You know that fact is stranger than fiction when you learn that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is appealing to the Supreme Court in order to try to overturn the acquittal of two protestors who called Iain Duncan Smith “Tory scum”. In a two day trial in Manchester in 2022, they were found not guilty of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent. Duncan Smith was walking to the Tory party conference and someone ran up and put a traffic cone on his head. “Pathetic,” tooted IDS, after which two people who were not involved in the cone incident, Ruth Wood and (I am not making this name up) Radical Haslam who informed him he was “Tory scum” and that he should “fuck off out of Manchester”. My reaction? Move along, nothing to see here. The DPP sees things rather differently.
When the original judgement was made, Judge Goldspring said that “the use of Tory scum was to highlight the policies” of Duncan Smith and that this was relevant to the “reasonableness of the conduct” in relation to the rights of freedom of expression and assembly. He added: “The use of those words did not amount to an offence, as in the circumstances it was reasonable.” Given Duncan Smith’s grim political career which worsened child poverty, increased homelessness and showed an alarming lack of concern over the climate emergency, what are we supposed to call him?
I dread to think what may happen to me if the DPP starts going through this blog in which I have frequently referred to certain politicians in terms that were, shall we say, less than flattering. I’d be homeless and bankrupt within a second if I got sued about it. But why shouldn’t I say what I think about people like IDS?
Surely, it’s free speech. And surely I should be allowed to refer to bad people as scumbags, right? In the case of IDS, it’s more a fact than an opinion. He’s a bad bloke who has made the lives of ordinary people miserable, a man who has been seen enjoying a light lunch from the contents of his nose. (See above.) When given the choice between representing the worker and the boss, he has always chosen the boss. He was so bad as the Tory leader that his MPs sacked him before he could lead them to electoral oblivion.
Yet, such are the libel laws, humble bloggers like me have it in the back of their minds that one day they will suffer the full consequences of the courts, by way of a libel and defamation case. I’ve largely escaped that, although I was once threatened by a Daily Mail hack that if I did not remove a post, they’d see me in court. Me up against the best lawyers money can buy. Hmm. I’m not sure that would have gone well for me.
The CPS won’t say how much the DPP appeal is costing the taxpayer, but it won’t be cheap and what if they win the appeal, what will the likes of me do in future? Oh, that Iain Duncan Smith? Wonderful bloke. His policies destroyed families, plunged millions into poverty. Yeah, but his heart’s in the right place. Is that okay, your honour?
For today at least, Iain Duncan Smith remains a Tory scumbag. Remember: “The use of those words did not amount to an offence, as in the circumstances it was reasonable.” If the DPP win their appeal, we might as well give up and go home. The UK is free only to those who can afford it.
