Wales could become first country to criminalise lying politicians
Lack of trust in politics is a crisis point for democracy and a UK-wide issue. Can Wales lead the way in repairing this by taking on lying?
@TCMuffin This should already be in place the world over!
Absolutely!
I also wonder if it isn't currently covered by the offence of "Misconduct in Public Office"
Oh...it's a common law offence and ill0defined
@TCMuffin Oh yeah, that'll work. Because politicians are always sooooo good at complying with the law.
So it will have to be rigorously enforced with the threat of meaningful fines and/or prison for offenders
You don't fail to enact laws because you know that some people will offend .
@TCMuffin I think half of them are too disconnected from reality to even know when they're lying.
I agree that many politicians are disconnected with how the rest of us live our lives, but we need some deterernt to stop them lying en masse.
BTW, I don't think anything would have stopped Johnson from lying as he's been sacked for lying from everying single job he's had
@TCMuffin Got a job with a LOT of challenge in it for them if they can ...
@TCMuffin
“We put all our politicians in prison as soon as they’re elected. Don’t you?”
“Why?”
“It saves time."
(Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)
Brilliant
@TCMuffin Well, technically, there's a good deterent built into democracy to stop them lying. STOP VOTING FOR THE DAMNED BASTARDS. That a law like this has to even be considered is a tragedy in it's own right. It means that we failed to educate, encourage, and enable each other to practice independent and critical thought and engange in rational and civilised discussion. This is depressing AF.
I agree!
It's like the US constitution never envisionaged someone trying to run for president from jail
@TCMuffin Meanwhile the US is legalizing bribery, siding with terrorists who tried to overthrow the government, and giving the president immunity for anything he does in office...
I assume the founding fathers of the US never imagined someone running for president from jail or supremecourt justices taking bribes
@TCMuffin That needs to happen here in the US in the worst way. Politicians and our news media are allowed to lie with impunity and the only time that’s challenged is when those lies hurt corporate interests. There are very few exceptions to that.
@TCMuffin the big difficulty of course is who decides what’s a lie? In politics that’s contentious much of the time.
@TCMuffin DAS ist eine spannende Entwicklung!