I DON’T know about you, but these days it feels as though the very things that define our once great country are now continually under attack.
Our history, identity, culture, values, and way of life.
AlamyA man was investigated for ‘racial hatred’ after whistling the Bob The Builder tune at his neighbour[/caption]
And now, as a string of shocking discoveries reflect, our free speech.
If you want to see how our free speech is under attack, then look no further than the astonishing treatment of Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson.
On Remembrance Sunday, a day reserved to pay respect to our fallen ancestors who gave their lives so we can have these freedoms, she suddenly found the police at her door.
They arrived, Gestapo-style, telling her that an anonymous accuser — sorry, a “victim” — had reported a (now-deleted) year-old tweet of hers, claiming it was “offensive”.
The police refused to tell her which of her tweets had been reported nor who had made the accusation against her.
While the police later dropped the case after a national outcry, in the days since, similarly shocking cases of ordinary people being investigated for things they have said or posted online have come to light.
Utterly insane
As The Sun has revealed, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The recording of a hate crime after somebody blamed their “rough” haircut on a discussion with the barber about the war in Ukraine.
The German woman who was likened to a “rottweiler” and had the case written up as “racial abuse”.
The man who was investigated for “racial hatred” after whistling the Bob The Builder tune at his neighbour.
The swimming teacher investigated after a mother said her son had been allowed to bang his head against the side of the pool because of “his ethnicity”.
Not to mention the nine-year-old child investigated after calling a classmate a “retard”, or the two schoolgirls who were investigated after suggesting that a fellow student smells “like fish”.
What on earth is going on?
The answer lies in something called “non-crime hate incidents”. Yes, you read that right. Non-crime hate incidents.
Created in 2014, a non-crime hate incident is any incident perceived by the supposed victim to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a “protected characteristic” such as somebody’s race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and so on. The key word here is perceived.
Our police are too busy monitoring words to tackle actual crime
Under these Soviet-style tactics, the “victim” does not have to justify or provide evidence of the perceived offence, while police are told not to challenge this perception.
Nor, remarkably, is any evidence required. Yes, you read that one right, too. No evidence is required.
What we’re talking about, in other words, is somebody taking subjective offence to something that’s entirely lawful and has been said or posted online by somebody else, and which the police are told to report irrespective of whether there is evidence (because asking for evidence could mean “secondary victimisation”).
I know. It’s completely and utterly insane.
And despite it being a “non-crime”, these investigations still show up on somebody’s permanent record, which could quite plausibly prevent them from getting a job if the role requires a background check.
This is why these non-crime hate incidents are so sinister. They are fuelling a creeping and oppressive climate in which everybody is encouraged to spy on everybody else, and be suspicious of our neighbours, friends and family.
While our hapless Labour government would have you believe that non-crime hate incidents create a more “inclusive” and “diverse” community, in reality they undermine free speech by imposing “chilling effects” on society, encouraging people to hunker down, self-censor and watch what they say.
They fear what might happen if, like Allison Pearson, they catch the attention of the Thought Police.
And the number of these cases is truly mind-boggling, reflecting a legal and political system that’s spinning completely out of control.
Between 2014 and 2019, astonishingly, some 34 police forces recorded nearly 120,000 non-crime hate incidents in England and Wales.
And between 2019 and 2024, the Free Speech Union estimates this number more than doubled to more than 250,000.
No wonder more than 200,000 burglaries in England and Wales went unsolved last year. And no wonder everything from shoplifting and mobile phone theft appear de facto legal in modern Britain.
Our police are too busy monitoring words to tackle actual crime.
This is a classic example of what happens when you put the Luxury Belief Class in charge — they prioritise clamping down on vague and abstract notions of “hate” while simultaneously failing to deliver core public services that actually keep people safe.
And if you think these non-crime hate incidents are the only things threatening our free speech and free expression, then think again.
While paedophiles walked free, many people were sent to prison for voicing their candid views about issues such as Islam in Britain
Why? Because Keir Starmer’s government is now cracking down on our freedom in a number of areas, spreading this new culture of censorship, groupthink, and fear.
We saw this, of course, in the aftermath of the immigration protests in the summer, when many people were rounded up and locked up after sharing their views on social media, often in the privacy of their own homes.
While paedophiles walked free, many people were sent to prison for voicing their candid views about issues such as Islam in Britain, like the ex-soldier with PTSD who this week was sent to jail for two years for saying things like, “They want us to be Islamic; that’s why they’re here.”
Public trust
What all this shows is how Labour politicians and leftists will always sacrifice free speech and individual freedom on the altar of what they call “social justice”, including protecting minorities from perceived “hate”, even if there is no evidence for this.
If we’re not careful, this won’t just accelerate the already collapsing levels of public trust in the police, but completely undermine our country’s long commitment to free speech and expression.
Which is why, in my view at least, we should abolish these non-crime hate incidents completely and remember who we are — a people, a country, that is committed to freedom.
While incitement to violence is already, rightly, covered by law, the British people must be free to say whatever is on their mind, however disagreeable you or I might find it.
Because this is, ultimately, the lifeblood of democracy.
Otherwise, amid the creeping intolerance that we can all feel around us, amid these relentless attacks on our identity, culture, history, and heritage, we will continue to descend into an Orwellian police state that shows remarkably little, if any, interest in protecting the very thing that defines who we are on these islands — our freedom.
Elliott FranksThe astonishing treatment of Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson shows how our free speech is under attack[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
