Hate speech is no crime – so long as you’re a vicious Lefty
WHAT would you think would happen to a man who posted on Twitter the following words: ‘I dearly wish a reactivated IRA would successfully blow up that scumbag Johnson and his evil cabinet’?
Given what happened in Brighton on October 12, 1984, is this not especially revolting? Lest we forget, the IRA, by planting a bomb in the Grand Hotel, murdered Sir Anthony Berry, Eric Taylor, Lady (Jeanne) Shattock, Lady (Muriel) Maclean and Roberta Wakeham. Many others were severely injured, including Lord (Norman) Tebbit and his wife Margaret. Not funny.
Surely the police, who relentlessly patrol Twitter for signs of political incorrectness, failures to respect the transgender community and so forth, would react with speed and strength? Well, more than a month after the offending tweet was posted on August 20, they did visit the author, a Mr Mark Powell who tweets under the name ‘Markhayo’. But there was no heavy-footed dawn raid, of the type so often favoured by the modern police. Nor was his house suddenly flooded by officers going through his bedroom, as happened to Field Marshal Lord Bramall after a mad fantasist accused him of child abuse.
No, he got a wimpy letter from a police person saying, with almost unbelievable feebleness, and a clear signal that he was in no danger of prosecution: ‘I apologise for the unsolicited nature of this letter, and do not wish to cause you any undue alarm; however, I do need to discuss some sensitive issues that may concern you. I would like to stress that this letter has not been sent as part of any criminal proceedings, nor are you in any trouble whatsoever.’ It sought to arrange a ‘convenient time to meet’.
Mr Powell displayed this letter on Twitter, saying the police had been ‘very civil’. But he hadn’t been. He boasted that he’d sworn at the officers, and refused to withdraw his words. He later apologised for the swearing in an email to the officers, but repeated that ‘I shouldn’t be sorry to see this Cabinet of traitors blown up by a rejuvenated IRA’. He then posted that email on Twitter.
One of those who had reported the outburst, a Tory councillor from Aylesbury called Gary Powell (emphatically no relation), got in touch with me after getting nowhere with Scotland Yard. He’d been told by a ‘staff officer’ to Commissioner Cressida Dick that the National Digital Exploitation Service and the National Counter Terrorism Security Office had deemed the tweet to be an offence. But because it was a single incident, nothing was done except ‘words of advice’. So there you are. You can call for the IRA to blow up the Cabinet, and nothing will happen to you.
Alison Saunders, then Director of Public Prosecutions, announced in August 2017 a tough new policy for people who incited hatred on Twitter. Saunders said: ‘Left unchallenged, even low-level offending can subsequently fuel the kind of dangerous hostility that has been plastered across our media in recent days. That is why countering it is a priority for the CPS.’ Obviously not in all cases.
Someone should tell Norman Tebbit, who knows in great detail what it is like to be blown up by the IRA. He might have some ‘words of advice’ for Dame Cressida.