Harry's Place

From Peter Tatchell
The House of Lords will today debate an amendment by Lord Dear to end the criminalisation of mere insults. His amendment 119 to the Crime and Courts Bill repeals the ban on insults in Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986. Lord Dear is the former Chief Constable of West Midlands and [...]

A quick reminder, via Peter Tatchell, to make your views known about this issue.  For more information on how to do this see here.

This is a gust post by Matthew Harris
Concerned as I always am for the health of the local brewing industry (a major employer that contributes much in taxation), I paid another of my occasional visits to a public house on Saturday. These places (known for short as ‘pubs’) are amazing, serving as [...]

The Mirror is so outraged by Ken Clarke’s suggestion that even for the crime of rape there are degrees of seriousness that it has published information on, well, five of the most serious rape cases.
Describing these rapists as “evil” it details their vicious crimes. But it is clear that The Mirror did not choose these [...]

The 1960s are often described as a decade of great social change. Attitudes of society to many things changed in that decade. One item that is indicative of this change in attitude was a full page advertisement that appeared in The Times in the summer of 1967. The advertisement championed the legalisation of cannabis. [...]

When newspapers reported that Robert Dee, a British tennis player was “the worst professional tennis player in the world” after the sportsman had set a record for  54 straight-set losses on the international professional circuit he threatened to sue for libel.
Like dominoes, iconic mastheads of British journalism toppled, issuing apologies and retractions. The Daily Mail wrote [...]

This is a guest post by amie
A cheer went up at 9.45am chez amie at the single word from the courtroom on Jack of Kent’s twitter: WIN!
Simon Singh has won this leg of his defence against the libel case brought against him by the British Chiropractic Association. The judgement does more than remove the cords [...]

This is a cross post from Nick Cohen of Standpoint
The longest period of left-wing rule in British history is all but over. Guess how Labour MPs use their last few precious days in power. By comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable? By standing up for the one-million-strong army of young unemployed? By reforming a [...]

This is a guest post by Peter Tatchell
The conviction and £1,000 fine imposed on a homophobic Christian street preacher in Glasgow must be condemned an attack on free speech and a heavy-handed, excessive response to homophobia. Shawn Holes, an American Baptist evangelist touring Britain, was fined £1,000 for telling passers-by in Glasgow city centre:
“Homosexuals are [...]

This is a guest post by Amie
During the hearing last week of the BCA v Simon Singh, there were a plethora  of vexed issues for the three heavyweight Justices to grapple with.
 As light relief  they also batted around the exercise, as the law requires them to do,  of  getting behind the eyes of the likely reader [...]