This would just lead to politicians never actually saying anything substantive.
Wow. Quick article. That happened like 10 seconds ago. Perfectly reasonable law.
Boris’ appeal to existing house rules are meaningless as he already flaunts them. Having a law in place may be the only way to impose consequences on those who knowingly – and provably so – lie to parliament.
It seems a reasonable idea to restore faith in politics.
Will the liar allow there to be a law giving consequences for his lies?
Not a chance in hell.
I thought willingly lying as much as possible was a prerequisite to becoming a politician?
There won’t be many politicians left as most of them lie.
Who do you trust to ascertain whether any future Prime Minister lied and what ultimately will be done about it? This is always the issue with censorship of speech in all its forms is its basically impossible to create a pure entity that wont use its new found powers for its own or twisted ends. There is no one I would entrust this with other than the house itself, it already has that power it will just most likely choose not to use it.
What’s the point if Boris then professes ignorance of or claims some exemption from any such law ?
You can’t have a law against lying, because there will always be a “I didn’t know I was lying” defence which is almost impossible to prove is (humourously) a lie. And even if it is, it’s a massive faff to wade through the tidal waves of repeated “I was not aware”s.
Could definitely have a law requiring electing officials to very publicly correct their errors and explain why they spoke without having a proper grasp and understanding of the facts though.
He’ll continue lying and his admin staff will continue paying £50 fines for him.
A nice idea, but it would be totally unworkable in practice.
One man’s fact based on Statistic A is another man’s lie based on Statistic B.
Any statistic or source of information can be twisted to suit the argument you are making – ask any lawyer. With that in mind, what would the definition of a “lie” be exactly?
There was a petition for this some time ago.
The response was something along the lines of “haha, no.”
The prime minister was asked during Friday’s BBC leaders debate; what punishment would be appropriate for elected politicians who lie?
> “Well they should, they should be, they should be made to… go on their knees… uh… to… down the… through the chamber of the house of commons, scourging themselves with copies of their, of their offending documents which claim to prove one thing and actually prove, uh, something quite different.”
Mr. Johnson replied with a smirk.
That would be a very problematic law and ultimately pointless I would think. Politicians are already very well versed in lying and what you need to say to cover yourself. The old “at the time of making that statement I believed it to be the truth” and variations on that theme.
The law would probably result in even more overly ambiguous waffle than we currently have to put up with.
Bringing in PR and forcing through legislation against MPs having ‘jobs on the side’ will, largely, sort out these problems. That, however, requires Labour to, again, grow a spine and win general elections with big landslides.
There are no laws or rules unless they are enforced … everything else is simply lip service.
They’ll be all out of a job in weeks. How do you even police that?
I look forward to seeing what loopholes they manage to insert into this law. Now all politicians will have to do is claim ignorance to absolve themselves of lying, under the guise that it cannot be a lie if you you do not now you are not telling the truth.
We’d be left with a very empty looking House of Commons
People must live on a different planet if they think a conservative government will suffer consequences for anything
The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from off the goose
The ministerial code of conduct is obviously more of a guideline than actual rules – so they need actual rules.
This country really is a gaggle of idiots faffing around, isn’t it?
Just get him the fuck out. He and all his cronies are demonstrably corrupt pieces of shit.
24 comments
>[The Boris Johnson Word Cloud](https://nitter.net/pic/media%2FFQmwdKYXoAA6Uf6.jpg)
>
>Gary Neville (@GNev2) [Apr 18, 2022](https://nitter.net/GNev2/status/1515991148401152011#m)
–
>We really should have watermarked the image
>
> — James Johnson (@jamesjohnson252) [Apr 18, 2022](https://nitter.net/jamesjohnson252/status/1516095977878347782#m)
–
>Mirror: [Boris Johnson to order Tory MPs to block probe into whether he lied over Partygate](https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-orders-tory-mps-26750373)
>
>Boris Johnson apologised for his Partygate fine in Parliament 89 times on Tuesday – but in private the PM is ‘bullish’ and plans toorder his MPs to block a probe into whether he lied
>
>([*mirror*](https://archive.ph/KDIes))
This would just lead to politicians never actually saying anything substantive.
