Timmy points out that this is a can of worms. Well, yes. But it is also abusing the legal system for political purposes and should be summarily dismissed. There is a place for private prosecutions – when for example, the state has failed in its duty to prosecute a crime – but they should be far and few between. However, prosecuting a politician for lying? Really? Except that he didn’t lie, did he? What we pay to the EU is around £350 million per week. The bus quoted the gross figure. So what? It was accurate.
Boris Johnson could be summonsed to court tomorrow over claims he lied when he said the UK gave the EU £350 million a week during the 2016 referendum.
Much has been made by the usual suspects about how this is wrong.
This is wrong, it’s more like £250 million a week. In any case the impact on the economy from changes to trade after leaving the EU is likely to be far bigger than savings from the UK’s membership fee.
See? Except it was a gross figure and as such was perfectly accurate. Put it like this – You give me twenty quid and I let you have a tenner back, but tell you how to spend it, or I spend it on your behalf on stuff and give it to you and you will be grateful to me because it is free stuff. On the other hand, if you keep the whole twenty, you can decide how to spend all of it yourself. Clearly the hard of thinking struggle with this simple concept, yet that was all the bus slogan was saying – accurately. The courts, I suspect, will dismiss this frivolous and vexatious case. It is unfortunate that it will not cost the nasty little shitbag bringing it anything as he has managed to con other people into funding it for him. Unless they ask for it back, given that he appears to have been siphoning some of it off for himself.
It comes as it emerged the Remainer entrepreneur who crowdfunded £370,000 to prosecute Boris Johnson spent nearly £50,000 of the donations on himself.
Oh, dear… It would seem that the £370,000 donated is actually £320,000, the odd fifty grand here or there doesn’t really matter. The £370,000 was a gross figure, so was indeed accurate, eh?
Update:
DK goes into the figures in detail.
The speaker promised to resign after a fixed period, when seeking the post.
Times uip (long past) and he now refuses to do so.
So he lied to get the job.
Another prosecution! Oh what fun we can have.
Some ex-PM promised to abolish boom’n’bust…
Another claimed Iraq could destroy us in 15 minutes.
Like a greedy child gorging in a sweet shop!
Perhaps best to stop this madness before it starts.
NB Tom Kratman wrote a very entertaining (and perceptive) novel on the perils of prosecuting ex-Presidents: “State of Disobedience”. The moral being, if the outgoing president fears they may be prosecuted, they will not be outgoing, at any price.