UK: Welsh Government to introduce a law which will make it illegal for politicians to lie

Comments

• abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Yeah, but if the situation surrounding the Scottish gender identity bill is anything to go by Westminster will likely kill the bill if it’s past and then go to the supreme court to have that stapled in.

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  • Zagorath@aussie.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    If they’re not going to get full independence as countries, it would really make a lot of sense to reconstitute the UK as a federation so that its regions can have some true independence as states and Westminster can’t overrule them when they just don’t like what they’re doing. (It would also be convenient so England can have their own regional representation instead of the current situation where Scottish, NIrish, and Welsh MPs have a say over their matters.)

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• autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  This is the best summary I could come up with:

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  A ban on politicians lying will be brought in before the 2026 Senedd elections, the Welsh government has promised.Counsel General Mick Antoniw vowed to legislate on Tuesday in a move that spared the government an embarrassing defeat in the Welsh Parliament.Labour faced losing a vote as it tried to stop a Plaid Cymru attempt to pass its own version of the ban.Mr Antoniw promised that the law would disqualify Senedd politicians and candidates found guilty of deliberate deception from being a Member of the Senedd (MS).

  Former Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price said what had been announced was “truly historic”.Discussions had taken place with opposition parties throughout the day, with Mr Antoniw even taking the unusual step of going to a meeting of the Conservative Party group on Tuesday morning.In May, Mr Waters helped the former Plaid leader amend a law on the operation of elections, currently being considered by the Senedd, to introduce a new offence of deception in politics.

  That was despite opposition from the Welsh government.Mr Antoniw, who the government’s chief legal adviser, criticised the lack of consultation with the police.In a letter to MSs he warned it presented “a serious risk of political debate being stifled and effective scrutiny of the government undermined”.On Tuesday, he tried to have Mr Price’s offences deleted from his bill, which among other items would lay the groundwork for piloting automatic voter registration, via an amendment.But he faced losing as the entire opposition - including Plaid Cymru, the Conservatives and Welsh Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds - united to support Mr Price’s offence.The law, had it been passed, would have given politicians and candidates 14 days to withdraw a false statement.If they were prosecuted through the courts they would be banned from being an MS for four years.It is not yet clear whether the proposed law would make lying a criminal offence or a civil sanction.

  In the Senedd, Mr Antoniw said: "The Welsh government will bring forward legislation before 2026 for the disqualification of members and candidates found guilty of deliberate deception, though an independent judicial process.

  "He said he would invite the standards committee of the Senedd “to make proposals to that effect”.He said it was a “matter that goes to the heart of everyone”.Mr Price called it a “landmark moment and is a recognition that existing mechanisms to ensure public trust and confidence in politics have failed”.He said it would make Wales the first country to outlaw political lying.

  In an hour-long debate, Mr Waters, MS for Llanelli, said that “no doubt, politics in this country has become darker””.He recounted a year in his consistency where he had encountered “lying, manipulation, racist abuse, arson” and “mobs whipped up by the visiting far right descending on the homes of those who put their heads above the parapet”.He added: "It’s been an awful, upsetting experience seeing ugliness becoming quietly normalised.“It’s naive… to think that democratic traditions are sacred.

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  The original article contains 632 words, the summary contains 487 words. Saved 23%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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  • Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Come on buddy, I know you can do better than that.

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• Varyk@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Hello first world

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