Oh I wonder how this will come out. Gosh I’m biting my nails.
It already is… in a way.
It is against the rules of both houses to knowingly mislead the house, and Parliament is free to punish its members up to and including imprisoning them (until dissolution, anyway).
They’re professional liars… They won’t be able to speak. I’m actually ok with that.
This is a daft idea, it would basically stop any politican from saying anything or making any policy announcements. The people promoting this will be annoyed when MPs treat this deabate as a joke, but it’s a completely unrealistic proposal.
The key word is “knowingly”. Making a statement that is your best understanding of the situation but doesn’t turn out to be true in the fullness of time is very different to lying.
But even in that situation they would be accused of lying, so it would have to be investigated. It would massively chill speech.
would basically stop any politician from saying anything
So you’re saying that it is impossible for a politician to speak without lying ?
I don’t care who you normally vote for, would you mind sitting the next election out ? Preferably all the ones after that too.
No, but I’m saying that if you make it illegal “lie” then they will say very little in case they are accused of lying.
I’m saying that if you make it illegal “lie” then they will say very little in case they are accused of lying.
Why the scare quotes around lie ? The word has a straight forward meaning which is already defined in House of Commons rules.i.e knowingly mislead.
It’s not even “negligently mislead” where they say something they should have known was not true, but the much tougher test of proving they knew it wasn’t true.
A ridiculously low bar, and yet you think even that is too high. Is this because you support politicians who have been shown regularly to knowingly mislead ?
The majority of parliament arrive carefully well prepared with facts. It’s only a small number who deliberately lie, our former PM has been proved to be one of those.
This is one of those things that seems so obvious. I wonder if many people already believe it’s an offense.
Of course, it’ll never happen. How many of those fuckers are likely to vote to be criminally penalised for their dishonesty? Not a lot, I’m thinking. Lying is how they make their money and consolidate their power. Wankers. It should be a criminal offense - the fact that they are allowed to lie without penalty undermines democracy. How are they supposed to make an informed and democratic vote if they’re doing so based on mendacious info?
Also, I could be wrong about this but I have the idea in my head that the house is legally a court. And under certain circumstances, lying to a court is already criminal. So maybe this is already illegal? I’m probably wrong there, the people behind this petition surely know more than me.
