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While I abhor Boris Johnson, this is a dangerous step. Like so much else in British politics, it's happening because the mechanisms by which we hold politicians to account are breaking down. But the remedy lies in the ballot box, not in court. [Thread] bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
2. The appeal of these prosecutions is obvious. In most professions, people who lie or knowingly cause harm would be struck off by the "regulator". A surgeon who behaved like Boris Johnson could be disbarred for "professional misconduct". Why should MPs be treated differently?
3. The difference is that politics, unlike other "professions", is meant to be regulated by the electorate. The "authority to practice" comes from the voters; & in a democracy, there are risks in erecting a higher authority than the electorate to adjudicate on political arguments
4. The referendum, of course, poses special problems. Normally, if you lie to the electorate you can be held to account by Parliament & by the voters at the next election. A one-off referendum, whose verdict can apparently never be questioned or challenged, removes that safeguard
5. That's another argument against the kind of referendum we held in 2016: where irresponsible actors, who didn't have to deliver on their promises, could win a mandate for an abstraction that other people would have to turn into reality. But the courts are not the solution.
6. The hard question is why the lies won. How, in an age where fact-checking is so easy, did fantastical claims about £350m for the NHS or "Turkey is joining the EU" gain such traction? That raises questions for the media, for the Remain campaign & for us as democratic citizens.
7. Democracy can be frustrating. It gives everyone the same vote, even if they read the most dishonest newspapers & get their news from Breitbart, Skwawkbox or Alex Jones. But if we believe in democracy, we have to believe we can still win the argument, and think hard about how.
8. But we should avoid the temptation to expect the law to fix the problems inherent in democratic politics. If we go down this road, the effect will be to drag the courts into political controversy and turbo-charge campaigns by the populist right to nobble them.
9. The court in which Boris Johnson should be found guilty is the court of public opinion. The sentence should be that he is voted out of his seat. But we need to relearn how to persuade the jury - not in a magistrate's court, but in the rough world of democratic politics.
