Generally speaking, I spend as little time as possible thinking or talking about politics. I’m very grateful to live in a democracy but still, the upper levels of politics tends to just be posh people shouting at each other and making decisions that are best served to keep them in power, rather than actually make anyone’s lives any better. More than anything, what I would want from a politician is just to be honest, straight-forward, and actually try to make things better instead of people richer.

So, consider me astonished at the continued efforts of Zack Polanski of the Green Party. I heard rumblings of how down to earth he was towards the end of last year, but this video has blown me away.

Why does it feel like everyone’s running all the time? You are. We all are. Like we can never catch a breath. Rent’s up. Water bill’s up. You dread opening that next energy bill. And when did everything become such a luxury? Going to a cafe? Reading glasses are too expensive so you squint. Even going to the dentist gets put off. So you cut back, you pick up the pace.

…you’re moving so fast everything is just a blur. And that’s when it hits you. What if the answer isn’t to run faster? What if the most powerful thing we can do, all of us, all together at once, is to stop running and look around.

Because the moment you stop running and really look, one thing becomes really clear. When the rest of us are killing ourselves to create wealth, and hardly any of it is coming back to our communities, it’s going somewhere else. Upwards. To the pockets of the super rich. This isn’t just an economic failure. It’s a failure of leadership. The people we elected choose to serve the wealthy and not us. And yes, that is obscene. Good leaders put people before profit. They know homes are for living in not landlords’ portfolios. Energy is for warming those homes. Not record dividends. And rivers are for nature and swimming in. Not being poisoned to protect profits. And when we live well and we protect our environment we don’t burn out. It’s how we grow. It’s how our whole country grows. And yes, together, it’s how we make hope normal again.

And sure, there isn’t a huge amount of detail about how any of this can be solved, and sure, it’s easier to say these things outside the machinations of the top jobs. But what a breath of fresh air. No wonder the Green Party’s membership has skyrocketed.