“Verbal dexterity, inconsistency and ‘spin’ are part and parcel of normal politics but the exaggerations and distortions of the EU referendum campaign has led to concerns about ‘post-truth’ politics.
Nicholas Allen and Sarah Birch write there is a need for someone to provide a moral lead, and argue the Committee for Standards in Public Life could play a valuable role by establishing some relevant basic markers. …
… current trends, first identified in the context of US politics and more recently in the context of British politics, risk stretching beyond breaking-point a basic commitment to truth and honesty that is essential for liberal democracy. Without it, citizens cannot hope to achieve ‘enlightened understanding’ and learn about what best serve their interests, one of five criteria identified by Robert Dahl that define modern democratic government. Someone in government, or at least in officialdom, needs to take note. Someone needs to provide a moral lead. …
… Morality in politics needs to come from somewhere. The CSPL [Committee for Standards in Public Life] is charged with overseeing standards in public life. The new prime minister should give it the resources and remit to do just this.
East Devon Watch 
Surely I cannot be alone at being baffled by the Brexit event. Right up to the close of voting a three messages were being hammered home – spend 350 million more a week on the NHS – stop immigration – take back control. Within hours of the result the winners were racing around denying their promises and repudiating the ability to deliver on them.
How is it possible that we can have a vote which our parliamentary representatives claim is binding when the very substance of the promises were denied almost immediately? The logical extension to the situation is that any political party may promise anything it likes in order to get elected, and is then free to introduce any agenda they feel like without being answerable for misleading or even lying to the electorate.
Is that the correct way to interpret what is going on? If so, we need a root and branch alteration to the dynamics of representative government to allow the sovereign to act to repeal a parliament or refuse a bill that is based upon deception. Small wonder there is significant disillusion with the current electoral system that is clearly focused on deliberately misleading the electorate rather than representing it.
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