Darren Johnson

Live review: On Thin Ice – Pink Floyd tribute at Blackbox, Hastings 6/3/26 While someone banging out some half-decent AC/DC or Stones covers will invariably bring a smile to my face, when it comes to Pink Floyd you’ve either got to get the sound bang on or else it’s simpl…

Live review: On Thin Ice – Pink Floyd tribute at Blackbox, Hastings 6/3/26
darrensmusicblog.com/2026/03/09/l...

Interview with Fairport Convention’s Chris Leslie Ahead of the band’s 2026 Spring Tour, I catch up with Fairport Convention’s Chris Leslie. We discuss how he fell in love with the band’s music as a teenager, getting to know the b…

Interview: ahead of their Spring Tour, I catch up with Fairport Convention’s Chris Leslie. We discuss how he fell in love with their music as a teenager, getting to know them socially, working with them and, 30 years ago, becoming one of their members.
darrensmusicblog.com/2026/03/04/i...

Thanks Graham. Yes a few ex-Greens or about-to-be ex-Greens have been in touch in the last few days making a similar journey.

@darrenjohnson66.bsky.social - Great column on LabourList. We both left the Green Party ay about the same time, for very similar reasons (though our breaking points were over different issues). I wasn't aware until now that you'd also joined Labour. There's a few of us.

Interview with Fairport Convention’s Chris Leslie Ahead of the band’s 2026 Spring Tour, I catch up with Fairport Convention’s Chris Leslie. We discuss how he fell in love with the band’s music as a teenager, getting to know the b…

Interview: ahead of their Spring Tour, I catch up with Fairport Convention’s Chris Leslie. We discuss how he fell in love with their music as a teenager, getting to know them socially, working with them and, 30 years ago, becoming one of their members.
darrensmusicblog.com/2026/03/04/i...

I've had a few ex-Greens or about-to-be ex-Greens who have been in touch and have made the same journey.

'Why I left the Green Party and joined Labour' - LabourList Former Green Party councillor and London Assembly Member Darren Johnson on why he has now joined the Labour Party.

"With the seemingly endless trickle of announcements from people defecting from Labour to the Green Party, I’ll explain why I have been one, although certainly not the only one, to recently make the journey the other way."

Me today for @labourlist.bsky.social
labourlist.org/2026/03/gree...

sure - just followed you

thank you!

I've joined the Labour Party. As an environmentalist and left-leaning social democrat, my views are now far closer to Labour than the increasingly radicalised Greens and are much better reflected in the work of people like Ed Miliband and Sadiq Khan than by Zack Polanski or Mothin Ali.

Zack Polanski: "There's no example in history where you've bombed people to democracy."

This is why the Nazi Party are still in power in Germany, Japan is still under military rule, there have been no elections in Serbia since the 1990s and Kosovo hasn't achieved independence.

I think the newly-configured left populist Green Party is completely bonkers. I also think Labour will only regain the support of centre-left voters if it starts offering hope for a better future. Ideally, I'd like Labour to be much bolder and the Green Party to be more moderate.

Live review: Atomic Rooster at The Piper, St Leonards 25/2/26 For many years Atomic Rooster were one of those bands whose name was well known to me through my voracious reading of rock history, but whose material I was barely familiar with. That changed back …

Live review: Atomic Rooster at The Piper, St Leonards 25/2/26
darrensmusicblog.com/2026/02/27/l...

For all the noise the Greens are making and Polanski's near-constant presence in the media these days, the party have made a net gain of just two seats in council by-elections held in the months since the last round of local elections. All talk and no trousers.

I agree that the Greens are going to have to drop their anti-NATO positioning if they want to grow their support base. The problem Polanski will face is the former Corbynites that now make up the backbone of his party’s membership will kick up all manner of fuss if he tries to pivot on this.

New Statesman article this week on Polanski and NATO is very perceptive. It rightly identifies that Polanski's laughable incoherence on NATO is due to trying to ride two horses at once: courting both hard left activists (very anti-NATO) and left liberal voters (very anti-Putin).

Folk Rock / Indie: album review – The Revellers ‘Reactors’ Following a gap of nine years since their previous release, popular Shetland indie folk rock band, The Revellers, are back with their third album, Reactors. The Revellers are Michael Anderson (lead…

Folk Rock / Indie: album review – The Revellers ‘Reactors’
darrensmusicblog.com/2026/02/02/f...

‘Fair Weather’ – first single from Little Lore’s new album inspired by Tennessee Williams Released: 3rd February 2026 “We were spellbound by her ability to highlight unique perspectives with her songwriting” – Maverick magazine “Duffy’s first-class writing shines through” – RnR magazine…

‘Fair Weather’ – first single from Little Lore’s new album inspired by Tennessee Williams - out today 3 February
darrensmusicblog.com/2026/02/03/f...

It's easy to 100% grasp where Mark Carney is coming from on defence and foreign policy and it's easy to 100% grasp where Zarah Sultana is coming from on defence and foreign policy. Polanski's problem is he's trying to do a bit of both at the same time and it's an utter car-crash.

Indeed. I remember when Polanski first came on the scene in the Green Party and I thought, "Oh, he's quite sensible in challenging the hard left of the party and the Corbyn love-in." And I was often retweeting him. How times change...

The Greens’ defence problem Why Zack Polanski will have to abandon his opposition to Nato

Full article here: www.newstatesman.com/politics/gre...

New Statesman article this week on Polanski and NATO is very perceptive. It rightly identifies that Polanski's laughable incoherence on NATO is due to trying to ride two horses at once: courting both hard left activists (very anti-NATO) and left liberal voters (very anti-Putin).

‘Fair Weather’ – first single from Little Lore’s new album inspired by Tennessee Williams Released: 3rd February 2026 “We were spellbound by her ability to highlight unique perspectives with her songwriting” – Maverick magazine “Duffy’s first-class writing shines through” – RnR magazine…

‘Fair Weather’ – first single from Little Lore’s new album inspired by Tennessee Williams - out today 3 February
darrensmusicblog.com/2026/02/03/f...

Folk Rock / Indie: album review – The Revellers ‘Reactors’ Following a gap of nine years since their previous release, popular Shetland indie folk rock band, The Revellers, are back with their third album, Reactors. The Revellers are Michael Anderson (lead…

Folk Rock / Indie: album review – The Revellers ‘Reactors’
darrensmusicblog.com/2026/02/02/f...

You can’t just ‘dismantle NATO, from within’??

These NATO countries and their personnel have worked together for decades.

Polanski is an amateur.

Scotrail logo concept [Scotsman today] possibly needs more work

What is interesting is how Waspi women (& I’m of that demographic), believe they should receive public money for not reading letters sent by DWP, not checking their pension B4 retiring and generally living in media isolation to claim they were not advised/knew nothing/knew insufficient.

the WASPI campaign really gets less popular the more people learn about it