Jeremy Corbyn has missed a trick. Yes, yes, I know, he’s
missed several since becoming Labour leader.
The PM is introducing legal
devices known as Extremism Disruption Orders to do what it says on the tin -
disrupt extremism.
They go further than existing
legislation targeting those who “spread or incite hatred” on grounds of gender,
race or religion.
Police will be able to apply for
a court order to silence anyone causing alarm and distress by being a “threat
to the functioning of democracy.”
This is a disturbingly vague
charge, but if considered guilty you’ll be banned from public speaking,
broadcasting or writing, including on the web or social media.
All well and good when aimed at swivel-eyed Islamists
using the internet to persuade gullible teenagers suicide vests are the latest
must-have fashion accessory.
But they could also catch people
doing nothing more than exercising their right to free speech, which is why
such strange bedfellows as the Christian Institute and National Secular Society
are against them.
Now, Cameron was very nasty to
Corbyn while speaking
in public in Manchester, calling him “security-threatening, terrorist-sympathising
and Britain-hating.”
Those words were broadcast and appeared on the web and in
social media.
Democracy allows
politicians to be joyously rude to each other for the nation’s entertainment.
And free speech means the nation can be amused by an
allegation the head of the UK Government played hide the sausage with the head of a UK pig.
But Cameron’s extreme offensiveness quite possibly
constitutes an offence.
His words undoubtedly caused Corbyn some alarm and
distress, and could even be construed as a “threat to the functioning of
democracy.”
The Labour leader should take an
Extremism Disruption Order out against the PM as soon as one is available.
Not
just to add to the gaiety of the nation, but to expose this law for the
absurdity it is.
It would also show that Mr Corbyn
is more than just a one trick pony.
David Cameron's comment is obviously accurate, but as a description of the Left in general. Which unfortunately now includes his own party.
ReplyDeleteHas David Cameron ever repealed the Marxist Equality Act, Maastricht Social Chapter, the Human Rights Act, the Child Benefit Act or the Education Act forbidding the creation of grammar schools (Labour's real Clause Four, as Peter Hitchens calls it)?
Has he ever repealed Labour's 1967 Abortion Act or its 1968 Divorce Reform Bill? Has he ever brought back the hereditary peers that were abolished for the same reason that Jeremy Corbyn wishes to abolish the monarchy?
Then how can he continue to pretend he really disagrees with Jeremy Corbyn or the Left about anything?
Time for bed, dear.
DeleteAs it happens, I am going to do a post sometime in the next week, about the Jenkins social changes, which were not only opposed, but even noticed, by scarcely anyone at the time.
Check the papers. There is almost nothing about them, just as there was almost no parliamentary opposition to them.
They formed no part of Jenkins's reputation for decades thereafter; that was all about his time as Chancellor.
They did not even preclude his winning, holding, and very nearly holding again, a largely Catholic Glaswegian seat for the SDP.