AIBU to question Zack Polanski’s credibility and political suitability?

I apologise for my mistake, it appears the story about the £5 million gift did not become known until Farage spoke about it during an interview with the Telegraph in April 2026. It is subsequently attracting a lot of media attention ahead of the local elections:

Nigel Farage has revealed he was the victim of a firebombing attack at his home, as he admitted he would never be able to take his personal safety for granted.

The Reform UK leader told The Telegraph that the lit incendiary device was pushed through his letterbox early last year, saying “there are huge dangers in this job”.

Police investigated the attack, but no suspects have been identified so far.
In a rare discussion of his security arrangements, Mr Farage said he had received a seven-figure personal gift to pay for his security from Christopher Harborne, the Thailand-based British billionaire who has donated more than £12m to Reform.

The gift, understood to be in the region of £5m, was made in early 2024 before Mr Farage re-entered politics at that year’s general election, meaning it was not declared as it did not count as a political donation. Money that is a gift is not taxed.

“This money was given to me so that I would be safe and secure for the rest of my life,” he said. “I have tried and failed in the past to get security funded by the Home Office and I don’t think the state will ever help me. I’m very much on my own and will be for the rest of my life, and I have to face up to that grim reality. Christopher is an ardent supporter who is deeply concerned for my safety.”

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/29/nigel-farage-my-home-was-firebombed/

None of those appeal to me - I’m not into show offs speaking bullshit - but yes I accept plenty are taken in by them - someone being serious and mannered isn’t robotic - but yes he’s a very typical serious lawyer - if people prefer flamboyant bullshitters, well that’s on them - Polanski was rejected by Lib Dem’s as a liability as was handsy with young male interns and he will be torn to shreds if he gets a whiff of power both by media and all the purity politics corbynista types they’ve attracted -

Whether you like it or not Polanski (and Farage and Kemi) appeal to people in a way that Starmer doesn't as comes across as a robotic weirdo irrespective of his terrible policies. I'm glad Polanski is now facing more scrutiny as he is terrible too and seems to be losing votes because of it.

He was given alot of scrutiny before and after Brexit because he was one of the main people campaigning for it. I am no fan of Farage or the BBC (I don't have a license as don't want to contribute to misinformation) but they can't win with some people - if he wasn't on programmes you'd say he's avoiding scrutiny and if he is on you say he's being given a platform.

@Lemonthyme I also agree with about 80% of your post there.

What are you talking about, a plastic bag?

Why not stick with the actual facts about what he lied about - lying about being a spokesman for the Red Cross, lying about the perpetrator of the Golders Green attacks being handcuffed at a point when he was not handcuffed but rather holding a knife, lying about being able to increase women's breasts via hypnosis.

Did it? I didn't see any coverage of the £5 million story before recently. Can you share?

@Lemonthyme I partly agree with your post and agree that neither ZP or NF give a crap about anybody but their own fame.

But - the story about Farage and the £5M gift is being reported again by mainstream UK media such as the BBC despite the story first breaking in early 2024 and being widely discussed then.

Polanski only became leader of the Green party since 2025 and there has been an increase in antisemitism amongst Green candidates with him at the helm. It is natural in my opinion that the media would scrutinise him closely before the local elections, in a way that they have previously done with other political leaders both on the Right as well as on the Left.

Shell have also announced soaring billion pound profits since the conflict in the Gulf.

But hey, let’s uncover the latest scandal. ZP once used a plastic bag?

Yes the apology was the report from Guardian

I don't know who broke it but anyway, it was reported in the Guardian and Polanski has not denied it, he has apologised for lying.

The Times broke the story

I do find the focus on ZP over the past few days interesting. When there's the story going on about Farage pocketing £5 million claiming it was ok because he wasn't a politician at the time and earning £2 million since becoming an MP.

Why people think he's some kind of saviour of the working class I have no idea.

Thing is though that working class, traditional Labour voters have, to a degree, been left by Labour. What a lot of left wingers don't really like is the fact these voters might be fiscally liberal but socially conservative. The Greens are fiscally liberal and socially liberal. Reform are fiscally conservative and socially very conservative. Labour have lost their way, becoming fiscally a bit conservative and socially a bit of a mish mash.

But do I think either ZP or NF give a crap about anybody but their own fame? Nope.

