Has Nicola Sturgeon discovered a sudden enthusiasm for free speech? The former SNP leader has today reviewed Salman Rushdie’s latest book Knife for the New Statesman. Steerpike has read it so you don’t have to. Cliche abounds: ‘Rushdie pours himself, heart and soul, onto the page.’
The former FM also writes that:
It is clear that [Rushdie] sees the response by some to the fatwa not just as a betrayal of himself, but also of the principle of free speech, which he defends with every word he writes. Rushdie argues that the abandonment by progressive forces of the right of individual free speech in favour of the protection of the sensibilities of vulnerable groups has allowed its weaponisation by the far right – it has become ‘a kind of freedom for bigotry’. In the midst of our modern-day debates about the rights and limits of free speech, we should pay attention to his words.
Hmm, sounds sensible. But what kind of ‘progressive forces’ are to blame for the erosion of free speech over the past few years? The SNP’s Hate Crime Act was first developed under Sturgeon. The feminist group For Women Scotland asked Sturgeon to consider putting in safeguards that would protect the speech rights of gender-critical feminists. Sturgeon did not do that. In 2020, authors, writers and comedians, including Sturgeon’s friend Val McDermid, signed an open letter to warn that the ‘well-meaning Bill’ could have ‘unintended consequences’ that could end up ‘stifling free expression’. The Bill became an Act.
Two years before, Sturgeon pulled out of a BBC event because a Trump advisor had also been invited saying: ‘I believe passionately in free speech, but as First Minister I have to make balanced judgments – and I will not be part of any process that risks legitimising or normalising far right, racist views.’ Seems like the old saying is correct: never listen to anything that comes before a ‘but’.
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