Times are changing, and so is what we want from our government and chosen political party.

I used to be a staunch supporter of the Labour party. They used to be (and purport to remain) very supportive of the average worker, focused on improving the economy and redistributing wealth and putting higher taxes on the rich. However, something has changed over the past few years, and for me personally the final straw has been a lack of a backbone on the part of Keir Starmer, the current Labour leader and Prime Minister, particularly when it comes to dealing with other world leaders.

It is time for a change.

In February this year, we all saw the Green Party make a sudden comeuppance in the polls in Gorton and Denton, a constituency in Greater Manchester, an area that had been a Labour safe seat since 1931. Their new MP, Hannah Spencer, made history with a landslide win against Labour and Reform UK. She is the Green Party’s first MP in the North and fifth MP overall, marking a growing shift in voters and, hopefully, the future of the UK government.

It was during Hannah’s election campaign when I, for the first time in my life, became a paying member of a political party, not only because I believed in Hannah and the Greens, but also because of their new (as of 2025) leader, Zack Polanski. In interviews, he comes across as knowledgable, confident, genuine and filled with the same concerns as those of us who have had more than enough of the weakness of Labour, the elitism of the Tories and the evil rhetoric spewed out by Reform. It’s time for new, fresh blood that we can believe in and who will be transparent with us, ALL of us, regardless of ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, etc. Personally, I have never felt more hopeful or invigorated by a political party.

I need to do more research on the age of voters, but I would like to assume that Gen X/Millennials/Gen Z are seeing what hasn’t worked in the past and isn’t currently working and are throwing their weight behind something new and promising. We are less naive to what we’re told, mostly thanks to the Information Age and how easy it is to communicate and uncover lies and corruption. We have been brought up to not repeat history, and so it’s time to break the Labour-Conservative cycle and dump ideologies that will no longer sustain the country. Moreover, as Gen Alpha start to hit voting age within the next decade, they will hopefully see what we see and continue to push for the future and witness more positive changes than we have had to deal with over the past twenty years.

Now is the time to get involved and prepare for the next general election in 2029. That’s plenty of time to get to know the Greens and support them. You can check out their 2024 manifesto on their website (it supports their current objectives, but it needs updating to replace an old introduction from previous co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay) which is quite thorough. It’s also worth noting that this party has moved much further along from being just about protecting the environment: they’re very much about protecting the people, too.