The Ministry of Truth
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Are you sick of dishonest politics? The cure is here (and surprisingly entertaining..)
It’s a simple enough question, but when filmmaker Richard Symons asks MPs, “Should it be unlawful for parliamentarians to lie?” he has them all spluttering into their mandates. Proposing his very own Misrepresentation of the Peoples Bill, Symons listens to Jack Straw, Harriet Harman and Lord Falconer tell him why it’s unrealistic for politicians to be held accountable for what they tell the electorate. Lord Falconer even suggests Symons wouldn’t himself expect to be prosecuted for a few lies. “But I don’t run the country,” Symons retorts. The parlous state of the cradle of democracy may come as a surprise to the film’s potential global audience, but sadly not to its domestic one.
This is a keenly serious film, disguised by its light-hearted tone, which led to the passing of the Misrepresentation of the People’s Act bill in Parliament.