In George Orwell’s seminal novel 1984 ‘thoughtcrime’ is the offence of thinking about things disapproved of by his fiction’s dictatorial regime, which Orwell’s protagonist Winston Smith painfully learns intends to cruelly control thoughts, speech, and actions. Appalled by the communists he encountered during the Spanish Civil War, Orwell’s book painted a picture reflecting the reality of authoritarian dictatorships of his age.
More than 70 years later, Britain’s long-established commitment to free speech is threatened. So-called ‘non-crime hate incidents’, reminiscent of Orwell’s dystopia, though not crimes, are investigated by police solely because someone has reported an incident they see as motivated by disturbing hostility. Once investigated, these reports can be dug up when a person has a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, necessary for certain jobs. Police officers may even identify a non-crime hate incident where no victim or witness has ever made a complaint!
The visit by police on Remembrance Sunday to the home of Daily Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson is a chilling case in point. Pearson, an award-winning writer, was questioned by Essex police officers over an unspecified tweet she had posted more than a year ago. Outrageously, Pearson has never been told which tweet was deemed offensive, nor the nature of the complaint. Told, however, she was being investigated by multiple police forces, it was almost a fortnight before police confirmed that she would not face criminal charges.
Pearson’s case is far from unique. Apparently, someone was recorded in a police file for whistling the theme tune to Bob the Builder, as this was perceived this as being racist(!), and there was the high-profile case of Harry Miller, a former policeman, who was probed because he shared lyrics from a song that an anonymous complainant found offensive. No one is safe; a Labour peer was investigated for stating the simple truth that terrorist group Hamas are ‘Islamists’, and it was revealed last week that children, doctors and vicars are amongst those investigated for non-crime hate incidents.
Despite the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman cracking down on this nonsense, the police logged an extraordinary 11,690 such ‘non crimes’ in the year to June 2024. The absurdity of all this was made clear by the Director of Public Prosecutions’ admission that he “had no idea” what non-crime hate incidents were, and “had to look them up” following the Pearson case.
People expect the police to prioritise the prevention and detection of crime. That’s certainly how the rank and file of our excellent local police force here in Lincolnshire see things. Nevertheless, I have written to our Police and Crime Commissioner to make sure that Lincolnshire’s police chiefs are not wasting their officers time on ‘non crimes’, and last week in Parliament I called on the Home Secretary to crack down on these assaults on free speech. For it must be made clear, policing thoughts is not a role for law enforcement.
Far from being the antithesis of a civilised order, the right to alarm, to disturb and, yes, even to offend is the essence of an open society. If we do not uphold the right to speak, write and think freely, Orwell’s fiction will quickly become our fact.
