No, I’m not talking about the three fine individuals in the photo above. I’m talking about those who think the best way to promote peace and harmony in society is to arrest anyone who ever says anything deemed ‘offensive’. How do we push back against the tide of cancel culture? More free speech laws? Maybe. A bonfire of hate crime laws? Perhaps. Ridicule the absurd cases of police overreach? Certainly.
I’ll say more about the power of ridicule towards the end of this article. But first, why is this on my mind? Yesterday, I attended the launch event of The Street Preacher’s Charter in a plush conference room of a Westminster building just around the corner from Parliament Square. It was a rip-roaring event, and (if I could have) I would have stood up and cheered at the end. But it wasn’t that kind of crowd.
There was a panel of three people speaking: Lord Jackson (chairing) is a conservative member of the House of Lords. Alongside him was Baroness Fox, a independent peer (and is she is most definitely independent). And Sam Webster, Solicitor Advocate and in-house lawyer at The Christian Institute. All three of them very different personalities, yet all three resolute in their determination to defend free speech.
Lord Jackson got things underway with his opening remarks which included this very familiar question: why can woke people say what they like, but anti-woke people always have to look over their shoulder? I’m sure reality is more complex than that. I dare say Lord Jackson knows it too. But the general sense of an unlevel playing field is one we surely recognise.
