[leereeves]

> You can bring the case to the authorities, but they will be the one deciding if it's an offense or not, and your political opponent will not be tied up in court until then.

You forget that the "authorities" are appointed by politicians.

If you're left-wing, would you be comfortable being tried by someone appointed by Trump?

If you're right-wing, would you be comfortable being tried by someone appointed by Biden?

(Please forgive the US references, I'm not familiar with Welsh politics and don't know the names of politicians who would cause similar fear in political opponents there.)

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Edit:

Rather than arguing about hypotheticals or foreign equivalents, let's consider a specific case cited in TFA:

> During the debate, the Labour member Alun Davies accused the leader of the Tories in Wales, Andrew RT Davies, of tweeting a “direct lie” earlier on Tuesday that Labour want to pay illegal immigrants £1,600 a month.

In fact, Labour did pay £1,600 a month to certain immigrants who were seeking, but had not yet been granted, asylum. The only "lie" in question is the use of the term "illegal immigrants". That's the kind of blurry political line that Labour wants to criminalize.[1]

And it's a far, far more blurry line than murder. It's almost certain to be decided solely based on the political beliefs of the judge and jury.

I'm not talking about corruption here. I'm talking about the kind of controversial questions where "truth" is really open to debate.

1: https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/wales-is-not-giving-1600-...

"VERDICT: False. The Welsh government ran a pilot project that included financial help for asylum-seeking children, not illegal migrants."

[cauch]

Again, if the authorities are in the pocket of the politicians, then they could already today declare it's a murder when a politician says their opponent has cut a blade of grass and it is a murder.

This is what I don't understand: if indeed the authorities are in the pocket of the politicians, how this law change anything, they already have plenty of easier way to attack their opponents.

In US, the mentality is very bad and people may have low morality and ethic. In Europe, being appointed by a politician does not mean you will be their lackey.

But it is not even that: it's not like someone can just say "got you! now you will be trialed by my friend Ben". There are several layers before and after that mean that an accusation is only prosecuted when there is a large consensus that the prosecution is justified.

I know that in US the lines are very blurred because each politician is saying "it's a political trial" even when there is credible ground to investigate, but that's more a question of people being uneducated than a real system. In the large majority of the cases (there is always one or two outliers that don't prove much), every big prosecutions on politicians in US are "normal" and would have happened even in a parallel universe where their political opponents were not touching any judicial string.

[rayiner]

The “authorities” aren’t “in the pocket of politicians.” But we have seen all over the developed world that they’re human, and not neutral, and suffer from their own ideological biases. Moreover, the “fact checkers” tend to come from the same social and economic class, which heightens their biases.

[cauch]

Again, then this law is totally harmless: if indeed people are biased when they decide if someone lies or not, it does not matter if there is a law on it.

Again: if you are claiming that this law will harm opposition, then you are not saying that "human are not neutral", you are saying that everyone involved in the process are magically all aligned in exactly on side. If there are people biased "in the other direction", then they will be biased to say the accused is innocent, and it cancels out.

[cauch]

Answering now to your edit, with the example.

The politician said that "[the Welsh government is] dishing out £1,600 to anyone who wants to rock up and claim they are crossing the Channel illegally".

As your article states, on the 635 persons who received this money, only 67 were migrant, the 568 others were not migrant at all.

So, no, it's not a blurry line: they had a grant that was targeting children, with 90% of the beneficiaries being good ol' locals, and this politician invented that they are giving 1600 to all illegal migrants that claim they crossed the Channel illegally, which is totally incorrect any ways you turn it around.

You are incorrect when you say "the only incorrect thing is 'illegal'" (you probably just read the last sentence without realizing that they just say that _some_ migrants got the grant): not only this grant is not going to illegal migrant, it is also not going to all migrants (only a small fraction qualifies), and it's not even FOR the migrants, it is for the children, including, in big majority, the local ones. Additionally, the politician said that you can just "rock up and claim you are crossing the Channel illegally" to get this money, which is obviously not true.

On top of that, this politician was contacted to explain to him that this grant was not for migrant and certainly not given by just rocking up, so he was totally aware that it was misleading. But he continued to insist on his fantasy. So, it is also a good example that this law does not target honest mistake, but people who don't care if what they say is misleading or not.

If what you say is just a "blurred line with the truth open to debate", then the following sentence is also "just a blurred line": "the Tories are cutting taxes for people who wants to rock up and claim they are crossing the Channel illegally" just because they indeed proposed to reduce tax in UK. After all, legal migrant will also benefit from this tax cut, and in fact you will not have this cut by "rocking up and claiming you are crossing the Channel illegally", so, by your own standard, this sentence is perfectly fine.

In fact, thank you for bringing this example: this is a good example of how some politicians are stirring fear and hatred based on total fabrications, and it is a good example showing that these politicians should paid the consequences of their actions and be punished.