Through sitting in the same GB News green room I have got to know the Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson. I hope she will not be offended if I describe her (pre-Ozempic anyway) as a middle-aged mumsy figure with an engaging and ready smile.
I suspect that smile will be hard to come over the weeks ahead. A column by her in The Telegraph spells out the scary world to which she has been introduced – and a world, under Starmer, which I fear may envelop all of those who love free speech.
Allison Pearson was presented with two police officers at her door on Remembrance Sunday
GB News
Her nightmare started at 9.40am on Remembrance Sunday when her husband told her two police officers were at the door. They told her that she had been accused of a non-crime hate incident (NCHI) in connection with a tweet a year ago. The suggestion was that it had stirred up racial hatred.
Allison, still in her dressing gown and still at the door, asked the officer; ‘’ What did this post that offended someone say?’’ The officer said he wasn’t allowed to tell me that.
She had a follow-up question; ‘’ So what’s the name of the person who made the complaint against me?’’.
He said he wasn’t allowed to tell her that either. Allison said: “You can’t give me the accuser’s name?”.
Looking down at his notes, the PC said; “It’s not ‘the accuser’, they’re called ‘the victim’.”
She made the very good point that if she didn’t know what the offence was, nor who was accusing her, how could she defend herself.
In a statement to The Telegraph, Essex police said they were investigating a report passed to them by another force and relates to a social media post.
There is intense debate over the policing of protests and how police forces should deal with alleged hate speech. Last year Suella Braverman, then the Home Secretary, raised the threshold for police recording non-crime hate incidents as it posed a threat to freedom of expression.
Yvette Cooper, Labour’s Home Secretary, is considering reversing the changes to the guidance. As you will already know, Socialists hate free speech unless it says; Higher taxes required.
In her article Allison correctly points out we have a two-tier justice system. This is how she put her argument;
“If I went to a supermarket and helped myself to £199 of groceries, the police would almost certainly do nothing. We know that for a fact.
“But the police prefer to go after middle-aged women like me. People who have something someone on the internet didn’t like.”
Isn’t it odd that that it’s only people like Allison who get the knock on the door. When was the last time you heard of anybody on the Left facing a court over a tweet.
Fortunately, Allison has Toby Young, the founder and general secretary of the Free Speech Union, on her side. And he is well used to fighting these oppressive actions of the anonymous using the law in this way.
Allison’s fight is our fight. If she needs money to fight a legal battle through the courts I am sure you will support her.
