Zia Yusuf and Polanski distract from the real issue

Added: 2026-05-03

[00:00:01]I want to come back to the Green Party and to the comments of Zack Polanski, which I've touched on before, but I but but I thought it it was worth having a look again. And there's also Mark Adair Lee that I I think I made a video the other day about him, this fellow from uh standing for West Norwood and somewhere other. Um It it it it it seems very very odd, all his comments about Palestine and about Israel, and he's been suspended, uh quite rightly so. But they in Question Time I I think Question Time asked the wrong question. The clash between Zara Yousaf and what Zack Polanski has said was dramatic, but it was not the heart of the matter.

[00:00:58]Yousaf's attack on the Green Party failures uh on on the failures of the Green Party over anti-Semitism was politically potent. Polanski's repost about police violence was at best reckless and badly timed. But the danger is broader than one social media post, one party, or one television row. Police were responding to a suspected terrorist um who had attacked two men in Golders Green uh and stabbed them, and counter-terrorism policing declared the incident a terrorist attack in nature, and the suspect had previous links to prevent, plus a history of serious violence and mental health issues.

[00:01:42]Secondly, Britain is dealing with a deeper security failure. The real question is not whether is not only whether Polanski was foolish. The real question is why British Jews now require emergency funding, patrols, synagogue protection, and community security simply to live openly. The government has announced another 25 million pounds for the for Jewish community service security after the attack. That is necessary, but it's also an admission of failure.

[00:02:11]And the Iranian ambassador was summoned after an embassy-linked message reportedly urged Iranians abroad to be ready to sacrifice their lives for the Islamic Republic. That is not ordinary diplomatic speech. It is incendiary language from a hostile state's official orbit. Thirdly and finally the central failure is the tardiness of the government to proscribe the IRGC.

[00:02:36]For years British um for for for for for years, British uh ministers have known Iran poses a direct threat inside Britain. MI5's Ken McCallum said in 2024 that UK services had responded to 20 Iran-backed plots since January 2022.

[00:02:58]A later comment briefing described Iranian threats as physical, cyber, espionage, and political interference, with physical attacks on regime opponents among their gravest threats.

[00:03:08]So the question is blunt, why has the IRGC not already been proscribed? And that is the question that ought to have been the central question in Question Time. If the IRGC functions as the regime's external arm, if dissidents are threatened, if Jewish institutions are targeted which they are, if suspected proxy activity is under investigation then Britain needs more than condemnations. It needs legal clarity, surveillance capacity, prosecutions, asset freezes, expulsions where lawful, and uh a firm doctrine that foreign states do not get to intimidate British citizens on British streets. The Polanski row is noisy. The Iran question is existential.

[00:03:58]A serious government should not confuse the two uh or allow someone a a a minor character like Zara Yousaf to pontificate. It should defend police accountability. It should protect civil liberties and still recognize this plain truth. Anti-Semitism, foreign intimidation, and suspected Iranian proxy violence now form one national security problem. Words are no longer enough. Actions need to take place. We need to proscribe the IRGC as soon as possible.