The theatre of politics often takes the form of hypocrisy. That word though has very little to do with its original meaning - the wearing of a mask, as Greek actors did to indicate the roles they were playing.

Of course, we are all actors: we all tend to hide behind a mask because life demands that we present ourselves in the best possible light.

But amongst politicians, with their public roles, the reason they wear a mask might be to conceal decidedly inappropriate behaviour. As we have seen with the Scottish National Party. Peter Murrell, the party’s former finance chief and husband of former First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, developed a serious spending addiction at the expense of the party he managed. He spent over £400,000 on luxury goods, including two cars, a camper van, two professional coffee machines, Lalique salt and pepper mills... The list is endless, but what struck me was that he spent £2,000 on eight different umbrellas and £68 on two toilet seats.

And throughout it all, he presented himself just as any respectable party leader would. Nicola was also questioned by the police for several hours and always gave the same response: “No comment”. The current party leader was asked whether that was a sufficient answer, and he replied, without any apparent irony: “I have no comment to make”.

What we don’t like, of course, is to be found out in our exaggerations. The apparently charismatic leader of the Green party is though an exception. He continues in that position even though a number of awkward facts about him have been uncovered.

We know now that he changed his name from David Paulden to Zack Polanski at the age of 18, mainly because he didn’t get on with his father. Quite appropriately he studied drama at university and later on trained to become a hypnotherapist. What he didn’t do was wait until he had completed his training before practising on the public from his clinic in Harley Street. When he was trying to hypnotise an investigative reporter in order to increase her bust size, he claimed to be fully qualified. Mind you, quite what fully qualified actually means in the world of hypnotherapy is difficult to imagine: you become better at persuading people of untruths?

He had various bit acting parts, including taking part in role-playing scenarios for the Ministry of Defence. He later portrayed this as being an advisor to the Ministry. In 2022, on crowdfunding pages for his campaign for the Deputy Leadership of the Green Party, Polanski said he was a "spokesperson" for the British Red Cross. In 2026, they confirmed that this was untrue. Polanski said in explanation that he had hosted fundraisers for the organisation, and that he had used the ‘wrong word’.

He lived with his partner in a house-boat but when asked about the payment of council tax, he claimed not to have lived there on a permanent basis. A few days later he had to admit the truth and say that he would pay any council tax owed. Obviously a bit careless with the details.

Stephen Clayden is a street preacher who has been reported to the charity regulator for alleged homophobic, misogynistic and Islamophobic remarks. He is also the pastor at the Bread of Life Community Church, an evangelical church in Clacton - Nigel Farage’s constituency.

He has said that Muslims want to take over the country, adding that the biggest mistake the UK and US had made was “allowing them into positions of political power”. He has also said that wives must submit to their husbands and that Homosexuality is an “abomination”. He has compared gay Pride events to “Islamic jihad”. All a little ironic as these are standard Muslim positions.

Clayden has now recorded a YouTube video with Nigel Farage in which he said that he was being “demonised” for his Christian views. Farage told Clayden: “I am fully on your side”. This was in a dispute in which a council sought a banning order to limit preaching at the church’s branch in Colchester. He says that his comments were passages taken directly from the Bible and “as Bible-believing Christians we disagree with the celebration and promotion of any behaviour or lifestyle which the Bible describes as sinful”. So that’s alright then.

Of course, charitable status and so tax exemption, is not automatic for churches any longer. They now have to comply with the terms of the Charities legislation. Amongst other things, they have to show that the charity is run ‘for the public benefit’. It’s difficult to see how someone preaching hate on the street promotes the public benefit.

But it’s not difficult to see how Farage gains from his support of Mr Clayden: he can claim that he is supporting free speech and pretend, like Trump, to be a mouthpiece for the Christians in this supposedly Christian country.

In the Labour Party we now have the acting out of a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions. The Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham is standing as his party’s candidate in the forthcoming by-election in Makerfield. Sir Keir has kindly said that he will go to the constituency to canvass for him. Of course, should he win, he will then hope to trigger a leadership contest against Sir Keir. So something of a hypocritical move on Keir’s behalf.

But Burnham might not win. And if Burnham, the Labour candidate with the highest popularity ratings, doesn’t win then his party is in deep trouble.

Other parties are also in a bit of a state - former leaders of the Green Party have said that the Green Party should stand aside in order to promote the chances of Andy Burnham. I’m not sure that Zak Polanski is convinced, as I think he wants to make a bit of a splash. Their candidate though had already had to stand down because, as the Times reported a few hours after his nomination, he had shared antisemitic posts which described the arson attack on the Jewish community ambulances in Golders Green as a “false flag” operation.

The extreme right is fractured between Farage’s Reform UK and a new party, ‘Restore Britain’, founded by MP, Rupert Lowe, who had been kicked out of Reform after being accused of threatening violence towards party chairman Zia Yusuf. Restore has a massive following on Facebook, and so his supporters come mainly from an older demographic. He also has the backing of Elon Musk. And the polls say Restore would get 7% of the vote in the election – probably enough to stop Reform winning.

So then, all in all quite a difficult race to assess. But what exactly is Andy offering? And the answer is ‘Manchesterism’. He would bring to Westminster the policies which have created the success which is Manchester. Except that no-one is very sure what these policies are or how his running of a reasonably large conurbation would translate into running a country with both Trump and Putin to deal with.

I hoped his first speech would set out the principles involved, but all it said was that ‘Change’ was required. Would that be the same undefined change already offered to us by Sir Keir at the time of the last General Election? Or perhaps the undefined ‘Change’ offered by the other contender, Wes Streeting when he made his resignation speech in the Commons?

Both Wes and Andy have said they would keep in place the fiscal rules laid out by Rachael from accounts (so as not to frighten the bond markets). And they would not alter income tax, VAT or employee’s national insurance, so keeping the promises made in Labour’s last manifesto. They have both hinted at increases in the rate of Capital Gains Tax, although offset by index-linking of the gain, so probably no significant increased tax-take as a consequence. And there is talk of some version of a wealth tax, even though most experts say it would be counter-productive. Will they cut benefits?

Will they remove the triple lock on pension increases? We have no idea. So then, the idea that ‘Change’ is coming is simply a form of rhetoric -  a play within a play designed to make us feel that things can somehow be made better than they are. If only!

26 May 2026

Paul Buckingham