The Government should introduce legislation to make lying in the House of Commons a criminal offence. This would mean that all MPs, including Ministers, would face a serious penalty for knowingly making false statements in the House of Commons, as is the case in a court of law.
Yeah that’s all good and everything. But when would they correct the record? Could they continue to delay by saying “well at the time I said what I said because I believed it to be the truth!”.
And Johnson lost out at the first actual investigation. As for when, they are government in control of parliamentary time. They can come back when ever they feel it is needed. The only provision would be the set hours parliament sits.
The problem with Johnson was that it was never allowed to go beyond the verbal criticism phase. He was questioned many times in PMQs regarding his factual statements, and because he was in control of the next part of the process, it never went further than that. Moreso he had the support of the majority of MPs to back him up. Once those MPs realised that this was costing them more votes than they could possibly gain from Johnson, they marked his card. Party politics have always superseded due process when it comes to parliamentary behaviour. The control behind the adjudication needs talking away from the culprits committing the crime.
There has never been anything so egregious in parliament in the way the Tories currently behave though. They are showing little sign of wanting to change back. They are behaving like smug school kids who have used the legal system to get one over on their teachers. It will bite them later on. What they have done will be recorded as a pertinent event to learn from in history. Much like the autopsy that the US will inevitably go through after the Trump trials. That is provided he does not defeat the litigation.
Yeah that’s all good and everything. But when would they correct the record? Could they continue to delay by saying “well at the time I said what I said because I believed it to be the truth!”.
That’s basically what BoJo said for two years.
And Johnson lost out at the first actual investigation. As for when, they are government in control of parliamentary time. They can come back when ever they feel it is needed. The only provision would be the set hours parliament sits.
The problem with Johnson was that it was never allowed to go beyond the verbal criticism phase. He was questioned many times in PMQs regarding his factual statements, and because he was in control of the next part of the process, it never went further than that. Moreso he had the support of the majority of MPs to back him up. Once those MPs realised that this was costing them more votes than they could possibly gain from Johnson, they marked his card. Party politics have always superseded due process when it comes to parliamentary behaviour. The control behind the adjudication needs talking away from the culprits committing the crime.
There has never been anything so egregious in parliament in the way the Tories currently behave though. They are showing little sign of wanting to change back. They are behaving like smug school kids who have used the legal system to get one over on their teachers. It will bite them later on. What they have done will be recorded as a pertinent event to learn from in history. Much like the autopsy that the US will inevitably go through after the Trump trials. That is provided he does not defeat the litigation.
Fully agree 💯