"17 JANUARY 2026 I'm dying for a wee, Zack Polanski says as he gets off the train at Wakefield Westgate. Why didn't you go on the train, I ask? It was very busy and too many people recognised me on the way to the toilet. I knew I'd never get there for all the conversations, so I came back. When did it become hard for him to go to the toilet on a train?"
"While Polanski says it's not, and cannot be, about one individual, in Green circles there is much talk of the Polanski effect. Since he was elected in September 2025, the Greens have risen by an average of four points in the polls. Just before going to press, the Guardian's latest poll tracker had the party at 13.5%, only five points behind Labour, on 18.6%; 20% of people who voted Labour in 2024 now say they will go Green."
"For 20-odd years Polanski, aged 43, was a jobbing actor nobody had heard of. He got by, just, by supplementing his acting gigs with all sorts of jobs teaching drama, dressing up as hotdogs, handing out flyers at the nightclub Heaven, working in bars and, now notoriously, as a hypnotherapist. Polanski became deputy leader of the Green party in 2022, and still pretty much nobody had heard of him."
Zack Polanski won election in September 2025 and immediately attracted intense public recognition. The Green party has risen by an average of four points in polls since his election, reaching 13.5% and narrowing Labour's lead to five points. Twenty percent of 2024 Labour voters now say they will vote Green. Polanski worked for about 20 years as a jobbing actor and supported himself with various jobs, including teaching drama, dressing as a hotdog, handing out flyers, working in bars and working as a hypnotherapist. Local events that once drew a dozen now attract hundreds.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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