Farrukh

Good morning, the most glorious magnolia basking in the sunshine 🤩 with some of the latest tech at #MWC26 Always make time for nature, food and gadgets ☺️ Have a good day 🙏

Calling it a night after tonight's online chaos Only 1 person in a 200 berth marina had paid council tax across 35 years Now it's 2 people in a 200 berth marina who have paid council tax across 35 years; Zack Polanski, after finding out that his houseboat accommodations made him eligible to do so has approached the council to rectify the situation The same investigation found that 9 people had registered to vote at a bungalow on the property. Is that 9 people registered over the same 35 year window, or just in recent years? Does that include the 1 person who paid or did they pay a different way. So that's possibly another 7 or 8 others who may be eligible. I hope they get the support and advice needed without the media circus surrounding Zack Polanski What started as a misunderstanding of how the system worked for houseboats has blown up into a full on conspiracy theory on tax avoidance by Zack Polanski Posts left right and centre amplifying every view - it was a mistake, it was intentional, how could he have known, how couldn't he have known People getting visibly angry and upset in their comments, people having verbal fights on Twitter, frustrations high, and it's all presented as just a normal day on social media Newsflash, this type of discourse is not normal We're all supposed to be better than this. The world isn't black and white, we shouldn't be so binary in our commentary. Where is our humility? Our society is what we make of it, let's make it a better one please. Good night, God bless 🙏

@Barry_19967 @DanNeidle I can't speak for others, though I saw a post from Dan that he's received a lot of hate for his post/report. That clearly isn't the decent way to respond

@implausibleblog @DanNeidle His supporters have spent their lives believing people who make similar mistakes are the devil. They now can’t deal with the cognitive dissonance that maybe they were wrong about the people in those incidents and either theyre all the devil or, actually, none of them are.

There are ~200 berths at Lee Valley Marina Over 35 years, with normal turnover, that’s around 1,000 boats Dan Neidle revealed: only 1 ever registered for council tax Zack Polanski was one of the 999 who didn’t realise the rules applied. The council never chased anyone there. He’s now contacting them to sort any shortfall What was sold as “Zack Polanski dodging council tax” is actually a story about hundreds of boaters not understanding the rules, not paying, and a council not enforcing them A genuine mistake that’s being fixed So why has the media turned this into a full scandal suggesting he’s a tax avoider? This isn’t journalism — it’s a coordinated effort to tarnish Polanski over an error that 998 others at the same marina over 35 years also made Meanwhile, barely a peep about Nigel Farage’s £5m from his foreign crypto billionaire backer Double standards much?

Yes, a mistake which is why he's gone to the council to correct it, it happens But that doesn't mean the circumstances are confusing which is why just 1 person across 35 years at a 200 berth marina registered, which, as the screenshot shows, suggests that others may have assumed it was included in fees

@implausibleblog @DanNeidle This really isn’t a big deal and tbh I’ve only seen his defenders making it one. He didn’t pay, probably because he didn’t realise he needed to, but ignorance isn’t a defence and he should therefore make it right. It’s just a mistake.

Not at all, by all means scrutinise and raise concerns If anything politicians and political leaders should be setting the best possible example In this case, Zack Polanski did not know, when it was revealed, he addressed it And as Dan himself pointed out just 1 person across 35 years registered for council tax. Was that 1 person also registered at the bungalow that had 9 people registered to vote. Was it 9 people over 35 years or a shorter time frame. More questions, more context, more confusion over the rules Dan usually offers a right to reply before going public, especially with something that will gain as much visibility and tractions like this. So I do wonder whether that was or wasn't offered in this case I wouldn't go so far as to say we're through the looking glass. Spotted this from someone else online. It's not as clear cut as is being presented Though if we can't be honest about the circumstances of this - just 1 person over 35 years registered in a 200 berth marina - then we have indeed gone through the looking glass, as we're ignoring the wider general context of houseboat living

@implausibleblog @DanNeidle Are you seriously asking why a leader of a national Party - who happens to propose that people pay much more in tax - has come under more scrutiny than random people for avoiding tax?We’ve honestly well and truly gone through the looking glass.

@knowles204 Curious to know if that was actually the case. I wonder if the council would ever confirm if it was..

@implausibleblog It seems to me the council decided it was just to difficult to properly tax the boats and so decided not to. They probably don't bother with travellers either.

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@iain07161056 @DanNeidle Politely, even Dan a tax expert said "I had no idea this was a thing" If the tax expert didn't know, how's joe bloggs meant to know But the main point surely is simply that as soon as it was flagged Zack Polanski has gone to correct it

@implausibleblog @DanNeidle Even if an unintentional mistake the initial response was not a promise to go and check but a dismissal. And you might think that a national politician, of his standing, would (should?) know more about taxes and councils than the other marina occupiers?

