It’s that comparatively rare thing, a good morning. The sun is even out, where I am: plus it’s good in the political ether. Starmer and Labour got the spanking they deserved and Matt Goodwin skulks off – I imagine to Dubai or maybe some bland-but-sumptuous hotel in Eastern Europe – moaning hilariously about ‘sectarian voting’. Presumably because not quite enough white supremacists turned out for him.

It’s a good day because:

Starmer is pitifully weak and unprincipled… and he got beat. Labour’s campaign was cheap, spiteful, and probably in contravention of the law around messaging close to polling stations. Broadly, despite getting huge numbers of activists on the ground, Labour failed to convince folks. But how could they? The universe just knows that the party has lost its soul and its direction. That it no longer believes in social justice. That it is for sale to the Epstein Classes, to big corporations, to Big Money and to lobbyists – whether they come in the form of Friends of Israel or friends of private medicine. Labour is dead to most of the people I know. Labour activists and People of Conscience are surely, surely leaving the party in droves?

Reform are a real danger to all of us – to our central decencies – but they got beat again. (That’s three on the bounce). This must offer some hope. Their open and catastrophic messaging has but the one focus: shameless racism. We have and can beat it – we can be better than that. Goodwin and Farage’s corporate-imperialist white supremacist worldview is patently Americanised and transparent: it’s a bad fit for anyplace with a sense of history or community. If Gorton and Denton (and Caerphilly) can see past its prejudices then maybe the rest of us can?

(Concerned note: I have a significant dread that Reform will sweep through Wales, at the next election. I’m afraid this fabulous country may be be ripe for that shite – may get suckered. Please god this fear is unfounded).

But enough negativity. This is a good morning. The Greens have won a famous, spirit-lifting victory. They won’t care that their opponents and the bulk of the media will look to undermine it. (And my god, they will. Metaphorical knives will be being sharpened, private dicks hired and lenses polished even as we speak. The Dark Stuff will go on).

So what? They, the Greens know that they really are bringing hope and goodness – yes, really! – to a dark moment in British (and international) politics. They’re *all about defying* the cynical and depressing norms.

Polanski calls out injustice with intelligence and heart. He is the one of the very few significant voices challenging the most obvious and appalling issue of the time – Gaza. Our complicity, or the complicity engineered in our name, without our authority. He is one of the very few significant voices challenging obscene wealth. (Where is Starmer on this?!? The man’s patently been bought off – literally or otherwise.) Polanski is undeniably and obviously a good man trying to make things better and fairer. Who else in British politics can we say that of? Gorton is a tremendous victory for a fine, local candidate, but it is Polanski’s energy and his consistently strong interventions (on issues seen as untouchable by other parties) that have delivered it. If the fella drank I’d buy him a pinta stout.