Labour is continuing its clamp down on free speech. Yvette Cooper has reversed the Tories’ decision last year to stop police recording so many “non-crime hate incidents” as it was a waste of police time. Under the Tories police were restricted to recording incidents which posed a real risk of escalating into “significant” harm…
Labour proudly declares today that “Home Office has committed to reverse the decision of the previous government to downgrade the monitoring of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate, at a time when rates of those incidents have increased.” Police will now be told to record the “non-crime” incidents, which is apparently needed to “monitor tensions.” It’s OK, though: Labour says it is “balancing” the plans with the right to free speech. How long will it be before Labour re-commits to locking up those who go about “misgendering” people…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”