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Greens’ Zack Polanski admits failing to pay correct council tax on houseboat
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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Both can be wrong at the same time.
But that's still a huge difference between a bureaucratic bungle and open, blatant corruption.
If you look at the facts, it's not as clear-cut as one might think. Polansky and his husband have the boat and also rented a flat nearby. The rent on the flat included council tax. So it was really a matter of confusion as to whether council tax were payable on the boat, and what would make the boat a primary residence. And both the boat and the flat were in the same council, so the allegations of voter fraud are bollocks.
I've dealt with similar situations (though not involving a boat, just two residences) and, even if you ask the council, it's rare that you'll get the same answer twice.
But of course the left has to be 100% perfect, whereas Farage? Well, that's just Nige being Nige, innit?
What you described is exactly what I meant by bureaucratic bungle. I agree today we shouldn't make a mountain out of a molehill and of course we should hold all politicians to the same high standards.
Morality is judged on a spectrum, except when the point is to pardon the unpardonable.
I never said otherwise. Just sick of the double/triple standards and of our media failing us.
There have been multiple front page articles on the BBC, Guardian, etc. covering that. There was intense scrutiny on Angela Rayner when she didn't pay council tax as well. To me, a double standard would be not applying the same level of treatment to Polanski.
In Rayner's case, big sums of money were at play. The outline was similar, but the magnitude was different. And the media coverage was disproportionate in her case, too.