-profile election.
Lessons from power
Green co-deputy leader Rachel Millward set out this line of thought from her experience co-leading a district council in Sussex recently on BBC Question Time:
We have been able to make a difference for our communities and for nature. And I know I can tell you that what you get when you vote Green are local, very, very hard-working councillors who are absolutely committed to two vested interests: people and planet.
Millward continued, saying:
… Greens have delivered where they’re leading councils across the country. There’s a huge push to deliver as much affordable and social housing as possible … investment in local business, brilliant local procurement strategies … doubled council tax on second and empty homes so we can give more people council tax relief.
But Millward and the Greens are not naïve about the limits to council power. She says that “we bang our heads against the brick wall of government legislation” and talks, rightly, about how structural issues, such as property markets, need to change.
What’s great is that being in those council positions and running those councils helps us understand what needs to change. … It [property development] begins and ends with profit.
Later, pointing to Zia Yusuf who sat next to her on the panel, she scoffed at him talking about social care given that Lancaster’s Reform councillors have been threatening to close a care home to make savings. She rightly underscored their lies and broken promises:
Time and time again you come in, you take power, you can’t find any savings and you put the council tax up. … There were 57 Reform councillors took over Kent. There are only 48 left. They drop like flies because they’re not local, they’re not working hard, and they don’t care about their local community.
Mothin’s your man
For another example of this in action, look no further than the Greens’ other co-deputy leader, Gipton and Harehills councillor Mothin Ali.
Mothin hit the national scene as a calming influence during a local riot in 2024, sparked when social services forcefully separated four Romani children from their families.
Mothin was filmed tearing wheelie bins away from young, angry would-be bin-fire makers and was named “hero councillor” by the Independent at the time. Among Leeds residents, Mothin is widely recognised as a friendly, locally-rooted gardening enthusiast.
Others, however — funded by vested and Zionist interests — slander him as a dangerous Islamist. Having met him, I found this idea beyond absurd.
But don’t just take my word for it; have it from Gipton resident Farhan Khan. Khan’s known Mothin for two years, since his first campaign in Gipton, when he voted for him.
Believe me, he’s such a wonderful councillor […] Whenever I need him, if I text him for any help, he just provides it.
In Gipton and Harehills, all of my friends just see: he’s ok, he’s a good person.
He listens to you, corresponding with you, and is in touch with the Council […] He just works on your behalf.
Mothin goes the mile
Like many Greens across the country, known for litter-picking actions and food-bank deliveries, Mothin has led regular community clean-ups across his ward. Even Labour is copying this idea.
But for Khan, Mothin’s unwavering, caring work ethic was captured by one particular incident. It involved trying to get through to one resident who was apparently hostile to Khan and their neighbours, with some plausibly racist under (or over) tones.
When Mothin heard these concerns, and that this might be a more contentious house to visit, he insisted on speaking to her anyway. He went knowing that it would be a hard conversation to have. And, soon enough, he got right to the bottom of her anger.
What surfaced was utter neglect by the Labour-run council, pressuring this resident to leave her home after decades and a faltering support system locally.
This had originally led to arguments between the neighbours, Khan says. But in the end, Mothin was able to signpost the woman to support services, and cut through her initial hostile stance. Khan was amazed by Mothin’s social magic:
My personal experience is really good with the Greens. … With Labour, the independents, they promise this, this, this — but it’s all just drama, nothing else.
I’m with the Greens. I’m with Mothin.
Choosing councillors who care
With two days to go before britons cast their vote, Britain faces some difficult choices.
We can continue down the well-trodden, five-decades-tested Thatcherite path — a society that, apparently doesn’t meaningfully exist, let alone care.
Or we can choose community-focused care that is responsive to the needs of residents. We can try local councillors, actively embedded in their communities — like Sesh, Neil, Rachel, or Mothin — whose agility and compassion gives local people real confidence.
What the Greens show us is that politicians, whether local or national, can make real changes — even where ‘brick walls’ are involved, like Millward says.
Mothin’s example clearly shows how neglect in our underfunded, poorly-managed and often complacent local governance is pitting neighbours against each other. But we know from actually-elected Greens that this is not inevitable. It can be changed.
Having a councillor or MP who has the power to challenge that system and get to the heart of the local issues is significant.
That power, ultimately, resides in your ballot paper and pen. Choose wisely.
Additional reporting by Maddie Wheeldon
Featured image via the Canary
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