UK has pro free speech lefties

Nice to see some on the left in the UK getting behind the need for better free speech laws. Stella Tsantedidou writes:

Left-wing campaigners will spend their whole lives coming up with empathetic and empirical arguments against incarceration, pointing out that contact with the criminal justice system doesn’t rehabilitate but rather encourages anti-social behaviour. They will tell you prison should be the last resort, used only for the protection of the public when someone’s offences are violent and repetitive, and even then, they will find space in their hearts for forgiveness and understanding if the criminal in question has suffered trauma and injustice in their life. Then they will turn around and tell you that a mourning mother, who re-lives her trauma when she hears of the cold-blooded murder of another’s babies, who has never committed a crime in her life, violent or otherwise, should be in prison for almost a year while her own daughter is left to navigate pre-puberty alone, all because of a tweet. They will double down when the mother, halfway through her sentence, remorseful and humiliated, applies for a reduced sentence. Oh no, they will say, she knew exactly what she was doing. How did that happen?

Lucy’s tweet was inciting racial hatred, that’s true. If I were her friend, I would call her and tell her to take it down. If she stuck to her guns, I’d stop inviting her to my house. If I were an employer, indeed, I wouldn’t want to hire her. If I were a voter, I would be horrified if a party asked me to vote for her. But do I feel safer now that her 11-year-old daughter spent 10 months without her mother kissing her goodnight? Do I feel justice was served? Are immigrants and ethnic minority groups now protected?

A good call out of hypocrisy where so many are against harsher sentences for violent crimes, but are unbothered by a jail sentence for a tweet.

I hope to convince both the right and the left of the strategic case to enact free speech in British law now. 

For the right, you should recognise that, as in political discourse, free speech has been seen as a ‘right-wing coded’ issue (which it shouldn’t be, but here we are), as such it will be more sustainable if its passed under a Labour government, and will ensure that ‘your thorny cases’ are covered without undue pushback.

For the left, we need to recognise that if Reform is in government next time around, they could respond to left-wing causes and left-wing media with a vengeance. Indeed, even Labour has actively damaged free speech for what should be considered causes closer to our hearts. 

This is why, when Sam Atis asked me if I wanted to help him set up a free speech campaign, I thought this was probably the best time to do it. You can find out more about SPEAKUK here.

I’d love some activists on the left in NZ, to set up a version here. If they think the Free Speech Union isn’t for them, they should set up their own free speech group.

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