As night follows day, left-wing politicians are seizing on the tragic death of Jason Arday to demand sweeping curbs on free speech. The Green party, in particular, has wasted no time in pursuing new draconian restrictions on both the press and social media. The Spectator can reveal that an emergency motion, backed by 89 members, has been submitted ahead of their Autumn party conference under the title ‘Justice for Jason Arday: Stopping Racist Smear Campaigns and Reforming Media Power’.
If Britain is to avoid the convulsion that afflicted America after the death of George Floyd, measures like those being pursued by the Greens should be taken seriously
Published just two days after Arday’s death, the motion calls for two state regulatory services to ‘map and address racism’ and ‘ableism’ in media output and to monitor ‘harassment’ allegedly arising from coverage. Under the proposals, every major national newspaper would be forced to join a state-recognised press regulator with statutory powers. Meanwhile the media watchdog Ofcom would be empowered to make large platforms remove ‘hateful, discriminatory and conspiratorial’ material, seemingly even where it falls within the bounds of lawful speech. Social media companies would also be required to ‘promote and protect’ a prescribed ‘diversity of voices’. Alongside this censorship package, Green members are demanding that around £1 billion of public money be poured each year into an ‘Independent Media Commons’ of non-profit and ‘public interest’ outlets, overseen by national and regional media councils.
The proposed free speech crackdown was put forward by Tariq Khawaja of Greens for Palestine. Unlike some other conference motions, however, these types of measures have been very publicly cheered on by the party’s leader, Zack Polanski. Responding this weekend to an article by Ross Clark on climate policy, Polanski declared: ‘It’s time we sorted out the press. Constant misinformation to protect their donors and fossil fuels is destroying lives and our planet. The government must step up and stop being cowardly.’
According to YouGov, Andy Burnham’s recent poll bounce has largely been driven by voters who flirted with the Greens returning to Labour, or giving the party another chance. Many – though not all – of Polanski’s pet causes have also found their way into the policies pursued by the parliamentary Labour party and, ultimately, the Prime Minister. From Burnham’s pledges to bring more utilities into public ownership to his apology over Gaza and enthusiasm for wealth taxes, where the far-left populists go, Labour MPs have a habit of following.
A vigil for Arday in Trafalgar Square on Monday offered some clues as to where a left-wing-led free speech purge could take us. Addressing a crowd of thousands, serial legal-action loser and Good Law Project founder Jolyon Maugham said: ‘Today of all days is very much a day for white people to listen and not to speak.’ He then, as a white man, proceeded to deliver his own no-doubt rally-sanctioned thoughts to those assembled. If Britain is to avoid the kind of political and cultural convulsion that afflicted America after the death of George Floyd, measures such as those now being pursued by the Greens should be taken seriously.
A Green Party spokesman said: ‘Green Party policy is decided democratically by our members, and motions can be submitted to conference, including to reflect developments in national political conversations.’
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