I just saw an article on ABC News about a British Parliament election that was overturned by a judge because the BP member lied about his opponent.
They discussed the effect this event may have on American politics. I can't seem to find anything else about the event. Anyone know anything? What if American politicians could not lie? The whole idea of a judge overturning an election because the candidate lied is scary.

Obama would be doomed if that were to happen.

I would suspect it would depend upon whether there was clear cut proof of a lie and its relevance to the election. For instance, if I claimed to have a degree from harvard and never set foot in college,, t hat might be relevant AND a lie

If I claimed to be a former model, it might be a lie, but irrelevant

If I claimed to have worked in politics, even if all I did was work on an election or two, that would not be a lie, although it might not be relevant,,,

etc,,,,

I finally found a newslink.

Begin Quote:

“If people think I have cheated and lied the people of Oldham should be allowed to judge that. No-one knows other than me whether I believe what I say is true and I have never lied.”

Standing in for Ed Miliband, the party leader, who is on paternity leave, Miss Harman said on Sunday that there is no way back for Mr Woolas because he had been found to have lied about his election opponent.

In the first case of its kind for 99 years, the election court found on Friday that Mr Woolas produced leaflets about his Liberal Democrat opponent which knowingly contained untruths.

He also sought to stir up racial tensions in the town by claiming that Muslim extremists had threatened him.

Mr Woolas won the seat in May by the narrowest of margins, triumphing over Lib Dem Elwyn Watkins by 103 votes. He was barred from standing for election for three years.

Many Labour MPs are angry that an unelected judge was able to overturn the findings of the electorate, and feel that it is unfair for the Liberal Democrats, who are traditionally seen as robust campaigners, to cry foul about the knock-about politics of an election.

End Quote:
They also claim that they do not want a US style of election.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8120131/Labour-MPs-mutiny-against-leadership-in-support-of-Phil-Woolas.html

If the US were able to do that there wouldn't be one single politician left in office....

I wish it WOULD happen here!

On the one hand it would be a very very very good thing to protect the public from lies after lies, but on the other hand, there are crooked judges here too.

I dont think it would be difficult to not lie, I think it would be more difficult to teach people the difference between FACTS and ASSERTIONS and the correlation to giving FALSE FACTS (lying).

An unintentional lie is still a lie

And a promise broken is a lie even if unintentional

99.999% of the time, they know when they are lying.

Right was making a point though

I know. I got the point. I was making one too.

as I said, it will take educating people of what a lie is

'1a : an assertion of something known or believed by the speaker to be untrue with intent to deceive

b : an untrue or inaccurate statement that may or may not be believed true by the speaker



and it will take making a reasonable assessment in cases where the latter is true of whether there is INTENT to deceive(a difficult thing to prove)


or everyone could just go around validating their assertions with 'to the best of my knowledge' and leave it to the pundits to PROVE What knowledge the speaker actually had,,,,

Intent or not still a lie......you keep your statements or get the hell out period...end of story.....there is no grey area here

it doesnt work that way, Americans are spoiled and expect superheros

a promise can not be a lie unless there is NO EFFORT put into keeping it

otherwise a promise is only as valid as the speakers ABILITY to keep it

I can promise to meet someone at twelve but have an accident which prevents is,, that would not make my promise a lie

I CANT promise that my family will collectively lose twenty pounds by saturday as I have no POWER to ensure what the other members of my family will do,, just as a president cant ensure what the GOVERNMENT he works within will do or what bills or measures they will pass

I dont really recall the word 'promise' being used that much by politicians, but many americans and newscasters equate their statements as promises so that they have something to sensationalize later

I really do wish schools taught the difference between facts and opinions and lies and promises and encouraged people not to be the lazy thinkers that can really expect anyone to be able to promise what OTHERS are going to do,,,

I can assure you that many of us know perfectly well what a lie is, particularly in an election arena.

For example if a Presidential candidate promises "full transparency" in specific areas of government under his control, then proceeds to handle all related matters behind closed doors in "backroom" sessions. You have the perfect example of making promises that he had no intention of keeping, since he had full authority to give what he promised.

A more flagrant lie would be something like "My father served in WWII." when in fact he did not, since intent does not even play into the equation.

more speculation

and lazy thinking about the 'power' of the President


there is no one issue that he can wave a wand at and make happen overnight,,,,there is a reason their term is FOUR years,, and even that isnt enough to handle all the issues americans expect them to resolve...

Your answer has an absolute lack of intellectual honesty.

Please note the preface of "under his control"... or is this just "lazy thinking?"

There was no speculation BTW. The examples were chosen carefully.

The term of office has nothing to do with the issue at all.

The point you so sorely missed is that the one thing he ABSOLUTELY can change in an instant ... is to tell the truth.

please show me this absoloute power he has to cause absolute transparency? where is it written exactly?

I recall an executive order to close GITMO,, an EXECUTIVE ORDER, yet people are still there right?

so it must not be as ABSOLUTE as americans wish for and must still be something done in COOPERATION with other government officials,,

there were LAWSUITS filed to stop his administration from revealing visitors logs on the internet,,, so tell me where this absolute power would come from that would make anything happen instantly?


and then perhaps someone could show me where the sources are which are reporting everything the politicians do or dont do every minute of every day which lead so many of the electorate to be so sure of what their intentions or actions have or have not been?