The Green Party returned a donation from Roman Polanski this week, citing a technical violation of UK electoral law: he’s not on the electoral register. Not because of the fugitive-from-justice thing. Not because of the 1977 conviction. Not because accepting money from him broadcasts a certain flexibility around moral philosophy. No — the problem was administrative.
Under British law, parties can only accept donations from people on the electoral register. Polanski, living in France and not exactly popping down to his local polling station, failed this basic requirement. The party’s statement managed to sound both principled and completely hollow, like rejecting a bribe because the check was post-dated.
What makes this genuinely funny is the implicit hierarchy of ethical concerns on display. The Green Party apparently maintains a detailed spreadsheet of who can legally give them money, but not one that flags «convicted of hemlock-grade crimes.» The system worked exactly as designed: it caught the procedural violation while the actual moral problem sailed through until someone noticed the paperwork was wrong.
The donation has been returned. Polanski remains un-registered. The Green Party can now claim they upheld electoral law without ever having to explain why they needed a legal technicality to do what basic human decency should have handled on the phone call. Democracy is a process. Ethics, apparently, requires an act of Parliament.