Politician removed from office in England for lying about his opponent.

[Courtesy Flush]

We need this law!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11699888

[BlueCaliDem]

1. It would be nice to have that law in this country ...

... but the court has already decreed that corporations have a legal right to lie.

[gateley]

2. We wouldn't have any politicians left! Wouldn't that be nice! nt

[OneGrassRoot]

3. lol...we'd have very few left indeed. ;) n/t

[Drale]

4. There is alot of good ideas from other countries we could use

but republicans will never let that happen because other country's are all evil and communist.

[LeftishBrit]

5. It's extremely rare for it to be applied here...

The last time that an MP was removed for corrupt practices in his election was nearly 100 years ago, in 1911.

Also a lot of lying and smearing is done not by the candidates but by the media, or sometimes by local single-issue nutcases (I could tell you tales about crap that's happened in the constituency where I live, that would make your hair curl!)

I am glad that this particular bloke is getting his come-uppance, however. While usually I'd be really upset at a Labour MP getting into trouble, this one was really Labour in name only, and a nasty anti-immigrant bigot, as well as a big supporter of the Iraq war. He has a record for attacking LibDem candidates from the *right*; e.g. in his first unsuccessful campaign in 1995 he attacked the LibDem candidate for being 'high on tax and soft on drugs'.

[Posteritatis]

7. I'd be happy any time a candidate got rhetorically incinerated for lying

It doesn't even matter to me where they sit on the political spectrum; if someone's got to resort to defamation to win a campaign, they don't deserve to take part in it.

[Posteritatis]

6. Wow, the whining from that guy's intense

"In a statement, he said the judgement "raised fundamental issues about the freedom to question politicians"."

Only if you lie.

"They must accept that their political character and conduct will be attacked."

It is possible to do that without lying.

""It is vital to our democracy that those who make statements about the political character and conduct of election candidates are not deterred from speaking freely for fear that they may be found in breach of election laws.""

Then don't lie.

It's not complex, dumbass.

[HopeHoops]

8. FUCK! If we did that we wouldn't HAVE a Congress.

[SoCalDem]

9. How quaint

Imagine a law like that here...those big ole marble buildings in DC would be empty:rofl:

[Swede]

10. It's just not cricket!

By jove!

[ljm2002]

11. Amazing.

Whereas here, we have laws that specifically allow lying, and laws that specifically do not allow truth-telling:

1 - FOX News won a case where two reporters were fired for refusing to broadcast a story that they knew was untrue. The court held that FOX was within its rights to lie and to insist that their employees lie

2 - Food producers are not allowed to include information on their labels stating that their products do not contain GM foods, even when the information is true. The stated concerns were (a) it implies there might be something wrong with GM foods and therefore harm the GM companies and (b) it is too much information and will just confuse consumers.

Yet another illustration that our system is corrupt from top to bottom. It is no wonder that our politics is so pathetic, we have gone from a country that values truth to one whose policies are against truth.

[Evasporque]

12. Politician in U.S. removed from office for not lying about opponent....nt