Tommy Robinson – I do not agree with him, but he should not be silenced in this way.
I do not agree with the EDL. I am a Conservative and I do not agree with everything Tommy Robinson says. However, the destructive attempts to undermine his rights to free speech by preventing him speaking at Speaker’s Corner threaten our democracy. Even Marx and Lenin were allowed to speak at Speaker’s Corner. Yet, Robinson was stopped by police and non-UK activists Lauren Southern, Brittany Pettibone and Martin Sellner were denied entry to the United Kingdom.
The law is set up so police can get away with low grade intervention – that is, talking to people and asking them to do things not technically within their powers. However, now the authorities are clearly overreaching and Robinson, Southern et al should sue.
UK police often seek to use persuasion to resolve problems. Some are reasonable but others go too far – often under pressure themselves from politicians or others. Police will invent imaginary powers or exercise real ones with willful perversity. Such actions tend to evaporate in the face of a complaint and letter of claim, particularly if you are reasonable and keep your temper. I usually do not name police officers because when they overreach it is often in the face of a powerful complainant. For example last month barrister and MP Ellie Reeves complained about a media inquiry I sent her. After discussion, police took no further action and silence descended from Reeves.
There are those who will be instinctively hostile to Tommy Robinson. They need to realise how dangerously far the envelope of free speech in Britain has been restricted. Robinson’s views on transgender persons are more liberal than the hundreds of Labour Party feminists who are threatening to resign if the Labour NEC allows male-bodied-persons on all-women shortlists. He is more liberal on Islam than the Women’s March 2018 who walked through London to protest the encroachment on their rights, “Feminists March against Sharia Law, Gender, and Patriarchy”. He is more moderate on Islam than the LGBT group, “Gays Against Sharia”.
Robinson has responded tactically correctly to official opposition – he has modified his message to focus on free speech and moderate, lawful language. He has aligned with other groups with a degree of sophistication. As a result when his speech is still subject to interference, questions are asked on his behalf in the European Parliament. By continuing to press him he has created the circumstances for a successful claim in damages under the Human Rights Act 1998. Now he needs to hit the police and loot them for all he can get – use discovery to force a settlement or embarrass any politicians who stand behind the police action. In short, Robinson needs to get the police to back off.
The obviously high-handed approach of the UK authorities is a catastrophic error. Policy triangulation so every minority group in Britain ends up standing with /pol/ is not a stance that will bring the left to victory. Conservatives need to stop pandering to them. Members of the public and political parties can disagree with Tommy Robinson and Lauren Southern without needing to dismantle the fabric of civic society. If not, the judgement of Home Secretary Amber Rudd MP will be called into question not just by members of other parties, but by Conservatives.
