The Green Party tells members what is 'unacceptable' speech in new inclusive language guidance

Max Thompson, Campaigns Officer

1 October 2026

The censorious Green Party is back at it, demonstrating its open disdain for free speech. Unlike earlier in the summer, it is not the free speech rights of Britain's free press that the party has in its sights, but those of its own membership.

Ahead of its conference in Brighton, which begins this weekend, the Green Party has published an Orwellian language guide telling members which words and phrases are 'unacceptable'. It is truly mental — but even that word would get you into trouble, as the term 'nutters' is prohibited.

The new Inclusive Terminology Guidance advised members against using terms including 'elderly', 'female politician', 'mothers and fathers', 'able-bodied', 'sex change', 'homosexual', 'youngster', and 'sexual preference'.

It also recommended replacing gendered terms with gender-neutral alternatives: 'chair', not 'chairman'; 'police officer', not 'policeman'; and 'parents and carers', not 'mothers and fathers'. Since when has referring to the people who brought you into the world as 'mother' and 'father' ever been offensive?

But the madness does not stop there. When discussing race, members were encouraged to use the term 'global majority', which, as the guide put it, is an umbrella term for people of Black, Asian, Brown, Indigenous, and Latin American heritage. For the Green Party, the phrase apparently matters because it reflects the fact that these groups make up the majority of the world's population, despite being a minority in the UK, and that each group has a different history and experience.

The guidance also said that the term 'Brown' must be 'used with caution', and that members should preferably opt for the term 'racially minoritised', as it emphasises the fact that minority status is created by social and power structures.

Responding to the publication of this Orwellian language guide, Conservative Party Chairman Kevin Hollinrake MP said: "The Greens are obsessed with policing people's language and thoughts in the name of their increasingly bizarre crusade against ordinary Brits. Last week they were dictating who people spend time with and what jokes they make. Now they're attempting to prohibit perfectly normal words like 'mother' and 'father'. This extraordinary obsession with censoring how people speak and behave in their everyday lives is made even more nonsensical by Polanski's inability to get a grip of the vile antisemitism within his own party."

The clinically named guidance warned members that using any of the 'wrong' words identified by the party "can create environments that feel unwelcoming or exclusionary".

But if you are nervous of falling foul of the Greens' Orwellian speech codes, do not fear. A large section of the guide is dedicated to advising members what to do in the event of a language failure. For those who may struggle with the list of approved and banned language, the guidance offered reassurance that it is "okay to make mistakes from time to time", as long as they are trying their best.

If they get it wrong, members were told to apologise, to thank the individual who pointed out their speech offence, and to "adjust your language moving forward".

If this is how the Greens treat the speech of their own supporters at conference, it does not bear imagining what would happen if they ever formed a government.

Read more in The Spectator and The Telegraph.