Dear Reader,
Today I’m going to use you as a guinea pig, as I work on my new idea for a board game that I’m soon going to pitch to a major manufacturer.
Alright, none of the above is strictly true, but I’m trying to add a touch of levity to an increasingly serious and poisonous debate which is raging around the subject of free speech.
Since the appalling murder of Charlie Kirk and the subsequent threats to Nigel Farage's life, discussions around what we can and cannot say publicly have plunged to new depths, with some extremely pernicious venom being spouted by people who should know better.
Only recently, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, asked for guidance from the Government on the matter.
Social media platforms appear to be acting inconsistently and independently from one another, and many people are claiming to be protectors of free speech, until someone says something they don’t like, at which point they start whining like tired babies.
I've invented a free speech board game for the police following Nigel Farage's death threats - Peter Bleksley
|Getty Images
So, in an effort to provide some clarity, I’m going to write and analyse three statements, which we need to pretend were posted on social media. I’ll give you my take on these as we go along:
(You are, of course, very welcome to add your views in the comments section…)
‘I wish Peter Bleksley were dead.’
A few people have posted this type of comment over the years, and I’ve often clicked the like button. Not because I like what they’ve written, of course, I don’t, but because I like the fact that people are free to say this. This example is a clear-cut case.
No crime whatsoever has been committed, and the police have absolutely no right whatsoever to get involved in recording this or paying a visit to whoever wrote it. As a character in a certain advert would say, ‘Simples’.
‘I wish someone would shoot that Peter Bleksley.’
Unpleasant, yes, unlawful, not at all. I wish someone would shoot Vladimir Putin, because I think the world would be a far safer place without him, but it’s not a crime to long for that, and it’s certainly not a crime in my opinion to write it on a social media platform. I suspect there are a fair few Ukrainians trying to work out how to shoot Putin as I write this.
‘Tomorrow I’m going to stab Peter Bleksley to death.’
Undoubtedly unpleasant, and most definitely worthy of police attention. But imagine if that was written by some 50 stone bloke with health complications, be they physical, mental or both, and imagine if he hadn’t got out of his bed unaided for the past three years.
If that were the case, then he would be highly unlikely to carry out his threat, but he most certainly needs to be monitored, and probably denied access to the internet, so if, in order for that to happen, he needs to be charged with an offence, so be it. He only has himself to blame.
Now, if the person who spewed this bile was a physically fit twenty-year-old, then the police need to get in front of him before I creep up behind him, with a baseball bat in my hand.
I’ve been stabbed before, you see, and it was a particularly unpleasant experience, so I’d be keen to ensure that someone couldn’t do it again. Nick him, charge him, keep him in custody, and please let me know what time he’s in court because I’d like to go and look him in the eye.
I hope these few imaginary examples have helped clarify my standpoint on the matter, and if you think there’s some mileage in my board game idea, which I appreciate, needs some fleshing out then please let me know. I’ll try to get it in the shops for Christmas.