Election Leaflet Lies

[lindapalmara]

We have had an Election leaflet from the local Labour candidate which contains a blatant lie and we can prove it. We had an unsatisfactory answer from the party Office in the nearby town but it pointed at well out of date figures. We have the latest figures and they now haven't replied. What can we do in such circumstances? Is there any redress? Electoral Commssion!!

[whiskeryron]

linda, I am confused. You say it is a statement issued by the Labour candidate saying that the COALITION have REDUCED the debt & deficit. We know this is totally untrue so why would the Labour candidate give the coalition a boost in the wrong direction ?

[jno]

WR, see my post above.

[Svejk]

do keep up, sp.

[whiskeryron]

sorry jno, when I clicked submit your post wasn't there.

[woofgang]

I suspect it will depend on how the figures are read....there are lies, damn lies and statistics.

[Gromit]

The original claim by the Conservatives that they had halved the nation debt is clealy a lie. They have doubled that.

The deficit has been reduced, so it is a lie by the Labour party to call that wrong.

It seemsboth Labour and the Conservatives are lying about the debt and deficit.

[jno]

ooh er, perhaps it would be unwise of lindapalmara to refer this to the authorities, then - both parties might be disqualified from standing and Farage would sweep the nation.

[sp1814]

WR

You reached the same conclusion as me, because of errant quote marks.

In lindapalmara's post, she has the claim in quotes and then:

Answer: WRONG - both have doubled since 2010

which made it look like she was referring to the quote on the Labour party leaflet, whereas in fact, the two statements are from the leaflet.

All makes sense now.

The lie that lindapalmara's referring to is the statement that starts with 'WRONG'.

[THECORBYLOON]

From the BBC News website in Feb 2014,

'As the chart below shows, debt has increased massively in recent years, doubling to more than £1tn in the past five years, largely due to the financial crisis and resulting recession.'

That appears to support part of the disputed comment at least.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25944653

[lindapalmara]

Sp

The Labour leaflet gave a number of claims with their comment afterwards, therefore shooting down the statements made by the Tories. Each Labour answer started with the word WRONG.

[New Judge]

Having read the full transcript (200 pages) of the ruling from the Electoral Court on the Tower Hamlets (“Mayor” Lutfur Rahman) affair I am now well versed with some aspects of the representation of the People Act, 1983, which covers such things.

It seems from the Act (s.106) that it is only an offence to make false statements about a candidate:

--------------------------------------------
106. False statements as to candidates.

(1) A person who, or any director of any body or association corporate which—

(a) before or during an election,

(b) for the purpose of affecting the return of any candidate at the election,

makes or publishes any false statement of fact in relation to the candidate’s personal character or conduct shall be guilty of an illegal practice, unless he can show that he had reasonable grounds for believing, and did believe, that statement to be true.
----------------------------------------------

In fact it was found that Mr Rahman had indeed done so about one of his opponents, the official Labour Candidate Mr John Biggs.

Although I have only glanced through the Act itself (the law relevant to the judgement was explained in detail in that text) it seems there is no bar on candidates telling packs of lies about anything else.

[lindapalmara]

Corby

The statement was about the deficit. You are talking about the total debt. I will have the link in a minute so whiskey Ron and the others can look at the figures. My OH has write to the local paper, a National paper and copied it to the local Conservative office.

[THECORBYLOON]

The leaflet spoke about debt and deficit so are you agreeing it was half right at least?

[lindapalmara]

Thanks NJ

This is the link. Pages and pages. It if you look at Page 42 - PS1

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_402118.pdf

[Gromit]

Government spending has increased every year since 2010 so the claim to have got Government spending under control is not quite true. Spending as a percentage of GDP has gone down because GDP has gradually improved.

[lindapalmara]

In the last 5 years of a Labour Government the debt doubled during a time when growth was good and they should have had a surplus. Andrew Neil talked to Hillary Benn yesterday pointing that out and all Benn kept saying was that they invested in Schools, hospitals etc. Neil reminded him that we are still paying for these (PFI).

It may be of interest to note that during the period 2004/5 to 2009/10 debt increased from 448 Billion to 956 billion, an increase of 113%

[jno]

are you complaining about this election or the last one?

[lindapalmara]

Jno, keep up. Not complaining about any election, just one lying candidate!!

[jno]

your last post was about the last five years of the Labour government

[Ken4155]

Much ado about nothing, linda, get over it. Politicians twist statistics to suit their needs. It comes with the territory.