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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Another Local Authority that doesn't understand freedom of speech

7 replies

Imnobody4 · 06/08/2024 11:17

This is crazy.
Local authoritarianism continues to spread, with a rash of local councils abusing their power to make Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) to crack down on speech they don’t like. Previously, the FSU has succeeded in persuading Redbridge and Cumberland councils to back down from making PSPOs which would have unlawfully restricted the speech rights of their residents.Last week, Thanet District Council passed a PSPO of their own, and this is the worst one we have seen. https://freespeechunion.org/fsu-threatens-judicial-review-over-thanet-county-councils-speech-restrictive-pspo/This is part of the content;

I. Anti-Social group congregation All persons are prohibited from congregating as part of a group of 2 or more and being abusive, alarming, threatening, insulting, intimidating, harassing, distressing or otherwise causing a disturbance to other members of the public, for such duration as specified when directed not to do so by an authorised officer. Example: a group of protesters gathers outside the Council offices loudly chanting slogans objecting to a planned development on the outskirts of town.II. Misuse of public space All persons are prohibited from using any public space, facility or installation otherwise in accordance with its intended use, or when directed not to do so by an authorised officer on the grounds that the use or behaviour is causing or is likely to cause harassment alarm or distress to others. Example: a preacher stands in Margate Old Town Market, the intended use of which is the buying and selling of goods, and delivers a sermon expressing traditional Christian beliefs about sexuality.VII. Inappropriate harmful and degrading related activity All persons are prohibited from being abusive to any person or people and behaving in a way which is or is likely to be humiliating or degrading to another person or people. All persons are prohibited from using language or behaviour causing or likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to any other person. This includes comments and behaviour, being cruel, pejorative, or of a demeaning nature that results in a loss of dignity or respect for women and girls within the identified zone (schedule 1). Example: an atheist activist gives a public speech in which she denies the existence of a god and mocks Christianity, which is distressing to religious passersby, some of whom are female.

FSU threatens judicial review over Thanet County Council’s speech restrictive PSPO – The Free Speech Union

The FSU has written to Thanet District Council threatening judicial review over its speech restrictive Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO), which we believe is unlawful for a number of reasons.

https://freespeechunion.org/fsu-threatens-judicial-review-over-thanet-county-councils-speech-restrictive-pspo

OP posts:
JellySaurus · 06/08/2024 11:24

Is that even legal?

HoppityBun · 06/08/2024 11:31

JellySaurus · 06/08/2024 11:24

Is that even legal?

That question would be the purpose of the judicial review

TheywontletmehavethenameIwant · 06/08/2024 16:17

Ve ave ways of making you do as you are told. I didn't see in the article if they were a Labour run council or not. (I might of missed).

Imnobody4 · 06/08/2024 18:20

TheywontletmehavethenameIwant · 06/08/2024 16:17

Ve ave ways of making you do as you are told. I didn't see in the article if they were a Labour run council or not. (I might of missed).

They went Labour in 2023 elections.

OP posts:
TheywontletmehavethenameIwant · 06/08/2024 19:20

Big Brother in Westminster will be so proud of them, 1984 will soon be upon us.

ThatOneUncomfortableEyelash · 06/08/2024 19:50

That's just… what? I mean, that last example. The passers-by distressed by the atheist who's publicly mocking Christianity for some reason. If some of the distressed passers-by happen to be female, they'll try to silence the speaker for causing "loss of dignity or respect for women and girls", even though they've not given anything in the example to suggest that sex is relevant?! So if some of the upset religious people happen to be gay, will the fact of their distress magically transmute what the atheist says into homophobic hate speech? The whole framing is bonkers. Why start bringing up irrelevant characteristics to try to make something seem worse? If someone is yelling racist slurs at a group, and one person in the group uses mobility aids to walk, the focus is the racist slurs. Not the fact that one of the people who were racially abused was disabled. Wtf.

Catsmere · 06/08/2024 22:08

I bet they have no problem with TRAs chanting "kill TERFs" and the like, though.

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