Free speech: use it before you lose it!
Remember we now have thoughtcrime legislation forbidding us to discriminate. Exercising discrimination requires thought.
Feeling hatred is also a thought. The government is forbidding to feel hate and incite hate. You would have thought that it is enough to forbid offences to the person, criminal damage and public disorder, but no, our liberal government feels it must censor thought, emotion, speech and tweets. A white male university student was imprisoned for 56 days for tweeting about a black footballer in offensive terms.
"In the United Kingdom, several statutes protect several categories of persons from hate speech. The statutes forbid communication which is hateful, threatening, abusive, or insulting and which targets a person on account of skin colour, race, disability, nationality (including citizenship), ethnic or national origin, religion, or sexual orientation."
What does "hateful" mean?
http://www.bing.com/Dictionary/search?q=define+hateful&qpvt=hateful+&FORM=DTPDIA
It seems to mean to be both motivated by hatred and to cause hatred. But towards whom? Towards oneself?
As far as I know those tweets did not incite hatred towards Muamba but towards the tweeter himself. Is it really a crime to incite hatred against oneself?
But many politicians daily incite hatred against themselves by the things they do and say. It might be quite a good thing then if they were locked up for 56 days so they can no longer do and say things to incite hatred against themselves.
So what if I say it is OK for people to hate me? I don't see how I can stop people from hating me if wanted to anyway. There are laws against damage to my property, harm to my person and even homicide. That should be good enough.
Liam Stacey was charged under s4A of the Public Order Act. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_harassment,_alarm_or_distress
and so was Emma West.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/section/127 is also another law to bear in mind.
So, you can exercise free speech provided you do not cause anyone to feel harassed, alarmed or distressed like tell off your kid or your partner. Maybe someone borrowed stuff off you and won't return it? Watch it, or you might get done for a public order offence if that person who borrowed stuff off you is disabled, a different race, a foreigner, another sex or another orientation to you, if you keep reminding them to give it back.
Arguably, saying anything political at a picnic in the park, which is a public place - eg proposing that you want to change the law - will cause someone else at the picnic who violently disagrees with you to feel harassment, alarm and distress. She - it is usually a she - can then run off to the nearest police station and have you arrested for a public order offence.
It is only a matter of time before this happens.
Actually, breaking off with her should be enough to make out the offence, because she is bound to feel a little distressed at the break-up, if she liked you just a little.
These days two black men can call each other the N word on the street in a show of racial solidarity and be arrested for causing harassment, alarm and distress to a little old feminist white lady who finds that word offensive.
That is how crazy it is all becoming and they are all too scared to challenge this - the media, the government, the judiciary, everyone.
It will not be long before the extremist liberals start burning the Bible because of its unashamed homophobia.
Bet you didn't know shouting at your spouse in a public place can be a public order offence, or having a rant about foreigners on public transport, or tweeting in a way that would offend a black footballer's fans, did you, in Paedo Bastard Britain Slutland?
The game is to exercise your free speech within these constraints.
I am not asking you to break the law or anything, just test it.
If you think you are going to rely on the BNP to sort this mess out, you should think again. Nick Griffin and the BNP website are still silent on Liam Stacey. Perhaps Nick Griffin is frightened of the possibility of a 56 day stay as a guest of HMP.
YOU have to do it now, yourself.
There is a way of doing it and still be within the law. I can do it because I am legally trained, and even then the law does not go by the law.
God knows why Gareth Jones, Liam Stacey's lawyer, did not advise him to opt for a Crown Court trial.
ALWAYS opt for Crown Court trial because you can appeal against the verdict, though it risks a harsher penalty if you are convicted. A Magistrates Court trial is summary, which means you cannot appeal against the judgement, only the sentence.
If you want to say anything but are not sure, just run it by me. I am not going to pretend I know everything about how to get round all this totalitarian "liberal" legislation, but we should start trying to say what we want to say, as much as possible, as part of our political campaign for the return of free speech in this country.
Got anything you want to say and aren't sure if you are allowed to say it? Let me know what it is you want to say and I'll see what I can do to help you stay within the law.
