Don’t let them lie: how we can start holding political advertising to account

Politicians have always lied, writes Alex Parsons, and claims we have entered an era of ‘post-truth politics’ are themselves misleading. Nonetheless, efforts to hold political advertising to account in Britain have failed because of the lack of party consensus on the issue. While commercial advertising can be banned by the Advertising Standards Authority, it has avoided ruling on political advertisements since the controversy surrounding the Tony Blair ‘Demon Eyes’ poster in the 1990s. But with growing disquiet over some of the claims made during the referendum campaign, the South Australia Electoral Commission offers a possible model for regulating political advertising.