New rules to combat extremism are well-intentioned but extremely flawed and open to abuse, potentially stifling freedom of speech, warns Nigel Farage.
The UK government is introducing new rules to prevent extremists from associating with the government and state bodies, depriving them of funding and legitimacy. But freedom of speech advocates warn while the intentions are noble, the government handing itself a new set of powers risks creating a means for future governments to suppress other ideas in the future.
Brexit leader Nigel Farage is one of those to voice his concern about how easily abused the rules could be, stating for broadcaster GB News — itself already the subject of something of a witch-hunt for trying something new in UK broadcasting — that “my concern is could this be open to abuse?”.
Farage said he absolutely supported the notion that no government money should be finding its way into the pockets of Islamists or Neo-Nazis, as stated by the government in their launch of the police. The problem, he said, is that the new rules being proposed are so open-ended and vulnerable to being radically re-interpreted by future governments, that it risks creating a potent tool to shut down debate on subjects they don’t want aired.
The extreme reactions of the state to unwelcome ideas, Farage said, is not a matter of future speculation but is a matter of fact. The Brexit leader illustrated his point with an anecdote from the first time he was elected to the European Parliament 25 years ago and was grilled by a top government man.
Farage told GB News:
My first day there, Sir Stephen Wall, he was the representative for the Foreign Office in the European Union, came to my office, sat with the three of us from UKIP that had been elected and said: “Gentlemen, what are your intentions?”
It was clear he thought we were an extremist terrorist group. And that’s the worry with all of this… I think it has the potential to be abused by governments that want to shut down debate on issues that they don’t like.
He had further said: “Had this definition been in place then, I very much doubt the electoral commission would have allowed me to stand as a candidate.”
Mr Farage is not the only freedom-minded figure to express concern. Like Farage, Toby Young, the director of the Free Speech Union said this week he believed the true purpose of the new rules was to tackle radical Islamists, but the government had been forced to expand their announcement to include other groups too, to fend off accusations of Islamophobia.
As previously reported, Young said of the plan: “By extending the prohibition on extremists to all parts of the state, not just those currently within scope of Prevent, Gove could be handing his successors a dangerous weapon… which I cannot help being intensely suspicious of.”
Conservative Members of Parliament have also expressed concern about the creation of government blacklists, and eroding the “right to offend” in the country.
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