After only two months in power, the Starmer government is making real advances in embedding progressive values in the life of the nation. One of its first initiatives has been to halt the Tories’ Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, which, under the guise of protecting free inquiry and expression, would have empowered the dissemination of reactionary ideologies in universities. According to press reports, the government is also considering reversing the Tory policy that prohibited police monitoring and recording of alleged hate incidents that are not criminal offences. In future, the fact that speech may not be illegal will no longer be an excuse for excluding it from the attention of the law.
Archaic conceptions of free speech that tolerate assaults on self-evident liberal principles are being rapidly abandoned. But there is one area that has not yet been brought within the reach of regulation. Comedy is potentially the most disruptive of artistic genres, and here the Starmer government has been dilatory. Banning hate speech in theatrical performances – as implied by Humza Yousaf’s Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, which came into effect in April of this year but sadly seems not to have been enforced – is plainly necessary, but not enough. As with so many problems facing the government, the remedy is to expand the scope of law. Given its power to inflict psychological harm and its potential as a channel for hateful views, comedy must become a licensed profession.
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