Problem is that it's a bit like the 1929 crash what happened in 2008 and we've never really recovered. We are getting echoes of that kind of shift in politics which happened in the 1930s where the hard right and hard left rose across Europe and beyond. We escaped the worst of the politics of that period but not the fall out from it.

Fact is, in my mind, it's so easy to be a popularist. You can just blame someone else all the time rather than point out some hard truths. That the world was made poorer in 2008 due to events in the US. Due to how financial institutions were poorly managed and regulated. And much as we want to put blame on X or Y, there is no fixing that in a way which isn't going to be kind of painful. With repeated governments all that has been done is QE and kicking the can down the road. The other major problem we have is the correction after 2008 was austerity. I'd draw a straight line from that to our levels of sickness in our population with a diversion via Covid measures as well. Then add to that our aging population due to the baby boomers and low birth rates (in part influenced by austerity) and we have a huge problem in the UK, low tax payer numbers, high tax recipient numbers with high levels of expensive to service debt from the bank bail outs (probably necessary but helped the richest the most), a history of austerity (which failed) and Covid support (some of it fraud). We shouldn't need to have had to fix that problem but we do and fixing it will not be pleasant.

So what do you do? That's what's up for grabs but trying to pretend we don't currently need immigration is bollocks. We do until we can get more people back in work (that's what pisses me off about Labour back benchers blocking some of that, it needs to be done but that's another story). We also need to cut in work benefits subsidising companies, which is why increasing minimum wage isn't an awful idea.

But also that's why being a member of the EU actually worked well because we had a lot of circular migration (people came to work in the UK as adults and a lot returned or didn't bring family) now we're out of the EU, more people move from further away but for good and with their families who tend to be more recipients than generators of tax revenue. That's why Brexit increased migration.

I'm not saying I have the fixes but what I am saying is both ZP and NF piss me off because their solutions are facile. They do not admit the realities of where we are and they do not admit fixing any of this will be hard.

That particular lie - that he had been a spokesman for the Red Cross - was uncovered by the Guardian.

Hardly the “right wing media” you mentioned earlier, are they?

Yes - it's all there. He and his followers are just sore than it's been picked up by the media - including the Guardian and the BBC. He's been proven to be a person lacking honesty and judgement.

The press run the show and if they go after someone, they will bring them down. I wonder what horrors they will drag up next. Referring to himself as a spokesperson for the Red Cross - how very dare he the utterly evil man - when actually he is just heavily involved with supporting them and has spoken at events for them (but isn’t supposed to be politically affiliated). How corrupt and self serving he must be. Also I read that he once sneezed and didn’t thank the person who said bless you but I can’t find the source for that.

Yet the facts are there for others to see which is why he is being increasingly called out for not being honest.

Haha.

yeah right if that's what you'd like to think

I agree and wouldn’t say that he represents those who care deeply about the environment very well. It no longer seems to be the most important issue to the Green Party which even makes their name seem like a misnomer.

I'm a floating voter. Very much an environmentalist though. I agree there are some amazing green party councillors around and I am pleased to see the success.

I think picking ZP as leader was deeply naive and that it's going to backfire badly on the green party.

Yes, and if you're not up for it, it's not the fault of the press.

He's a popularist like Farage, telling people things they want to hear rather than uncomfortable truths. Given a choice between him and Farage though I'd pick the Greens. But honestly because I'm a grown up, I can also manage to work out that there are common sense alternatives to both.

Plus the claim that Essa Suleiman was "handcuffed" when it's clear that he wasn't. It's as if ZP just doesn't focus on facts.

Be fair, the Greens are also full of perverts, misogynists and people who use ChatGPT as a soothsayer (without understanding how it works; the poster appears to think it actually analyses the sources somehow rather than being a large language model that works on probabilities and prompts).

Lots of gloating about being a "threat" but it seems to me it's mostly Jews who are feeling threatened. And obviously, anyone who thinks the Greens have raised their profile because of their dedication to the environment is... deluded, shall we say. However, nobody does actually think that.

Exactly. He is the architect of his own misfortune. He'll blame "the right wing media" rather than take responsibility for his own ineptitude and folly. Also, The Guardian isn't exactly "right wing", and they exposed the hypnotherapy and the Red Cross misinformation.
It's like student politics, isn't it? Blame the media, blame the rich, don't self criticise, don't reflect, don't take responsibility.