Getting to the heart of Karl Popper’s question

To maintain liberal democracy…

The question before us is not “What do you or I think is intolerant, and let’s apply laws to that?” – as we will all have our individual subjective views. The question is “Who decides what is tolerant or intolerant?”

And the answer must be Parliament. And specific laws. The Public Order Act 1986 and its further interpretations are far too vague. Vague law gives power to proximate political activists and their narrow-context ideas influencing the judiciary. This means free speech is already lost as no-one knows how they will be judged for anything – especially as we have made potentially criminal ‘anything that someone said that might cause a theoretical third party offence and distress’. What cannot meet this criterion?

So, a liberal society needs to be intolerant to the point that it needs to protect its liberalism from vague law and from importing illiberalism; equally it must, by resolve and vigilance in us all, maintain a constant battle to support itself through democratic means and insistence. We need to educate each other about the importance of free speech (within explicit defined legal limits eg defamation, harassment, fraud, libel/slander, genuine incitement etc) and ensure political parties that do not hold to this never get elected by popular vote.

The battle for freedom in society is a vital but never-ending one, as both left and right will only see the intolerance in the other; never in themselves – and then either side may enact laws and cultures of oppression of the other, not recognising they’ve destroyed freedom in general, in so doing.

Be a radical moderate!