The people’s of Europe and in particular the people of Britain, created the whole concept of freedom of speech. This concept was exported around the world and in some cases, such as the United States of America, has been incorporated into the nation’s constitution.

Societies in which the individial can speak freely are dynamic and creative ones. Freedom of speech creates a marketplace of ideas where philosophies, beliefs, ideologies can be put under a societal microscope. Such freedoms allow good ideas to emerge and be championed and bad ideas to be taken apart and shown for the bad that they are.

Unfortunately, in Europe, including in Britain, free speech is under attack as never before in peacetime. ‘Hate speech’ laws have eviscerated the right to speak freely about controversial issues in many European nations and have been used by political activists for identity politics groups to intimidate critics and shut down debate. We have seen this most clearly by the willingness of transgender activists to use ‘hate speech’ laws to punish those who will not follow the narratives put out by these activists.

Claire Fox the left wing member of the Brexit Party and an MEP, has said that the greatest threat in Europe today that free speech faces is the growth in ‘hate speech’ laws. As many will know I agree with this position and not just because they damage freedom of speech, but also because they create the moral hazard of treating one group advantageously under the law. The law should be equal or it is nothing and it is this equality that ‘hate speech’ laws undermine.

Breitbart London has an article on the subject of Claire Fox’s views on ‘hate speech’ laws which the publication says that Ms Fox gave to a special EU Parliament hearing on the subject of media freedom. Brietbart London said:

Brexit Party MEP Claire Fox has told the European Union its “obsession” with hate speech has resulted in it “leading the way” on censorship and empowering the transgender lobby to deplatform lesbians and feminists who criticise its agenda.

At a Special Hearing on media freedom and freedom of speech, the left-wing Brexiteer took the European Union to task for its “obsession with clamping down on elastically defined hate speech”, which she believes has led to a situation where the EU is “now leading the way on censoring what we say/read etc.”

“I hate antisemitism, I hate racism, I hate anti-working class bigotry, I hate anti-democratic illiberal authoritarian politicians,” she said. “I’ve got a lot of hate in me — should I be censored?” “I’m really sorry but I fear that one of the greatest threats to free speech today are hate speech legislation,” she continued.

I’m afraid that Ms Fox is correct. ‘Hate speech’ laws are indeed one of the greatest threats to freedom of speech and are too elastic and easy to abuse by various activists and politicians in order to shut down views they disagree with.

A good example from this story about how ‘hate speech’ controls get used to shut down dissident opinion comes from a Tweet by Ms Fox herself. In this Tweet Ms Fox points out that for speaking up for free speech, another EU Parliamentarian tried to shut her up by calling her a ‘transphobe’. I find I have no hesitation in agreeing with Ms Fox when she said that ‘hate speech’ laws are a betrayal of the Enlightenment. These laws need to go. They need to go because they are both unjust and dangerous and prevent European citizens from having the conversations that need to be had about major issues. We need free speech American style now.