Does Britain really need more hate crime laws?

Free speech requires a leap of faith: a belief that even if bad speech does harm, the good done by allowing people to say what they think clearly outweighs it. You either have that faith or you do not. Unfortunately it seems that the Law Commission does not, at least if a recent document it brought out on hate crime and hate speech is anything to go by.

In England, laws governing hate speech – which make it criminal to say offensive things to particular groups – are fairly limited in scope. You must not say or publish anything threatening, abusive or insulting which is aimed at stirring up racial hatred, or which is likely to do so; and you must not say or publish anything threatening with the intent of fomenting hatred based on religion or sexual orientation. That is it. Apart from a few provisions about causing alarm or distress to people in general, and a notorious law – section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 – making it a crime to post anything grossly offensive on the internet.