I would have thought if Hunt is adamant there is no black hole that he would support the OBR in vindicating him. He only seeks to hide this because there must be a black hole. The only other explanation is that the OBR has taken sides against him, but that would seem unlikely in such a short time since Labour took office. More likely the conservatives were suppressing the OBR when in office.

P.s. Isn’t that the OBR’s job anyway?

I love to see free speech absolutism being so unshakable.

The problem with this type of thing is intent.

How do we prove intent to deceive?

Lying is not simply stating incorrect information. It is intending to deceive by knowingly stating incorrect information. It is not easy to prove what someone knew.

What if they were misinformed by a third party that may or may not have an agenda? Under these circumstances the politician is not lying and believes they are telling the truth even though the information they uttered is wrong. Do you go after the third party? Does this then give the politician a mechanism to evade charges using fall guys?

I absolutely believe that people like Bojo should be held to account. In his case there was plenty of evidence. It should also be acceptable for the opposition to state that they were lying in the commons without facing repercussions.

Except there is a big difference in that these people choose to live abroad. They have chosen diminished influence of British politics over their lives so they should have diminished influence over British politics.

If they really want to influence politics here, then live here. It is not fair on resident, tax paying citizens to have non resident non tax paying ex pats making choices that may benefit them at the cost of others.

For example, elderly expats may choose to support a policy which significantly increases their pension to cover their overseas lifestyle at the expense of resident pensioners or increased taxes or reduced public services for resident voters. While this is very unlikely to be proposed or succeed, it is theoretically possible. I’m sorry but if I resign from my job should I still get to make demands of my former colleagues because I worked there for 30 years or still feel like an employee??

I just can’t reconcile the thought “I don’t want to live there anymore” with the thought “I deserve a vote in the country I left behind”.

It was a little different when we were in the EU. But we are not.

“I still feel British so I should get to decide how people in Britain live. I mean does it really matter if the NHS gets privatized as long as my pension gets bigger so I can afford my lavish lifestyle. I care so much about my country just not quite enough to live there.”

Not really, the conservatives steam rollered the lib dems. Ultimately it was just a conservative agenda enabled by the lib dems.