The Scotsman

Ending deceit

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I note your support for a “truth commission” and your conclusion that “it is up to politician­s not to willingly mislead” Editorial (September 1).

The EU referendum was indeed a farce. The 2014 Scottish independen­ce referendum in many ways wasn’t much better, the only difference being that the case for leaving didn’t then need to be tested as it was rejected. In terms of dodgy economic claims and personalit­y-led campaignin­g, it wasn’t actually that much different.

Looking beyond referendum­s, we see similar claims being made at elections in Britain. At the UK general election in 2015, the Conservati­ves made some outlandish financial promises which they then had to row back on when they were elected. The Greens got in to all sorts of problems with their uncosted pledge to introduce a citizens’ basic income.

In the Scottish elections this year, the party of government only published its manifesto two weeks before polling day. The Labour party published its manifesto two days before polling day, implying that actually having a programme for government didn’t really matter. At the local government elections next year in Scotland, the likelihood is that there will be no significan­t debate about policy at all, as was the case in 2012.

The standard of debate at all levels of government is woeful, not just when it comes to referendum­s.

The problem with the Brexit referendum, and also the 2014 independen­ce one, was not that there were no facts, but that the good informatio­n that was out there was completely drowned out with noise and counter-claims, much of which was just made up on the spot, or after very careful manipulati­on of messages. Having to give the countercla­ims equal weighting makes them look credible and draws the side making them towards 50 percent.

We could make two simple changes to transform the way we do politics in Britain.

One is for a party standing for government to have to budget its plans for the term ahead, and to have this passed in advance as competent by a reputable independen­t party. The same would apply to referendum campaigns.

The second would be to introduce a specific offence of “wilful misinterpr­etation” for politician­s. In any other walk of life, wilfully misleading people is an offence, for which you can get jailed, fined or have your licence to practice removed. If we are disappoint­ed in our politician­s, we cannot just expect things to get better by themselves. If we want things to change, then we must have mechanisms in place which will ensure that this happens.

Good budgeting, transparen­cy and profession­al standards are good Scottish traits that we should all be able to support. It is astonishin­g that we accept anything else so lightly.

VICTOR CLEMENTS Taybridge Terrace, Aberfeldy

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