Many who read this blog may well be familiar with the speech, made over a decade ago, in favour of freedom of speech given by comedian Rowan Atkinson. It’s a magnificent speech and one which predicted the two tier nature of enforcement of censorious so-called ‘hate speech’ laws in Britain today. In his speech Mr Atkinson pointed out that as he is high profile he is unlikely to be arrested or prosecuted under these laws but they are a threat to those without the sort of resources that Mr Atkinson has.

The author Douglas Murray has referenced Mr Atkinson’s speech in a recent piece in the Spectator magazine when he pointed out that the current crack down by the State on those who have spoken words contrary to that approved by the Establishment is targeting primarily ordinary working class Britons. He’s correct in saying this. The State and it’s increasingly oppressive agencies are not going after the likes of Mr Murray himself but against those who are often just ordinary bods expressing their opinions about the increasingly degraded state of the United Kingdom.

Mr Murray said:

Recently I have been thinking of Atkinson’s wise words while following the cases brought against those who have been prosecuted for things they’ve said online. For instance, it is impossible not to notice that it is indeed ‘the plebs’ who have been marched to court sharpish during the unexpected speeding up of our justice system in the wake of this month’s riots. They include people like Bernadette Spofforth, a 55-year-old mother of three who, shortly after the Southport attack, rather got over her skis. Specifically she was one of those excitable people (and I will never understand why people do this) who wanted to name the suspect in the killings of the three little girls before anyone else did. She wrongly repeated an internet rumour (though caveating it with ‘if this is true’) that the suspect was a man called Ali Al-Shakati who was on an MI6 watchlist and had arrived in the UK by boat last year.

Of course she was wrong, though the glee with which certain people celebrated those like her being wrong was something to behold. After all, there have been plenty of people with similar names on terror watchlists who have arrived here and carried out acts of terror soon afterwards. The Parsons Green, Reading and London Bridge attackers are a few examples. It’s just the Southport suspect wasn’t one of them.

In any case, Ms Spofforth is out on bail pending further inquiries. All this despite her acknowledging that her tweet was ‘a spur-of-the-moment, ridiculous thing to do’. Nevertheless, the same police forces that have not solved a burglary in half of the country for years are now policing unwise things people are saying online.

As usual Mr Murray diagnoses a problem with British society and eloquently describes the affliction. Well said Mr Murray.