Wow. Quick article. That happened like 10 seconds ago. Perfectly reasonable law.
Boris’ appeal to existing house rules are meaningless as he already flaunts them. Having a law in place may be the only way to impose consequences on those who knowingly – and provably so – lie to parliament.
It seems a reasonable idea to restore faith in politics.
Will the liar allow there to be a law giving consequences for his lies?
Not a chance in hell.
I thought willingly lying as much as possible was a prerequisite to becoming a politician?
There won’t be many politicians left as most of them lie.
Who do you trust to ascertain whether any future Prime Minister lied and what ultimately will be done about it? This is always the issue with censorship of speech in all its forms is its basically impossible to create a pure entity that wont use its new found powers for its own or twisted ends. There is no one I would entrust this with other than the house itself, it already has that power it will just most likely choose not to use it.
PM Quetions:
>Liz Saville Roberts, the Plaid Cymru leader at Westminster, says her party has been calling for a bill to ban politicians from lying for 15 years. Will the PM support such a bill?
>
>Johnson says the Commons rules demand ministers tell the truth in the Commons.
>
>[12:18pm](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2022/apr/20/boris-johnson-pmqs-tories-conservatives-keir-starmer-latest-updates?page=with:block-625febd08f0862cdff96ebfa#block-625febd08f0862cdff96ebfa)
What’s the point if Boris then professes ignorance of or claims some exemption from any such law ?
You can’t have a law against lying, because there will always be a “I didn’t know I was lying” defence which is almost impossible to prove is (humourously) a lie. And even if it is, it’s a massive faff to wade through the tidal waves of repeated “I was not aware”s.
Could definitely have a law requiring electing officials to very publicly correct their errors and explain why they spoke without having a proper grasp and understanding of the facts though.
He’ll continue lying and his admin staff will continue paying £50 fines for him.
A nice idea, but it would be totally unworkable in practice.
One man’s fact based on Statistic A is another man’s lie based on Statistic B.
Any statistic or source of information can be twisted to suit the argument you are making – ask any lawyer. With that in mind, what would the definition of a “lie” be exactly?
There was a petition for this some time ago.
The response was something along the lines of “haha, no.”
The prime minister was asked during Friday’s BBC leaders debate; what punishment would be appropriate for elected politicians who lie?
> “Well they should, they should be, they should be made to… go on their knees… uh… to… down the… through the chamber of the house of commons, scourging themselves with copies of their, of their offending documents which claim to prove one thing and actually prove, uh, something quite different.”
Mr. Johnson replied with a smirk.
That would be a very problematic law and ultimately pointless I would think. Politicians are already very well versed in lying and what you need to say to cover yourself. The old “at the time of making that statement I believed it to be the truth” and variations on that theme.
The law would probably result in even more overly ambiguous waffle than we currently have to put up with.
Bringing in PR and forcing through legislation against MPs having ‘jobs on the side’ will, largely, sort out these problems. That, however, requires Labour to, again, grow a spine and win general elections with big landslides.
There are no laws or rules unless they are enforced … everything else is simply lip service.
They’ll be all out of a job in weeks. How do you even police that?
I look forward to seeing what loopholes they manage to insert into this law. Now all politicians will have to do is claim ignorance to absolve themselves of lying, under the guise that it cannot be a lie if you you do not now you are not telling the truth.
We’d be left with a very empty looking House of Commons
People must live on a different planet if they think a conservative government will suffer consequences for anything
The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from off the goose
The ministerial code of conduct is obviously more of a guideline than actual rules – so they need actual rules.
This country really is a gaggle of idiots faffing around, isn’t it?
Just get him the fuck out. He and all his cronies are demonstrably corrupt pieces of shit.