”Freedom of speech” rears its head again. Right on cue..

That good old cornerstone of our democracy. The one people like to abuse and exploit.

It is RFK Jr (whoever the heck that is!) railing today from his perch in America, about the UK’s police force stating that there will be consequences for people who feel they can sit in America while using online platforms to spread hate in the UK.

If you ask many of these folk who claim to be the defenders of free speech, if the tenets of free speech include no consequence, they won’t have a coherent answer.

I am all for free speech and freedom of speech. But causing violence a disorder with your speech will and should lead to consequences. I do not know of any period in human history, where anyone can got out there and just say anything – including inciting a riot – without consequence. There will always be consequences

Moreover, whoever crafted the laws we are applying today, did not envisage times like this, where individuals can have 50, 100 million followers on a social media site and can influence them with a few taps of a keypad and off they go. The laws will have to – and have gradually been – be updated to deal with what we are faced with today. For example, it was some guy sat in Romania (awaiting trial for a long list of sex crimes) who deemed it fit to spread lies online and inaccurate details about the horrific incident in the UK, and that fanned the flames that led to the rioting. There will need to be cross-border provisions in law, to ensure we can deal with such acts of criminality when the impact could be some acute here in the UK.

Freedom of speech is great and must be preserved. So is the rule of law. So, if you go around online or elsewhere, saying things that lead to violence or impact others negatively in a criminal manner, there must be consequences and the law must act. You can go and exercise all the hateful free speech you wish for, in prison!