Lord Lebedev Warns Against The ‘Erosion Of Free Speech’ In King’s Speech Debate
Parliament was warned on Tuesday to act against the “erosion of free speech” in Britain which was “playing with fire”.The warning came from Lord Lebedev, proprietor of The Evening Standard which is campaigning to protect freedom of speech.
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00:00 Thank you for your words. First off, I'd like to say it's a pleasure to speak in this debate
00:07 and to mark the three exceptional maiden speeches. Congratulations and welcome.
00:14 My Lords, my great-grandfather, Mikhail, was a deputy in Stalin's war cabinet. Not a role
00:23 that naturally encourages a man to speak his mind freely. In fact, my family say he never
00:30 felt able to speak openly about anything out of fear. The downright terror that afflicted
00:37 the country where I was born of being punished for saying the wrong thing. That is why this
00:44 country's great tradition of free speech has long aroused such admiration in my heart and
00:50 around the world. Ten years ago, I told the Leveson Inquiry that a free and independent
00:57 media was essential for Britain today. It has been alarming since then to see the erosion
01:04 of free speech that is taking place here. It has been appalling to see an author as
01:11 distinguished as J.K. Rowling forbidden from speaking at great universities, supposedly
01:17 bastions of intellectual liberty, because she espouses views about gender that are probably
01:23 the views of the quiet majority and have been held for centuries. It was shocking that Coots
01:29 Bank decided that Nigel Farage was no longer suitable to be a customer, not because he
01:36 was insolvent, but simply because they did not like his views on Brexit. I'm aware that
01:42 these examples may tempt your Lordships to conclude that I am some kind of reactionary
01:47 or even conservative. Let me say in the spirit of Voltaire that I equally support the right
01:54 of Jeremy Corbyn to his views on Hamas. I may find those views repellent, but I will
02:02 defend his right to hold them. It is not just the left that is guilty of cancel culture.
02:09 I will even defend the Tory MP Andrew Bridgen abruptly sacked from his party for his views
02:15 on Covid vaccinations. I am concerned that some of the provisions in the online harms
02:22 bill would give further legal basis for a process of censorship and self-censorship
02:27 that is already underway. When you muzzle people, cancel them, sack them, merely because
02:34 they champion their honestly held opinions, then you are playing with fire. By allowing
02:39 people to be censored right, left and centre, we are making a huge mistake. By suppressing
02:46 free speech, we are not contradicting the nutters and the conspirators. We are giving
02:53 credence and foundation to their otherwise bonkers assertions. Worst of all, we are allowing
02:59 the most deadly enemies of freedom to claim an equivalence between cancel culture and
03:03 Britain and the suppression of free speech around the world.
03:08 There are too many countries where you can be jailed for your views, where journalists
03:13 are shot, including, sadly, Russia. Your Lordships, I have read industrial quantities of falsehoods
03:20 about myself in the last two years, but at least I live in a country where journalists
03:28 do not fear for their lives. Those authoritarian regimes are growing in number and we must
03:35 not give them the propaganda wind of pointing at us and saying, "What about you?" Because
03:41 believe me, your Lordships, that is what they are saying. Why the hell is the BBC trying
03:47 to boulderise Fawlty Towers, one of its finest creations? Why can't we mention the war? Why
03:54 are they trying to sandpaper Old Dal? Why can't we say the word "fat"? Have attitudes
04:01 really changed so fast? Around the world, people are noticing what is happening and
04:06 are saying, "Look at Britain, the home of Western liberal values. Look at what happens
04:12 in Britain today. If you say or think something about human biology, there used to be pure
04:17 common sense." Our positions on gender are so booby-trapped
04:22 with dynamite and so easy to parody, they are harming the cause of gay rights around
04:28 the world. We are giving our enemies precisely the stick they need to beat us with. They
04:35 are not laughing with us anymore, your Lordships. They are laughing at us. It is worse than
04:42 that because freedom is indispensable to our national creativity. The freedom to be comically
04:48 outrageous contributed to the national sense of fun. That spiritual and intellectual exuberance,
04:55 that amazing artistic, cultural, literally scientific and journalistic energy has drawn
05:01 people of talent from around the world to make this a great home of innovation and ideas
05:07 precisely because they know they will be able to live the lives they choose and speak as
05:12 they find. My Lords, we would be insane to throw away these freedoms.
05:20 Thank you.
05:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]