Picture Shows: Allison Pearson
Allison Pearson the journalist has won a defamation case against Essex’s Police and Crime Commissioner Roger Hirst. This case came about because of comments Mr Hirst made about Ms Pearson after she had been visited by police on Remembrance Sunday by Essex Police for comments she’d made online. Essex Police eventually, after a massive public outcry, dropped the case against Ms Pearson.
During the furore about the interaction with police with Ms Pearson, Mr Hirst went on the LBC radio station and during a discussion about Ms Pearson’s case, defamed Ms Pearson. Mr Hirst is now on the hook for five figures of damages to Ms Pearson and has had to make an apology.
GB News said:
"At the time, the surprise police visit triggered national outrage over how Labour treated alleged hate crime and non-crime incidents online.
Previously, Mr Hirst said "we can’t go around ignoring crimes just because it’s politically sensitive".
A High Court judge ruled Mr Hirst’s comments could be seen as defamatory.
Subsequently, the PCC issued an apology, acknowledging the "damage and hurt" caused to the Telegraph columnist."
The GB News article also stated that there is another defamation case brought by Ms Pearson against Essex Police which is still ongoing.
It’s good that Ms Pearson has won her defamation case but none of what happened, the investigation of her words, the State’s agents defaming or allegedly defaming her and all the rest could have been avoided by Essex Police just not interfering in Ms Pearson’s right to free speech. The reason as I see it why Ms Pearson’s rights to speak freely were not respected is likely to be Essex Police becoming politicised as so many other forces have done. From what I can gather from looking around at various stories regarding Essex Police they are a force completely addled by identity politics. It’s a force that has been very subservient to LGBT activists and which classed White Britons as a ‘non-protected group’ in a police internal diversity report.
Essex Police put ideology ahead of impartial policing and this I believe was behind their choice to see Ms Pearson as a sort of dangerous irritant to their guiding diversity ideologies and therefore appropriate to arrest. This should not be happening, not in Essex nor in any other police force area.
Ms Pearson and her team have won. By winning they’ve shown that the Lanyard Class activists who have bent our police forces into something beyond recognition can be fought back through the courts. However Ms Pearson was lucky, she had the Free Speech Union behind her and a great deal of support from her journalistic colleagues and the publications she worked for. The majority of Britons do not have these sort of resources and end up paying the price for Britain’s free speech hating two tier policing system. It’s they who serve time or lose jobs or suffer other legal penalties for off colour jokes or having the sort of off colour politics that whilst not my cup of tea, should be part and parcel of a free and open society. Celebrate with Ms Pearson I know I will but I will not forget the thousands of other Britons who are oppressed by Britain’s speech crime laws who lose against an increasingly authoritarian state because they do not have the resources to fight back.
We all need to support those who are being harassed because they hold views that although are not violent are seen as anathema by the Establishment. At the very least anyone who writes about the current travails of Britain even if it’s only on social media, should join the Free Speech Union. You might not need their help but you will be glad to be a member if you ever do come up against Britain’s speech crime laws.
Link
GB News story on Ms Pearson’s win against the Essex PCC
https://www.gbnews.com/news/free-speech-allison-pearson-essex-payout-apology-x-post
