Penn Raine: They’re listening to us

In a recent interview Mark Mitchell was asked about our police force having special lessons to recognise hate speech. The two examples the public has seen from the teaching module, ‘Kiwi not iwi’, and ‘There are only two genders’, give us an idea of the sinister direction of the forces lining up against wrong think.

Disaffected police whistle blowers who hold  the odd view that they would be more useful going after drug lords, fraudsters, and murderers, have said there also exists a ‘hate hub’ where people who have hurt feelings can lodge a complaint. Wrong speakers can then expect to have their social media accounts scrutinised, phone records sought and to be interviewed with a close focus on their use of pronouns.

Where this might go next is a mystery because there are no laws against offending people. Not yet.

As we speak though, it’s all kicking off in Britain where similar incursions into civil liberties are happening. Not only can you be arrested and jailed for tweeting something later proved to be untrue, even if you did not know it at the time, but you can also be charged for inciting violence and refused bail if you are an 18-year-old standing on the pavement merely observing a riot.

The UK rioters have done little for their cause by their violence, indeed, their own goals have gifted this particular match to the increasingly fascist British Left who now gloat as they seek to concrete in the idea that anyone concerned about uncontrolled immigration, legal or illegal, is a far Right ‘thug’ and should see themselves in court and jail within a very few days.

If UK victims of any of the 10,000 yet to be processed sexual crimes are wondering at the speed of these responses, I’m afraid they must confine themselves to wondering.

The British PM’s actions against Labour’s old voter base have earned him the nicknames of Two Tier Kier and Stasi Starmer and he freely admits that the police are now trawling social media posts for evidence of ‘offence’ and ‘hate’ with an eye to speedy prosecutions.

Followers of British news may be amused to learn that Alistair Campbell, the pro-war Blair sidekick, has pointed his finger at Douglas Murray’s 2017 book, The strange death of Europe, in which Murray predicts the recent UK riots whose genesis can be found in working class resentment over uncontrolled immigration and perceived attendant ills. Campbell, who evangelised for war against Iraq with one of the West’s loudest voices, proclaimed the necessity of invading to neutralise the ‘weapons of mass destruction’ threat.  Campbell, deluded as he was, must in the eyes of many take responsibility for the death of thousands of Muslim Iraqis but has just last week rebranded himself as an Islamist defender as he tweets to the British police that Murray’s prediction is an example of ‘inciting violence’ against a minority group and should be investigated.

Who knows, it may yet come to that.

The global Left would love to fling Murray into jail as a committed and calm critic of its flaccid social policies. Of course, like JK Rowling Murray is probably too big a fish for the hate commissars to harpoon and Starmer will hope that his unconstitutional methods against the British people will cow the majority into silence, even if the irritating few keep pointing out that a discussion needs to be had.

A barrister explained to me how in Britain today, trials, convictions, and jail terms for misinformation and being in the wrong place can occur within days. Apparently when the State feels that civil unrest is imminent it can manoeuvre the law and its mandates to suit whatever interpretation it prefers.

Does this remind you of anything that happened here in the last three years?

Another contact of mine told me how he had made some salty remarks online about the Ozzies and their 501 policies. Two days later he had a police visit asking if he hated Australians, if he realised that he had hurt Mr Albanese’s feelings and put CER in peril.

(This was not the substance of their conversation, but the matter is still before the courts, and I owe it to him to be discreet.)

Mitchell claimed that a ‘hate hub’ does not exist although his verbal pirouetting around the question did not remind me of the staunch chap he appeared to be when in opposition.

But I am relieved that there has been an official denial because now I feel certain that the allegation is true.

Penn Raine is an educator and writer who lives in NZ and France.