NHS hospitals, post offices and public sector buildings are decorated with signs saying: “Be Kind. Bullying Will NOT Be Tolerated.”
But as we have all learned in recent days, we aren’t always kind. And millions love a bit of bullying.
Trolls and conspiracy theorists are polluting our national identity
The internet is infested with prying curtain-twitchers and demented conspiracy theories about innocent victims such as Princess Kate.
If the future Queen of England can be dragged into the public confessional, pale and exhausted after major surgery and a jaw-dropping cancer diagnosis, then no one is safe.
Why should Kate’s status as the wife of the Prince of Wales give any of us the right to be told — ahead of their own children — about her health?
It’s none of our damned business.
As for the confected row over her “doctored” Mother’s Day photographs, the mainstream media should be equally ashamed of itself.
Today, all those fantasies about body doubles, secret burials, betrayals and Brazilian butt-lifts have come back to scorch the perpetrators.
Pond-life “influencer” Paul Condron is named and shamed for making cash out of Kate’s hospital ordeal.
Repugnant Party MP George Galloway is a vile troll who plugged some of the worst conspiracy theories.
But it is not just cyber-bullies who went on the attack.
A columnist for another newspaper confesses: “We all, to a greater or lesser extent, owe the Prince and Princess of Wales an apology”. Not so.
The Sun, almost alone, spoke up for decency and fair play with our Page One plea: “Lay Off Kate”.
Yet even our exclusive pictures of the Princess out shopping were greeted by lunatic plotters as proof that a body double was concealing the “truth” about Kate’s absence from public life.
One of the first out of the traps was BBC rugby specialist Sonja McLaughlan, who tweeted: “Could be a couple of lookalikes making mischief.
“Disturbing that some newspapers are reporting this as fact. It’s clearly not her.”
The left-wing Guardian, no fan of the monarchy, also tried to rubbish The Sun’s pictures.
It sniffed: “ ‘Do you believe this is Kate Middleton?’ is the caption of one TikTok video that has been viewed 3.5million times?”
“Not Kate. Nooo,” reads one of the almost 2,000 comments. So far, no apologies.
Royal-watcher Ellie Hall attempted to explain the feeding frenzy.
“You have this genuine sense of worry for Kate, and then you have the, ‘Wow, isn’t it nice to have this big public scandal that we can theorise about all day long and make jokes about?’ ” she said.
Feeding frenzy
On their own, these vicious attempts to damage one of the few great things to happen to the Royal Family in decades would be troubling enough.
The monarchy is one of the keystones of our national identity.
As such, it is a prime target for attacks on the Western way of life from the wilder political fringes.
But too many — especially the young and impressionable — are also at risk from the vermin in our cyber sewers, not least from extreme porn and AI deepfakes.
End-to-end encryption on WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram provides the black hole of anonymity from which the nutters peddle ugly rumours.
Fabulously rich Meta and Google deploy the case for free speech as cover for creaming off billions from such wild inventions.
But free speech is a double-edged sword.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling, one of the world’s most prominent women, is a victim of cancel culture after slamming Scotland’s draconian new hate laws as “ludicrous”.
Toothless threats
Free speech is at risk from a sinister campaign to gag debate on race, gender, religion and even the right of Israel to exist.
Britain recently enacted new laws to fine media platforms up to £18billion, or ten per cent of their annual revenues, for failing to stop abusers.
The EU is also threatening new draconian punishment for breaking its rules.
But toothless threats are worse than useless.
The way to end this pernicious assault on our way of life is to strip abusers of their anonymity and expose them to criminal prosecution.
And hammer social media offenders hard and fast — before they bog down the system in legal argument.
We need to prove once and for all that greed will not pay.
In mortal peril
MURDEROUS liar Vladimir Putin has blamed Ukraine for the slaughter of at least 130 people in a Moscow concert hall – despite Islamist claims of responsibility.
At the same time he has upgraded Russia’s “special operation” against Kyiv into all-out war.
Next step will be to grab back lost territory, demand a truce and “freeze” the conflict until he is ready to resume attacks on enfeebled Ukraine.
If he succeeds, he will have inflicted humiliating defeat on Nato and put peace in Europe in mortal peril.
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