I found out recently that the UK has no law forbidding politicians lying. This is unlike any other part of society (if a corporation lies they are accountable, as are you and I), and leads to the complete unaccountability seen in the wake of the Iraq war. Intelligence was exaggerated and selected with an agenda (cf. the "Downing Street Memo"), but there is no way in which Blair and co can actually be tried for lying...
Anyone else think this is a bit messed up? Kind of a heavy topic for a Tuesday afternoon, but it really got to me!

No - it seems fair mate

fuck'em and their law. Unfortunately it's the same almost everywhere

Yea pretty much what trans4mer said. it's really not that uncommon for politicians to lie. they only like to make believe you are foolish enough to believe what they are saying is true

Pretty deep topic for a first post in a specialised forum. I smell a spambot

It definitely isn't uncommon for politicians to lie, it's become an integral part of the way in which governments get public support for various things i.e. in order to justify getting an economic foothold in the middle east the government tells us we are threatened by terrorists/ that we should spread democracy etc etc. The ironic thing is that we are supposedly trying to bring democracy to other countries (we all know this isn't the underlying motive, the government doesn't do things out of the goodness of its black heart) when we are essentially living in an elective dictatorship. What use is the 'power' of the vote if politicians are above the law once in office? If the public believe they have been deceived by the government they can do sod all other than vote at the next election...this means that all politicians have to worry about is whether they will get voted back in after four years....if a politician makes a decision which results in the deaths of thousands of people he should have to worry about more than whether or not he will remain in office after the next election.

Listen up mate - do you really think you're saying anything new and unheard? Everybody knows that western governments(especially U.S. and U.K.) are attacking the mid-east cause of their oil. And everybody knows that cannot rely on the UN. People like Bush are absolutely dangerous for the world and that's it. I know it sounds arrogant but as far as you are alive and living a relatively good life all's good for you. You cannot solve the world's problems. The only think you can do is just to go out and protest next time or to vote for someone else but Blair.

http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/board/viewth ... &tid=23472
http://www.idlewild.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1494
http://forums.richardashcroft.com/viewtopic.php?p=27549
http://moblog.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2504
http://mb.sparknotes.com/mb.epl?b=43&m= ... 354993&w=1

just grab a spliff and dont bother yourself with obscure things such as politics

The problem is that if the only consequences a politician faces is
being voted out, then they can only be held accountable every FOUR
years! That is not the case with any other individual, private or
public (i.e. corporations etc).
All that will happen after this 4 year period is that another carbon-
copy politician will take their place. In the UK, Blair can now do
whatever he likes, because he KNOWS that he is going to retire soon
anyway... And that he will only be replaced by Gordon Brown or David
Cameron... The MD of a major corporation cannot act this way if he
plans to retire soon - just think of Enron a few years ago. Lying and
cheating in all other public spheres is unacceptable - the democratic
system needs to contain a better self-policing element.

I agree with what you say. Nevertheless, taxpayers money is being spent on something they do not want - the war. Nobody had a say as to whether or not they were ok with their money funding a war in the middle east. The government simply fobbed the public off with false intelligence in order to gain support for their capitalist campaign

so, what do you think about the prodigy? yeah...

I cannot agree with you at all. Saying that Blair was not informed or that all that shite was "a bloody big mistake" sounds pretty insensible. I'm absolutely sure that Blair knew everything cause it's obvious even for kids but even if we accept he "uninformed Blair"(bollocks) theory and that everything was some mistake - well I think that such a mistake should be punished.


gosh - that bloke Green has made us think! Good job mate

yeah you're right - he's not the only guilty. Actually every1 who support, provoke or engender his action is.