Perverting the course of politics

Abstract

Lawyers talk of the common law offence of 'perverting the course of justice' by bribing or intimidating judges or jurors, lying to the police or court, concealing or destroying or fabricating evidence. This article argues that the same things are wrong, and wrong for the same reasons, politically as judicially: they prevent people from knowing and applying for themselves the rules by which they are ruled. The sort of excuses typically offered for those perverse practices in politics - that 'it made no difference', that 'they could and should have resisted' or that it is merely a matter of 'fair adversarial competition' - would be laughed out of a court of law, and they should be shunned politically for the same reasons as judicially.