Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDaddy
We had this discussion before, about what the people who invented democracy thought and did about lying politicians, there doesn't have to be wholesale jailings there has to be the threat of it to show we're sick of them and their antics and to remind them that they work for us not the other way round, throwing in a other and and it might also put a stop to the shysters like peter mandelson being sacked for dishonesty being brought back in a new role after a few months, I've never understood it, a minister proves to be highly inappropriate in one department can in a matter of months be considered competent enough to run another different one, the fact that in the main their figureheads telling others to implement policy makes it even worse  |
But tokenistic gestures make for bad laws. The issue is so vague that the law will be either so restrictive as to be meaningless or open enough to invite all sorts of challenges.
The punishment for lying politicians should come from the public but it doesn't really happen. We are too partisan so that we're more lenient to our own side whilst too harsh on political opponents, the press is the same way. If May had made the statement Corbyn did about Tuition fees then The Sun would be no where near as outraged, pointing out it wasn't in the manifesto, likewise if May had said she had never met the IRA despite photographic evidence to the contrary then social media would be spitting with venom over the lie. Most of us do this, just human nature.
Then you have cynics who lazily assume they're all the same which means genuine, hard-working, MPs get chucked in with the shysters. Simultaneously giving bad MPs cover and good MPs undeserved grief.