Reversing Britain’s Free Speech Recession
In his foreward to this publication Lord Frost claims that “Reversing Britain’s free speech recession is the subject of this excellent and timely Prosperity Institute paper by the barrister Jon Holbrook.” Click here for my five key policy proposals: Repeal hate speech laws. Repeal s5 of the Public Order Act 1986 and laws that criminalise speech that falls short of being likely to cause violence. Replace several communications offences with one that outlaws messages that are menacing and targeted. Protect speech in the workplace and beyond with a tort that outlaws the unlawful of free speech. Give claimants in free…
Cancel culture nearly ended my legal career, but I fought back
Until January 2021 I had had a successful 30-year career at the bar in a highly regarded chambers practising in public law. Yet almost overnight it ended. I was expelled by my chambers and then faced a year-long battle to clear my name after my professional regulator slapped me with a £500 fine for a tweet criticising some Muslims for hostility to free speech.
Since then, I have been unable to practice from a chambers, to practice in public law, or to earn a living. In short, I have been a victim of cancel culture, and for one simple reason:…
Bar none – the fraud behind the BSB’s “equality and diversity” drive
The one characteristic that the Bar actually does lack is a diversity of political opinion. And this really does matter since without it the Bar will lose public respect, a problem already apparent with the vernacular of “lefty lawyers”. Yet by seeking to require barristers to promote “equality, diversity and inclusion” the Bar Standards Board will ensure that the Bar becomes even more politically monotone.
Bar’s regulator requires barristers to be woke?
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) is taking sides in a politically controversial issue by proposing to require barristers to advance EDI. In fact, the Bar is already a place where ethnic minorities and women can thrive. So why the push for more ‘diversity’? Because EDI is the beast that needs constant feeding – even when it does untold harm to a profession and the public.
Free speech for professionals?
In a boost for free speech the barristers’ regulator has redrafted its social media guidance to recognise that free speech must prevail over the urge of the easily offended to cancel.
Maya Forstater triumphs over cancel culture
Maya Forstater’s workplace victory shows how the law can defend free speech against the wokesters who practise cancel culture.
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