Generally speaking, as one gets older one becomes more risk averse. I remember as a lad doing all manner of silly high risk things. I would not repeat them today! Some of us – such as the foolish fellow in the image above – do not become ever more risk averse!
Thus it was the case that Speaker Hoyle took the action he did in the Commons which led to the furore (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68377468).
This apparently well intentioned act has shed much light on the parlous state of Britain’s democracy. The situation has been authoritatively examined by Dr Richard North in his blog-post today (https://www.turbulenttimes.co.uk/news/front-page/politics-dealing-with-the-mob/).
We now have a very unsatisfactory state of public affairs where a politicised police force (sorry, service) and the Crown Prosecution Service (also apparently politicised) have given up any pretence of trying to appear even handed in their treatment of suspected and/or actual offenders.
As an example I would refer to the failure of the Metropolitan Police (in-re the protest outside Parliament referred to in Dr North’s blog-post) to take any preventative or enforcement action against the recent use of a laser optical broadcasting device that shone the protest slogan that made reference to the Jordan River and also the Mediterranean Sea. This is a slogan (which because of it’s meaning) is regarded by many Jewish people as extremely upsetting and offensive.
Now, contrast this with the robust enforcement action taken against a certain Mr Samuel Melia of Pudsey (https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/far-right-organiser-found-guilty-intent-stir-racial-hatred-through-distribution-stickers). Mr Melia is due to attend Leeds Crown Court for sentencing on St. David’s Day (1st March 2024) having been found guilty of intent to stir up racial hatred through distribution of “bumper stickers”.
The Yorkshire Evening Post reports that the stickers included such phrases as “Labour loves Muslim rape gangs”; “We will be a minority in our homeland by 2066”; “Mass immigration is white genocide”; and: “Second-generation? Third? Fourth? You have to go back” (https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/crime/pudsey-4490476).
The Guardian newspaper reports that the stickers bore slogans such as “Reject white guilt”; “Nationalism is nurture”; “We will be a minority in our homeland by 2066” and “Diversity – designed to fail, built to replace” (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/16/uk-man-with-hitler-picture-used-sticker-campaign-to-stir-racial-hatred-court-told).
Mr Richard Canning, defending Mr Melia, had said there “was not a shred of evidence that the Hundred Handers or Patriotic Alternative encourage lawbreaking”. He told jurors: “A person’s right to free speech must be protected.”
It should appear obvious to any fair minded person that the slogan that was shone on Parliament by laser is at least – and most probably more so – as offensive as any of Mr Melia’s bumper sticker slogans.
Should the trail judge impose a harsh sentence (such as custody) on Mr Melia, it would send a signal far and wide that the English criminal justice system does not deal fairly or proportionately with offenders.
From reading the guidelines published by the Sentencing Council (https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/racial-hatred-offences-hatred-against-persons-on-religious-grounds-or-grounds-of-sexual-orientation/) it would appear that Mr Melia should expect to be transported from the cells under Leeds Crown Court to the austere and dubious comforts of His Majesty’s Prison Leeds (known locally as Armley Gaol)!
The belief (that the police and courts are not even handed and politically biased) is spreading amongst the general population in the UK. This is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs.