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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Letters

Legislating against lying would do more harm than good

Generic Law court picture. Members of the bar wearing barristers wigs
‘This is highly likely to politicise the courts.’ Photograph: James Hoathly/Alamy

My friend Dr Sam Fowles’s proposal for a “truth law” is well-intentioned but flawed and Orwellian (The big idea: should we have a ‘truth law’?, 18 July). The examples he uses to make the argument simply do not stand up to any scrutiny.

The causes of the 2008 financial crisis are interpretive without black and white distinctions between “truth” and “falsity”. It is also implausible that were such a truth law to exist, the public would, as he implies, suddenly become “right about everything”.

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