The Ministry of Truth: calling politicians to account
A gap in Britain’s 800-year-old constitution allows politicians to lie to the electorate without fear of judicial reprisal, a new documentary claims. The Ministry of Truth, brainchild of filmmaker Richard Symons, exposes a fundamental flaw in UK law which protects MPs from criminal prosecution in the event they deliberately mislead the public.
The constitution stipulates that anyone from advertisers to financial advisers can, if caught deliberately making misleading statements or misrepresenting the facts, be taken to court. However, if a Member of Parliament – or, indeed, any other politician – is caught doing the same, there is currently no law in this country that gives us, the voting public, the power to prosecute them.
Sleaze-buster
At the moment, if a politician is believed to have lied to the electorate, the breach can only be reported to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards – an independent non-MP, appointed by and paid for by Parliament. The Commons sleaze-buster (a post currently held by Sir Philip Mawer), in turn, reports to a Committee of the House made up of cross-party MPs, who decide how best to proceed while stopping short of criminal proceedings.
If it is a Minister who stands accused of lying, however, the Prime Minister alone has the power to investigate the allegations and decide what – if any – action should be taken. What this ultimately means is that parliament, along with politicians in general, is completely self-regulating thanks to an oversight in the statute books. In short, it answers to no-one – least of all, us.
Voting for truth
The only weapon we have in the war against dishonest politicians is the option of not voting for them in the next general election, which could be anything up to five years down the line… until now: galvanised by the filmmakers' discovery, Adam Price MP (Plaid Cymru) has drafted new legislation to plug the gap in the constitution and is poised to deliver it to the House of Commons.
“The discovery of a little known law in Southern Australia, which makes it illegal to lie when campaigning for election... and a hilarious attempt by George Bathurst to prosecute the Deputy Prime Minister led us to the daunting conclusion we need our own law,” said a spokesman.
To this end, Adam Price has created The Misrepresentation of the People Act, a presentation bill intended “to ensure honesty, transparency and accountability from the representatives of the People and their employees.”
Public debate
The founding premise is that the British public is entitled to formal, independent legal redress should an elected representative breach their fundamental obligation of honesty. In other words, any politician caught telling lies should be tried in a criminal court, rather than simply investigated in-house. The bill will be proposed to the House of Commons in October by Adam Price -who famously attempted to impeach Tony Blair for misleading the country over the case for war with Iraq in 2004 - along with an Early Day Motion allowing MPs to sign up in support.
In order for the bill to become law, it would first have to win a majority vote in the Commons – the very establishment it intends to bring to account. But while the chances of such an outcome are slim, campaigners remain undaunted: the point, they insist, is to start a public debate about how the government is called to account. And self-governing, they argue, is not the answer.
- The Ministry of Truth will be shown on BBC2 at 7pm on Thursday, October 11
By Laura Snook, MSN UK News Editor
August 28, 2007
