When Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, musician and satirist Tom Lehrer famously quipped that political satire had become obsolete. Today, many people under 50 would be hard-pressed to say who Kissinger was – let alone why the award was controversial. So perhaps, given recent events, it’s time to update the epigram: satire became obsolete the day an Irish comedy writer was arrested by five armed police officers and questioned for hours over a few offhand remarks he made on X.
Personally, I never post anything on X. I don’t have the time or energy. And while I’m an implacable supporter of free speech, I also think it behoves us all to exercise discretion about what we say and write. Poking sticks into wasp nests will, inevitably, get you stung. Most of us learn from a young age that saying the first thing that comes to mind won’t endear us to everyone. Yet many seem not to have that filter on the internet. Much of what you see online is execrable – a constant stream of unfiltered digital babble. Do these people have no self-awareness?
Nevertheless, as idiotic, ill-considered and unimaginative as much of the online ‘debate’ is, very little of it warrants spending time in a cell. Unless, that is, you think being a moron should be criminalised. Despite recent hyperbolic headlines, we’re not actually living in a totalitarian state. Yet. If we were, we’d probably meet with an unfortunate ‘accident’, or at least disappear into the gulag, for daring to speak our minds.
But there is a kernel of truth in the hyperbole. In my last job, we used to joke about being sent to the frozen wastelands of North Korea for ‘thought correction’ if we ever fell foul of the banter police – otherwise known as human resources. Although said in jest, there was a sense of the creeping coercion and control exercised by the HR Gauleiters.
There are legal frameworks and safeguards in place to protect freedom of speech in the UK, but there’s no absolute right to say whatever you want. Notable limitations have been imposed in recent years: hate speech laws, the Public Order Act and the Online Safety Act.
Recently, nearly 900 people were arrested at a demonstration against the ban on the organisation Palestine Action. The vast majority of arrests were under the Terrorism Act for showing support for a proscribed group, with elderly ladies said to be among those held. Membership of, or support for, Palestine Action is now a criminal offence – punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Things reportedly got heated at the demo, but are mass arrests, including of the vulnerable, the new normal? Will OAPs soon be doing a stretch, circling the exercise yard on their mobility scooters?
As if that weren’t surreal enough, several days later a new work by the world’s most famous graffiti artist, Banksy, was stencilled on to the side of the Royal Courts of Justice. In what appeared to be a commentary on the crackdown, a judge in a traditional wig and gown was depicted using his gavel to beat someone on the ground holding a placard. Within a matter of hours, it had been hidden from view before eventually being scrubbed off. The legal system, it seems, cannot be seen to be mocked.
In Britain, mocking people is more likely to lead to a police caution than an untimely death, but it’s a slippery slope
Tyrants are notoriously thin-skinned and not much given to self-deprecation. Mock them at your peril. Our leaders, by contrast, are more like maiden aunts at a brothel, reaching for the smelling salts. If they can’t see how ridiculous recent events make them look – that they’re doing the satirists’ job for them – then they’ll continue to provide us with rueful laughter.
During a fleeting period of liberalisation under Boris Yeltsin, Russia enjoyed its own version of Spitting Image – the satirical show first broadcast here in the 1980s which used grotesque puppet caricatures to lampoon public figures. If anyone tried that in Russia now, they’d likely find themselves swallow-diving from a ninth-floor window. Here, mocking people is more likely to lead to a police caution than an untimely death, but it’s a slippery slope.
Being a smart alec has always carried risks. At Oscar Wilde’s libel trial against Lord Queensberry, Wilde precipitated his own downfall by being flippant. When asked whether he’d kissed a manservant named Walter Grainger, he replied: ‘Oh no, never in my life – he was a peculiarly plain boy.’
Now, the police have confirmed they’re investigating the Banksy artwork as criminal damage. ‘Criminal damage’, by one of the most collectable artists on the planet. A man whose works fetch millions. And, let’s not forget, one of the great satirists of our age. The irony!
If Wilde were alive today, he might well be self-censoring like the rest of us, lest his genius with words earn him a visit from the bizzies. But in the country that gave the world Jonathan Swift, satire must continue to shine a light on the corruption, foolishness and immorality of the powerful. Nobody should be off limits – except perhaps the King, out of respect. And even he has suffered at the hands of Spitting Image, depicted with cartoonishly oversized ears.
Satire isn’t truly obsolete, despite recent events and the growing instinct to play it safe. But the stakes have risen. After falling foul of Stalin because of his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Dmitri Shostakovich kept a bag packed in anticipation of his arrest. That may sound like an unlikely scenario in modern Britain – but the satirical writing of authors such as George Orwell warned us how quickly the absurd becomes the real, and how easily something like humour can become a crime.
So let’s keep holding to account, poking fun and pricking pomposity. The British have never been a nation of lickspittles. We’ve always challenged authority, and are famed for our use of irony. I’m not arguing for a world where people can do and say exactly what they want, regardless of the consequences. Part of growing up is learning the unwritten rules of social engagement and using judgment when applying them. Only that we continue doing what we’ve always done – maintain perspective by laughing at our own pretensions and those of the people who govern us.
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