UK Politicians Call for More Speech Regulation After the Murder of Ann Widdecombe, Who Opposed Such Measures – JONATHAN TURLEY

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The murder of British conservative icon Ann Widdecombe was barely reported when the usual suspects gathered to use her death to call for even greater censorship in the United Kingdom. The move follows Rahm Emanuel’s principle that you "never want a serious crisis to go to waste." We saw similar moves after the killing of free speech advocates, including the Charlie Hebdo massacre.  For some of the anti-free speech figures on the left, there must be a quiet sense of satisfaction to use the murder of Widdecombe, long a critic of censorship and speech regulations, as an excuse for even greater crackdowns on social media and the Internet.

Widdecombe, 78, a former Conservative minister and Reform UK spokeswoman, was found dead at her home in Devon with serious and brutal injuries.  A 28-year-old man, Joshua Kerry, was arrested in connection with the murder.

Lucy Maria Powell, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, immediately seemed to call for greater censorship and speech regulation after paying tribute to Widdecombe, stating we must “tackle … online algorithms and business models”.

Even former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith joined the reflexive blame game on free speech:

"We need to reiterate, and the government and the home secretary needs to specify, to all those social media companies they must do something to close down on the visceral, violent language that some people use, attacking personally – as they did over her murder – which has shocked me, to make sure we get on top of that because that is the root of violence and death."

It is all too familiar. I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom for years, including in my book The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.  A man was convicted of sending a tweet while drunk, referring to dead soldiers. Another was arrested for an anti-police t-shirt. Another was arrested for calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.” Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.” A teenager was arrested for protesting outside of a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire. A man in Yorkshire was arrested for merely posting a picture with a shotgun.

In the meantime, many were quick to spread the false account of the murder. Journalist Dan Hodges insisted soon after the murder that “Police again very clear. No suggestion Ann Widdecombe’s death terror related. Or that it is politically motivated. And that speculation on motive is unhelpful to their investigation.”

It was a targeted attack, one of a line of such attacks on conservative figures. After the murder of conservative MP David Amess, the same calls were made on the left for more speech curtailment. Notably, his killer, Ali Harbi Ali, was an Islamic extremist and radicalized in his insular and extreme religious associations.

One of those arrested after the murder was former Green Party candidate and transgender activist Heather Herbert.  Herbert went public with a celebration of the murder, a disgusting display not unlike the many on the left in the United States who celebrated or rationalized the murder of Charlie Kirk. As many mourned the death of this consequential figure, Herbert publicly expressed satisfaction with the murder and hoped that Widdecombe died in "agony."

Herbert is an example of a tragic percentage of the population made grotesque by an age of rage. However, despite my revulsion at the posting, I still believe that the celebration of the death should be protected speech in the United Kingdom as it would be in the United States. Herbert is a web developer at Aberdeen University.

The arbitrary aspect of such arrests is reflected in the fact that the police initially said that there was no criminality in such comments but then flipped after an outcry. The conservatives and libertarians in the UK should not undermine the legacy of Widdecombe by falling into the same censorship demands as the left. We have also seen some on the right in the United States yield to such impulses, despite Kirk’s legacy of fighting such speech regulation.

Rather than recognize that the comprehensive and growing speech criminalization in the UK has not diminished such violence (while devastating free speech values), the establishment, media, and pundits continue to double down on such speech regulation. It is an example of how censorship produces an insatiable desire for greater and greater speech regulation and criminalization.

The greatest way of honoring the legacy of Ann Widdecombe is to support free speech, not use her murder to further limit its exercise in the United Kingdom.

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