Shabana Mahmood orders independent review of laws on protests and hate crimes.

[Imnobody4]

I'm starting to really like Shabana Mahmood.

The public rightly expects that we police our streets. There is most certainly criminality online. Some things cannot be legally tweeted just as they cannot be legally said. But we should not be policing perfectly legal language in any individual’s tweets,” she told a joint summit of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and National Police Chiefs’ Council in central London on Wednesday.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/6001c5e6-6de6-4831-9bf7-ae6d629570e8?shareToken=89cab31d57e033d8d9edacd70981d716

Mahmood has asked Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, a former director of public prosecutions, to lead an independent review of laws on protests and hate crimes. He will “consider the crossover between [public order] powers and how we are policing the online” and is expected to report back in the spring.

Thanks for the link, this government is showing some backbone for a change, "if you want a job done, ask a women to do it". 👏

Shabana Mahmood is great. She doesn't mess about.

Good move. I think she’s a great politician. Look forward to the results

Does it need a review? Should it not just be policing following the law as it stands? Reviews sometimes seem to be kicking the can down the road and an opportunity for people to try to water things down, make an objection etc.

Maybe I'm being too pessimistic but I want policing to be doing this right now! Looking to investigate what people tweet etc has already been so abused.

Good for her. The whole fur coat but no knickers stuff has to stop.

I really don't know much about Shabana Mahmood, so I looked her up on Wikipedia. Here's a paragraph from her entry there. She's definitely a person who's on the right side!

In a 2024 interview with The Daily Telegraph Mahmood said that she was concerned with the treatment of gender-critical activists, saying that "many women have had to go to court, usually in employment tribunals, in order to clarify ... their right to say that biological sex is real and is immutable – a position that I also agree with" and that women "shouldn't be in the position of losing their jobs" for espousing those views. She also said that she "agrees with J. K. Rowling" regarding the view that "biological sex is real and is immutable", and that Rowling was "leading the fight in this area". Following the Supreme Court's 2025 ruling in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers, which concerns transgender people, Mahmood said that criticism of the ruling was "absolutely unacceptable".