When did it become illegal to say where you’re from?
Welcome to the age of the Thought Police, where identity politics has swallowed common sense and even geography can get you cancelled.
A councillor in Scotland is under police investigation for hate speech. Her crime? She said she was “born and bred here” during a television interview. That’s it. Three words. “Born and bred here.” For this supposedly inflammatory declaration of geographical origin, Claire Mackie-Brown, a Reform UK councillor, now faces a 22-page complaint to Police Scotland and the Ethical Standards Commissioner, plus calls for her suspension.
Let me be clear from the start. I’m not a member of Reform UK. I don’t share their politics on almost everything that matters; we’re on opposite sides. But as Voltaire’s principle reminds us, I will defend to my last breath her right to say she was ‘born and bred’ in her own town without facing criminal investigation. Because if we don’t defend free speech for those we disagree with, we don’t believe in free speech at all. We just believe in permission to speak, granted by those in power to those who say the right things.
Welcome to the age of the Thought Police, where identity politics has swallowed common sense and even geography can get you cancelled.
A councillor in Scotland is under police investigation for hate speech. Her crime? She said she was “born and bred here” during a television interview. That’s it. Three words. “Born and bred here.” For this supposedly inflammatory declaration of geographical origin, Claire Mackie-Brown, a Reform UK councillor, now faces a 22-page complaint to Police Scotland and the Ethical Standards Commissioner, plus calls for her suspension.
Let me be clear from the start. I’m not a member of Reform UK. I don’t share their politics on almost everything that matters; we’re on opposite sides. But as Voltaire’s principle reminds us, I will defend to my last breath her right to say she was ‘born and bred’ in her own town without facing criminal investigation. Because if we don’t defend free speech for those we disagree with, we don’t believe in free speech at all. We just believe in permission to speak, granted by those in power to those who say the right things.
Continue @ Labour Heartlands.
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