The recent arrest of a Green Party councillor on suspicion of modern slavery offences has rightly drawn public attention. The alleged crimes, modern slavery, servitude, and forced labour are among the most serious in British law.
What has once again come into focus is not simply an individual case, but a wider and deeply entrenched double standard in British political life: the difference between how wrongdoing is treated when it emerges from the political mainstream, and how it is handled when it can be attached, however loosely, to parties on the so-called Right.
When serious crimes involve politicians from establishment parties, the response is almost ritualistic. The individual is isolated. The party “acts swiftly.” Statements emphasise that the behaviour is “entirely unrepresentative.” Media coverage follows suit, carefully drawing a line between the offender and the organisation they belong to.
This councillors action will never haunt Zack Polanski in the same way sex offending Tories or embezzling Scottish Nats will be memory-holed never to bother another member again.
But, for parties such as the Homeland Party, that firewall simply does not exist. We nationalists, especially, are held to a far higher standard by the mainstream media and politicians.
Instead, Homeland members routinely find their names dragged into controversy through online association, not actions. Screenshots, old photographs, shared platforms, mutual social media followers, or long-expired memberships are trawled up and presented as evidence of moral contamination. Individuals are linked, sometimes many years later, and I speak from experience here, to crimes or misconduct committed by people they once knew, briefly worked with, or merely appeared alongside in public on an occasion.
In most cases, the association is not current, not organisational, and not substantive and has no connection whatsoever to the Party. Yet it is enough to warrant an attempt tarnish reputations.
This is guilt by algorithm in my view. Online networks are treated as proof of ideological complicity. A tagged photograph becomes an accusation. A shared event becomes an endorsement. A former associate’s later crime is retrospectively weaponised against anyone who ever crossed their path. Context is stripped away, timelines collapse and distance is ignored.
Crucially, this logic is never applied evenly. Mainstream politicians are not held responsible for the future crimes of former aides, activists, or colleagues. Labour MPs are not routinely introduced with caveats about disgraced ex-members they once canvassed with. Conservative figures are not endlessly defined by the worst actions of people who once passed through their orbit.
Yet Homeland Party members are expected to answer for those who they once spoke to, who once supported them online and who later disgraced themselves entirely independently.
The effect is deliberate and corrosive. It creates a permanent cloud of suspicion around individuals who may never have committed, or even been accused of, any crime at all. It shifts debate away from policy, ideas, and evidence, and replaces it with insinuation and smear. This is not accountability. It is reputational collective punishment.
The irony is stark. Those quickest to demand restraint, nuance, and due process when allegations touch the political centre are often the loudest proponents of collective blame when it can be deployed against their opponents.
Until that contradiction is addressed, claims of moral consistency will remain unconvincing, and public trust in political discourse will continue to erode.
For our part, we reject every immoral attempt by the establishment order to smear us like this. We have a proven record of being stand up patriots and presenting Nationalism in a sensible and honest manner. There has not been a political party to date that puts so much effort into maintaining high standards and demanding the best from its officers and members.
The confidence and positivity our party embodies grows because we march on regardless of the underhanded tactics. Every week we show the good men and women of this nation what Nationalism truly means. We lead by example and every member has a part to play in protecting that good reputation.
