Michael Deacon has written a brilliant column for today’s Telegraph this morning pointing out that if the authorities are going to prosecute people for people who stir up violence on social media, aren’t there a number of MPs who should be in the dock?
In 2009, some years before he became a Labour MP, Wes Streeting responded to a controversial column in the Daily Mail by tweeting, of the woman who wrote it: “There would be nothing natural about Jan Moir’s death if I shoved the bigoted old bag under a train.”
In 2022, a spokesman for Mr Streeting apologised, acknowledging that his tweet was “in bad taste”. An apology, however, would not have been enough to save those jailed in the past week for their behaviour online.
While we’re on the subject, I note that another Labour MP has apologised for a historic post in which she complained about “f—ing Estonian retards”. Was that stirring up hatred? And a third Labour MP has deleted a post which shared an unfounded claim that there’d been an acid attack on a Muslim woman in Middlesbrough. Was that spreading fake news?
To be clear: I’m not saying I think these MPs should be arrested. I’m just saying that, if we’re going to jail everyone who has ever posted something foolish, intemperate or misleading on social media in the heat of the moment, Labour will have to abandon its pledge to build 1.5 million new homes – and build 1.5 million new prisons, instead.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.