The Sinking Ship of Free Speech
The Free Speech Union's Belfast event was a big disappointment
Last night I attended an event in Belfast organised by the Free Speech Union and Battle of Ideas Festival. It’s not because it was held in the Titanic Hotel that I started to get that sinking feeling.
The entire focus of the panellist presentations focused on countering woke and cancel-culture. But, bear in mind, that this event - supposedly focused on the state of free speech in Northern Ireland - was the first event of its kind held in Northern Ireland (or anywhere in the UK for that matter) to draw such a big crowd. I’d estimate that around 200 people attended. And there was much expectation in the room.
In the last few years Northern Ireland’s freedom of speech has been under assault - along with the rest of the UK and the rest of the developed world. The assault has been led, in the United Kingdom, by our government in Westminster supported (unquestioningly) by our devolved administrations. And while it may be the case that an increasing woke culture has been to blame for discrimination against those who speak out against (say) trans rights demands, much greater harms have been caused by the government in stifling any freedom of expression levelled against the government’s policies: especially COVID response, Net Zero, the war in Ukraine and the support for Israel in its offensive against Gaza.
Regarding COVID, the devolved regions of the UK suffered more draconian lockdowns and wide-ranging interventions than England. In Northern Ireland the Health Minister, Robin Swann MLA, thoroughly enjoyed his power and new-found limelight by introducing extraordinarily coercive tactics to reduce freedom of movement. But the extent of removal of press freedom and freedom of speech was stupefying. Local BBC celebrities, like Stephen Nolan, became glorified vaccine peddlers and shills. Guests on local radio programmes were taken off air for daring to question mandatory masking of school-children or school closures or the efficacy of PCR tests. The Nolan Show Producer, David Gordon, moved from the BBC to become Head of Comms at the Health Department. Other prominent journalists moved to the Northern Ireland Office.
Like other parts of the UK, the effects of COVID lockdowns and interventions are still being felt. The high street has been decimated. School children have lost multiple months - years - of education. The NHS is in perpetual crisis trying to manage the backlog of procedures. GP appointments are all-but impossible. Only the well-healed from Belfast’s leafier suburbs can afford the services of the burgeoning private healthcare sector - sustained by NHS consultants paid-for by the public purse. And excess deaths have been on the increase following the vaccination programmes and waves of boosters.
But drawing attention to any of these things has been made all but impossible by wholesale government control of the media - and suppression of wrong-speak. The creation of the ironically named Trusted News Initiative and propaganda checking units in mainstream media organisations have forced dissent into alternative media channels - labelled by the government and media as purveyors of conspiracy theories.
The media now presents policy narratives as consensus. And local politicians and the media - as well as ‘think-tanks’ and campaign groups - either parrot the lines or create faux debates around woke or cancel-culture. But these debates deflect attention away from the wholesale destruction of freedom of speech - and the extent of malevolent, destructive policies being implemented by this government.
This is neatly illustrated by this passage from the Battle of Ideas website.
Geo-political fragmentation also seems the order of the day. The shock of the invasion of Ukraine – and the prospect of never-ending war in Europe – has now been usurped by the horrific scenes of barbarism in Israel. The visceral images of radical Islamism and its nihilistic terror have led to worries this may fuel not only a brutal war in the region, but a new civilisational conflict that spreads well beyond the Middle East. In London, and throughout the Western world, political disorientation and regressive trends have led some so-called progressives to justify, even celebrate, the Hamas pogroms. Clearly, the crisis of politics in the twenty-first century presents profound new challenges to us all.
The organisation clearly takes the view that UK intervention in Ukraine - and the printing of money to pay for it - is what needs to be done. It also, presumably, chooses to ignore the barbarism of Netanyahu’s government in killing children in Gaza. And it’ll take a dim view of anyone who dares suggest that Israel’s actions are inhumane - probably by labelling them as anti-semitic.
I had the opportunity to have a chat with Toby Young last night and asked him what the main reason was that he had fallen out with James Delingpole - thereby cancelling their regular podcast conversations. He made clear that he could put up with the more bizarre Delingpole conspiracies. But the final straw, for Toby, came when Delingpole questioned how the Hamas border attacks happened on October 7 and why the Israeli defence forces seemed incapable of countering them (given that it’s one of the world’s most secure borders).
In Toby’s own words, we’re no longer allowed to look at the world through the overton window. Rather, only an Overon slit is on offer. But the Battle of Ideas and the Free Speech Union are working to narrow the slit to such an extent that we’re unable to engage in any meaningful dialogue about anything that has achieved consensus status and is deemed beyond debate. Nope. Just trans and terfs.
Toby, Talk TV, the Battle of Ideas, GB News, the Trusted News Initiative, the policy wonks, the funders, the puppet-masters, Douglas Murray, and some guy with a rich Dad who used to play in Mumford & Sons, all play their parts in telling us what we’re allowed to discuss and what is considered beyond contempt. But it’s not freedom of speech.
But in closing, I’d highly recommend this podcast from James Delingpole’s Delingpod series. Featuring John Sweeny and Evelyn Grant it’s one of the best exposés of the various faux ‘right wing’ think-tanks that typically peddle Zionist, self-serving nonsense that’s designed to maintain the power structures (and cake) of the governing elite. Toby Young gets a mention too.
It was disappointing that Free Speech was entirely in the context the Trans issue-others who had been denied Free speech should have been invited eg those who spoke against masks, school closures, vaccines for children, vaccine passports, medical tyranny and who campaigned for the right to work.
The issue of Free Speech is entirely in the wider context of democratic freedom and human rights/civil liberties--the denial of rights to go to church, school, work, travel, publish,assemble.
The inability to get answers from any politician and/or civil servant has been a stunning revelation to me.
And the pressure to self silence—the stress caused by the speaking against the party line in church, board or other gatherings is enormous. Only this morning I was looked at with horror in church after I said I was not vaccinated nor have I ever worn a mask and when I went on to say it was a disgrace that churches schools and doctors’ surgeries were closed….excommunication followed.
These are the issues I went there to debate. Yet we had 6 speakers all of whom referred to the Trans issue—this issue is an example only of a much much broader issue as above.
He did appear to accept that the people, the finance and the philosophy were still in place and the revolving door for politicians and CEs. He was non committal on the need to hold those responsible to account—the programme Mr Bates v The Post Office and the behaviour of the management epitomizes all that is wrong. Outlast and outspend the little guy and in the end “you” will be ok, because the law appears to be only enforceable on those who run out of money.
In terms of organisaton—the sound was poor, no questions were actually addressed to nor answered by the panel.
Very frustrating. At least we enjoyed the 19th hole.!
I didn't attend the evening as I only heard about it last minute and had a course to attend, but by the sounds of your summary and Hugh McCarthy's comments I didn't miss anything enlightening. You and Hugh should organise a real Free Speech Union event. I think it would unite the folk of Norn Iron on many fronts. I for one wouldn't miss it.