Punch-up Politics
Ttit new Home Secretary has no sooner cleared his desk of one bulky file before another descends. Mr. Brooke has already pledged himself to devoting much of the Com- mons recess to a review of the Public Order Act, to see if any formula exists distinguishing opinion- forming from racial rabble-rousing. This involves the curious activities of Colin Jordan and his like, and the special problem of Oswald Mosley. Those who attack this ghost give him the credit of being capable of power: but Mosley is a pathetic relic of the past, still dreaming of an entranced Albert Hall, still waiting for the call to action which he alone believes will come. Yet the last fortnight's activities have raised ques- tions of principle that go to the core of our liberal democracy: is curbing racial hatred really a restriction of political freedom of speech? And is it desirable to limit the freedom such hateful views are allowed? Mr. Iremonger's proposed emendation to the Public Order Act covering 'speeches calculated to incite racial prejudice' would have silenced Colin Jordan—but certainly would never have prevented Ridley Road. Riots would have broken out had Mosley even attacked the government's education policy. In fact Mosley was not given the opportunity to speak, let alone mention race. As Mr. Paget pointed out in the COmmorts, 'It is Mosley's presence that is resented. Mosley's views do not matter: he was being repaid for choosing such continental friends a generation ago.
No one could argue that the principle of free speech would be transgressed should the Horne Secretary ban fascist meetings from Jewish districts such as Dalston, or even from Trafalgar Square. Nor is it harmed if fascist meetings can only be held in Wembley Stadium, or wherever the genuine paucity of support would be clearly revealed. But if censorship of meetings is advo- cated, there remains the insuperable difficulty of how to draw the line among unpopular views to be censored. Yet it should be possible to amend the Seditious Libel Act to include racial libel : this would embrace the 'Hider was right' brand of wickedness, while not in the least restricting discussion of coloured immigration or German troops in Wales. Certainly it is better that Mosley should be thoroughly discredited in public than allowed to present himself as a martyr for the very free speech he abhors, and that this should be done without recourse to violence.
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