@CenGinLondon @TommyTrinder5 @ZackPolanski Same reason only 1 person in 35 years in a 200 berth marina did so

@implausibleblog @TommyTrinder5 @ZackPolanski He's elected to local government FFS. How on earth did he think he could not be liable for council tax?

I completely agree with you that council tax only applies where the boat is the person’s sole or main residence My concern is the media framing of the incident presenting Zack Polanski as a tax dodger when you yourself wrote that over 35 years just one person registered their boat for council tax The implication being that in a 200-berth marina over 35 years, only two people (Polanski plus the one registered) met the threshold for it to be their sole/main residence? That seems unlikely I’m left wondering how many more boaters over those decades also met the test but never came under scrutiny Thankfully, Zack Polanski has immediately taken steps to pay any council tax he may be found to owe to Waltham Forest council That said, it doesn’t undo the full media circus that followed your initial post And given that you normally reach out to people and offer a right of reply before publishing, I’m wondering if that was or wasn't done with this story

@implausibleblog Are you using AI to write this? I said: council tax only applies where people’s sole/main residence is the boat. A small fraction of the 1,000. Your post is completely wrong.

My estimate of around 1,000 boats over 35 years comes from the marina’s ~200 berths combined with normal turnover Even with many boats staying several years, a busy London marina like Lee Valley Springfield sees boats sold, owners moving on, new liveaboards arriving, cruising periods ending, etc Over 35 years that easily adds up to several hundred unique residential boats — quite possibly 800–1,200+ The sales advert for Polanski’s boat called it their “amazing home” for three years, many others used the site only as a postal address while living aboard full-time, and yet only one boat in 35 years ever registered That still looks like a very large gap even after allowing for leisure-only users Happy to be corrected on the numbers if you have more precise data on long-term residential occupancy at the site On the wider framing, this story was presented by parts of the media as evidence that Zack Polanski is a tax dodger In reality it was a common misunderstanding of an obscure, poorly enforced rule that caught out the vast majority of people at the same marina The Green Party has described it as an unintentional mistake and Polanski is now settling any shortfall That’s very different from deliberate tax avoidance or evasion The rapid escalation into a character attack feels disproportionate when the underlying issue was shared by so many others over decades

@implausibleblog Please read our report. Council tax only applies where someone has a sole/main residence on a boat that’s (in a simple case) permanently moored. That will be nothing like 1,000.

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No, the shoplifting analogy doesn't hold up Shoplifting is a clear, deliberate criminal act that everyone understands is wrong This case is different: it was a widespread, good-faith misunderstanding of obscure and poorly enforced council tax rules affecting hundreds of boaters at the same marina over 35 years The marina itself classified the berths as non-residential, the council sent no bills and took no action, and even many experienced people didn't realise liability applied when a narrowboat is used as a main home Calling it “tax dodging” implies deliberate evasion The Green Party has described it as an unintentional mistake, and Polanski is now contacting the council to pay any shortfall That’s the opposite of dodging - it’s correcting an error once it was highlighted The real failure lies with the council’s decades-long non-enforcement, not one politician making the same mistake as nearly everyone else at that location

@implausibleblog @BrknMan It’s clearly non-compliance and tax dodging. Lots of people also leave shops without paying and don’t get caught - would that make it okay for a politician to do that?

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No, that's not a strong argument for "fiscal incompetence" disqualifying him from government The boat council tax rules are obscure and poorly enforced - even Dan Neidle, a highly experienced tax lawyer who spent 23 years at Clifford Chance (including as UK head of tax), described the situation at the marina as surprising He highlighted how many long-term liveaboards simply didn't realise (or weren't told) that council tax applied when the boat is your main home This isn't complex corporate tax structuring; it's a niche, badly communicated area of local tax law that caught out dozens or hundreds of ordinary boaters over decades, not just Polanski Plenty of competent politicians and professionals have made honest mistakes on obscure rules without it proving they're unfit for office Polanski has owned up to the unintentional error and is now paying any shortfall - that's the responsible thing to do The real scandal here is the council's 35-year failure to enforce the rules at all, not one person's misunderstanding of a confusing grey area

@implausibleblog It's not just about not paying, it's his fical incompetance...If he doesn't understand the rules he should be no where near government @ZackPolanski

@emmadjen1 I don't know about his security arrangement but it does raise the question of what security is offered even though he isn't an MP but is a leader of a party

@implausibleblog Surely a bigger story here is that a leader of a relatively big player party in UK politics is living on a boathouse on the river with no security.