Britain Does Indeed Have a Free Speech Problem
Are our values so fragile that we cannot bear to defend them?
A rally outside Westminster Magistrates Court.
Photographer: Mark Kerrison/In PicturesUK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the Irish rap group Kneecap should be barred from playing the flagship Glastonbury Festival, after a member of the group was charged with terrorism offenses for displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah.
By coincidence, a day after rapper Liam Og O hAnnaidh appeared in court last week charged with promoting banned terrorist groups, a new law protecting freedom of speech on university campuses was greenlit by the British government. Arif Ahmed, who will police the regulations as a kind of college-free-speech tsar, issued a warning to students that they should: “expect to face views you might find shocking or offensive…”